Author: RJ Allen

Utah Royals Announce Record-Breaking Jersey Sponsorship

Posted on by RJ Allen

As part of their jersey unveiling for the 2018 NWSL season, the Utah Royals announced a sponsorship deal with utility company Conservice. The deal is reportedly around two million dollars for a three-year deal, which would make it the biggest jersey sponsorship deal for a women’s soccer club in US history.

As recently as 2012, Real Salt Lake were in last place for MLS sponsorship deals, making just one million per year on a multi-year jersey deal with XanGo. For their new women’s team to approach that number a mere six years is a great sign, reflecting growing interest in the NWSL as well as the increasingly ambitious business that Dell Loy Hansen is running.

Many women’s teams who are affiliated with men’s clubs utilize their parent club’s existing sponsors when searching for jersey sponsors. The City Football Groups were already partners with Hays before putting their name on Manchester City Women’s kits. Providence Health already had a relationship with the Portland Timbers and chose to expand it into a jersey deal for the Portland Thorns. Deals like those offer stability, but not an open market, which may drive the price down.

Conservice, by contrast, is brand new to the club. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Dell Loy Hansen has an existing relationship with Conservice via his real estate holdings, but Conservice has no previous dealings with Real Salt Lake. The high price tag suggests that there was a healthy market driven by the desire to make headlines as well to secure opportunities for involvement with RSL.

With this news coming as it does so soon after the folding of the Boston Breakers, it’s hard to avoid making comparisons. The investment is positive news for a league that will be keen to assure observers of its long-term growth potential, but it’s difficult to imagine this deal being struck with an independent NWSL club. Microsoft’s deal with the Seattle Reign two years ago was accompanied by a broader adoption by the club of Microsoft’s analytics system, and seems a proof-of-concept deal close to home as much as an investment. Headline-making numbers like this deal will improve the overall ability of teams to get sponsors, but independent clubs will still be operating at a disadvantage.

Hopefully this investment will encourage other clubs to beat the deal and make the numbers public: there’s currently no other information on the what the numbers for the jersey sponsorship deals from other NWSL clubs are.

We’re Hiring

Posted on by RJ Allen

Dear Readers,

With the 2018 NWSL season drawing ever closer, Backline Soccer is on the hunt for new contributors to join our growing team. We’re looking for both writers and photographers, with a particular eye toward expanding our pool to include more contributors in or near NWSL markets.

If you’re a women’s soccer fan, a writer, and have an interest in sharp original reporting, compelling storytelling, and well-informed analysis, we want to hear from you. Previous sports writing experience is a plus, but not a necessity. More important is your ability to commit to covering a team on a regular basis—think a few hundred to a thousand words a week, more if you’re willing and able—and stick to deadlines. Ideally, you’ll be able to cover most home games in person, and become a familiar sight in the media scrum.

While we’ll accept applications from writers anywhere in the US, we have a specific need for contributors to cover Chicago, North Carolina, Seattle, Utah, Portland, and Washington.

We’re also looking for great photographers to capture a field-level view of NWSL action. Previous sports photography experience is a plus, but not a hard-and-fast requirement; please provide some examples of your work and let us know what equipment you own. Being within traveling distance of Chicago, North Carolina, Seattle, Utah, Houston, Orlando, or Washington is another plus. Availability to shoot every home game isn’t an absolute necessity.

Women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ applicants are encouraged to apply.

To apply, use the Google form here. Please note that these positions are unpaid.

We look forward to meeting you!

-The Backline Soccer crew

Quick Kicks: The Great Furt

Posted on by RJ Allen

RJ and Luis talk about the situation in Boston along with other NWSL and US Women’s National team news. 

Where to find the hosts on Twitter: RJ Allen: @TheSoccerCritic Luis G. Hernandez: @RadioactivClown The Show: @QuickKicksNews

You can also play the episode on iTunes. Or below using Podbean or YouTube. 

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Euro Roundup No.2

Posted on by RJ Allen

Welcome back to Euro Roundup. I hope you all enjoyed the first installment and will be looking forward to many more to come. If there’s anything that you would like me to cover in a future roundup or if there’s something you want to find out about football in Europe, feel free to tweet me and I’ll consider it.

International Flavour

January is typically more about International teams with training camps and friendlies occurring this month. This month usually sees teams fly off for sunnier climes and kick off the year with some international training at La Manga. This is a time where each team can work on fitness, techniques, and test out tactics with no risk. These camps become especially important in a qualification or major tournament year.

Teams that have gone out to La Manga include England, Scotland, Spain, Netherlands, Russia, and Norway. The same day that this goes out, the Netherlands will be facing England in a friendly. They haven’t got off to the best of starts at La Manga, however. They faced Spain on the 20th and lost 2-0 thanks to goals from Alexia Putellas and Gema Gili. This marked the end of the 12-game unbeaten run that they had which included the Euros. Other friendlies included Scotland taking on Norway with the Norwegians coming out as 3-0 winners, and Slovakia beating Russia 1-0.

There are friendlies going elsewhere as well. France took on Italy in Marseille as part of their World Cup preparation. The game ended in a 1-1 draw with goals from Amandine Henry and Cristiana Girelli. Sweden traveled to Cape Town to take on South Africa and emerged 3-0 winners with debutant Loreta Kullashi netting a brace.

League Action

There has been some league and cup action that has happened since the last roundup but with the international break, it’s been mostly lower leagues that have been in action as well as some cup action.

In cups, the Faxafloi Cup was in action in Iceland with FH beating HK/Vikingur 3-0 and IA winning 4-0 against Grotta. That wasn’t the only cup in action as the Reykjavik Cup occurred with Fylkir, KR, and HK/Vikingur all winning. Italy had one cup match in the Coppa Italia as Tavagnacco thrashed Unterland 6-0. Rounding up the cups in the Netherlands, Wartburgia II were on the end of a 6-0 thrashing thanks to Saestum.

Now to the leagues. In Belgium, there was only one game in the Super League. Genk beat OH Leuven 3-1 to leave OH Leuven 6 points from safety. In the 1st Division, SG-Tertre-Hautrage and Kontich both won to keep their title challenge going with both on the same points but Tertre edging ahead on goal difference. The 2nd Division saw all the bottom three clubs lose in Group A, but Cerkelladies Brugge are level on points with Sottegem who are just above them. Genk II kept their winning run going to keep their 6 point lead intact.

Spain is not only the current site of international friendlies but also has some league action of its own. The 1a Nacional, below the Primera Division, is split into 7 groups. Group 1, 2, 5, and 6 were the groups that played this week. Notable results are Oviedo Moderno winning to go within a point of leaders Deportivo de La Coruña. Osasuna beat Oiartzun 2-0, taking Osasuna above Oiartzun and into 4th in Group 2. Group 5 saw Tacón go top after a 5-2 win against Parquesol. They pushed Atletico Madrid down into 2nd who they lost to the previous week. Finally, Group 6 Las Palmas saw Femarguin go 3 points ahead after beating Firgas 4-0.

Not all lower leagues were so lucky with staging games. Wet and wintery weather hit the FA Women’s Premier League quite badly with just the one match surviving. That match saw Crewe Alexandra take on Chorley in the Division 1 Northern league. Crewe were 1-0 up at half time but persistence from Chorley meant that in the end they won 4-2. Chorley are now a few points behind Crewe in the table.

The Changing Face of the NWSL

Posted on by RJ Allen

It has been an offseason of change for the NWSL. In November, it was announced that FC Kansas City—the two-time NWSL champions—were folding. In their place, the Real Salt Lake organization would be bringing the Utah Royals into league. For legal reasons, this was technically one club folding and another expanding, but since FCKC’s roster was transferred over, in practical terms it was a relocation. This week, shortly after the draft and mere weeks before the start of the preseason, it was announced that the Boston Breakers would also be folding.

The Boston Breakers are one of the oldest women’s soccer teams in the country. They have participated in every season of the top professional leagues, starting with the WUSA from 2001-2003. They were then re-established with the start of the WPS in 2007 and have been playing ever since (dropping down to the WPSL Elite level for the gap year between WPS and NWSL). Some of the most famous people to ever play the game on U.S soil came through Boston, including U.S national team stars such as Meghan Klingenberg, Sydney Leroux, and most recently, Rose Lavelle. Just last week, they participated in the NWSL draft, welcoming four new players to their club.

It’s hard to believe that they will not be there on opening day in 2018—even harder for the dedicated fans, staff, and players.

This sort of change in the NWSL is not new. Three teams that have joined the league since 2014—the Houston Dash, the Orlando Pride, and the Utah Royals—have been associated with MLS, while the North Carolina Courage (inheritors of the Western New York Flash) are associated with North Carolina FC, a USL side that has applied to join MLS. These teams have money behind them, and even if they have a bad season, they have the security of a diverse organization to keep them afloat. That’s something Boston didn’t have, and it seems to have been a major factor in them shutting their doors.

As we enter the 6th season of the NWSL, many would argue that this kind of change is necessary. While unsettling at times, the league needs investments of this sort. Partnership with men’s sides has proven to work from multiple angles—marketing, stadium sharing, increased awareness. In that context, an independent team like Boston, which struggled with operation costs and played at a venue that only held 2,500, can seem like a poor fit for the NWSL vision.

But there are problems with this too. No one would deny that the league needs money. Still, for all the focus on growth, it seems we often forget about our roots—about the role that clubs like Boston and Kansas City have played in the history of women’s soccer and the history of the NWSL. And while history isn’t going to pay player’s salaries or pay for a better venue, we lose something when we forget its importance. We lose something when we fail to acknowledge the people who paved the way for us to be here today.

The league is expected to balance out to 10 teams again next year. Reports are saying that there will likely be a partnership between FC Barcelona and LAFC that will result in a new NWSL franchise in Los Angeles. That is an exciting prospect—but we should not simply push aside the old for the new. Maybe there wasn’t a place for Boston in the new order of the NWSL—but there would be no new order if it wasn’t for Boston.

One of the greatest parts of the NWSL is the community that surrounds it. For those of you who aren’t fans of the Boston Breakers, be sensitive. Don’t forget the people who laid the ground for you to be here today. Don’t belittle the sadness of those fans, players, and staff who now have to start anew. And if you are a Boston Breakers fan—let me be one to extend my sincerest apologies that this is something you have to go through. It is never easy to lose the things you love.

The End of the Breakers: How Did It Come to This?

Posted on by RJ Allen

The Boston Breakers have been a part of professional women’s soccer in this country for as long as professional women’s soccer has been a thing. Losing them is a terrible thing for the fans who have spent so much time and energy with them, and who will now never get to see the team they were building grow into something more. It’s terrible for the league, which will always face understandable growing pains but ought to be beyond this sort of thing. It’s terrible for the players, who have just had jobs, livelihoods, and any sense of security ripped out from underneath them.

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The league certainly did not plan for things to go this way. The winter was spent in negotiations to bring in a new owner, only to see that plan fall through, inspiring the recent bout of scrambling. Apparently, the decision was finally made to give up hope and accept defeat. That judgment cannot have been undertaken lightly, and presumably represents a sense of serious concern about whether Boston’s setup could be sustained in anything close to its current form.

The team was, after all, apparently drifting further and further away from the rest of the league on the financial side. Their home ground was expensive and below league standards, the costs of operating in Boston are significant, and it’s not clear that there was any viable path to profitability, even in the long term. In a world increasingly defined by a split between ‘big’ and ‘small’ teams, Boston looked increasingly like an outlier. Eventually, something was going to have to give.

But there is a huge difference between a managed relocation—undertaken during the offseason with plenty of time to smooth out the effects—and abrupt closure less than a month before preseason was scheduled to begin.

As it stands, Boston is shuttering its doors a mere week after participating in the draft. In many ways, that’s the most heartbreaking part of the whole mess. To hold out the promise of a new career, only to yank it away the following week, feels particularly cruel. And then there are the other players, who have suddenly been cut adrift. Will the league step in to expand roster sizes and disperse these players across the other nine teams? Will they simply become free agents, desperately searching for a European club who will take them before the transfer window closes next week? To force these questions onto players at this point in the year is unconscionable.

Faced with all this, one can’t help but wonder who is to blame. That’s a difficult subject, and we certainly need to exercise some caution. Situations like these are often far more complex than it seems from the outside, and it’s important to remember just how little we actually know so far. Moreover, while the natural inclination is to look for villains, it’s also important to remember that no one wanted this, and that no solution was going to be a perfect one. Everyone involved was likely wary of creating a moral hazard—incentivizing financially risky behavior by providing bailouts—or taking on responsibilities that could ultimately sink the league as a whole. We certainly have had experience with other professional leagues sagging under the weight of commitments that couldn’t be matched. Those are legitimate concerns, and as more details emerge, it’s possible that we will find out why some of the obvious stopgap measures weren’t taken.

All that said, it’s not so early that we can’t draw at least a few initial conclusions.

First and foremost, while this was obviously not the preferred solution for the league, it’s a massive indictment of their ability to successfully manage a known problem and avoid the worst result. Why did the negotiations break down? What were the sticking points? Why did they drag on so long—to the point where a failure to reach a deal would make pursuing other options impossible? Why weren’t secondary choices cultivated? Was there any consideration of a single-year stopgap alternative? Could the league not cobble together the funds to cover a final year and enable an orderly transition in October? Who ultimately was in charge of these decisions? Amanda Duffy is the league’s Managing Director of Operations, and presumably the buck stops with her. But would things have been any different if the league had a genuine Commissioner? There may be good answers to all these questions, or there may not be. But it is certainly fair to expect answers. Perhaps not immediately, but at some point.

Second, there should be serious and probing questions asked of US Soccer. As an organization, they are sitting on well north of $100 million dollars. While no one expects them to invest all of that money into the league, it would take a very small percentage to inject a little stability. Obviously, US Soccer is in a state of flux at the moment, with new elections coming down the pike. But that is hardly an excuse. If anything, it ought to clarify the situation more. As an institution, US Soccer claims to value women’s soccer, and claims to care about the league. Why weren’t those words backed up by action here?

Some might also wonder whether A+E (not just an investor, but an active partner with the league) might have done more. This is a company with a total estimated value of well over $20 billion. Obviously, no one expects them to throw good money after bad, but it’s not difficult to make the case that losing Boston right now will do enough long-term harm that it would be well worth paying a smaller upfront cost to keep them afloat. One of the big selling points of bringing in a big player like A+E was supposed to be that they would have liquid capital available to smooth over situations like this. Why didn’t that make a difference?

Again, I don’t ask these questions in order to suggest that there was any single obvious solution, or to suggest that any particular actor was entirely responsible. While US Soccer and the league have a lot to answer for, we shouldn’t necessarily assume the very worst. That said, neither should we assume the best. This is a bad situation, and it’s important to hold those decision-makers who brought us to this point responsible, if only to help prevent another similar crisis from happening the next time around.

Tonight, my heart goes out to the Boston Breakers family. You deserved better.

Sky Blue’s 2018 Forecast? Cloudy with a Chance of Blue Skies

Posted on by RJ Allen

The 2018 NWSL draft is in the books.

Sky Blue walked away with 5 picks.

Michaela Abam, the listed forward, midfielder, defender out of West Virginia University; Imani Dorsey a forward, midfielder out of Duke University; Kiana Palacios a forward, midfielder from UC Irvine; Amandine Pierre-Louis a defender out of West Virginia University; and not to be without a Rutgers player they picked Casey Murphy, the goalkeeper.

While each of the players drafted are a talented bunch who each could make an impact in different ways for the club, the team left the draft with only one defender taken. Sky Blue might have been wise to bring in a Taylor Isom or a Indigo Gibson to help out the backline along withPierre-Louis. But we can’t really talk about the draft in the bubble. Sky Blue’s mega trade, announced in the middle of the first round and slowly leaked out over the next day, changes the team more than who they drafted.

In short, Sky Blue send Sam Kerr and Nikki Stanton to Chicago, Chicago sent Christen Press to Houston and Houston sent, along with Jen Hoy from Chicago, Carli Lloyd and Janine Beckie to Sky Blue.

It is the type of trade that changes the league without tipping too far the balance of it. Christen Press is a world class forward and now replaced in Chicago with Sam Kerr. Carli Lloyd was the face of the Dash marketing now replaced by Christen Press. Sam Kerr was the star power on the Sky Blue roster now replaced by New Jersey’s own Carli Lloyd.

Breaking down the Sky Blue off season so far is a needed step in understanding where they will be two months from now.

So let’s dig in.

The Trades Heard Around WoSo

Christie Pearce, Kelley O’Hara and Sam Kerr all sported the captain’s armband in 2017. Pearce, the former near decade USWNT captain, left the team before the end of the season due to accumulated injuries leaving O’Hara and Kerr to fill the position for the rest of the year.

And their leadership seemed to have a positive influence on the team. They looked ready to step up as 2018 came into focus. Now they, along with veterans Nikki Stanton and Taylor Lytle, wear different crests.

Losing O’Hara and Lytle for Shea Groom and Christina Gibbons was a needed exchange for the club. It brought in two players that can help in a few different ways. Groom can score and Gibbons is as flexible a player as can be hoped for, though her talents shine the most in midfield.

The Kerr and Stanton trade that brings in Lloyd, the likely next captain, Beckie and Hoy may be a harder pill for some to choke down.

In Kerr they are losing a player who many call the best forward in the world. In Stanton a force in the midfield who cleaned up after her teammates. In return they get the already mentioned Lloyd, Janine Beckie, a Canadian international who should be allocated and give them a bit more cap room, and Jen Hoy who went to Princeton and can be a nice depth option in the one area of the field they need less depth than farther back on the pitch.

But they did manage to get something for Kerr. If she had skipped the NWSL for France they would have been left with nothing but memories.

The trade leaves Sky Blue in much the same position as they were in before they made it. They have a large group of attacking options ranging from NT quality to role player, but as soon as you look at the defense you can see how threadbare the lineup is in talent.

It is not as though this team could not put together a back four. Skroski, Freeman, Stott and Gibbons or Mills would make a passable backline. It’s the issue of having little to no depth past that point. Erin Simon runs hot and cold, Doni Richardson is a reserve player at best and all their draft picks would need the time of conversion to be able to take up the position. Barring a trade of 3 or 4 players for another starting level defender or two. In short, I worry about the depth of the backline.

The Carli Lloyd Effect

I’m not sure if it’s possible to speak of Carli Lloyd in neutral terms.

On one hand she scored the winning goal in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic goal medal games. She had a hat trick in the 2015 Women’s World Cup in the first 16 minutes complete with a half field shot that stunned the world. She has shown up time and time again in big moments when all eyes are on her. She is the reason so many USWNT players have gold medals at home after all.

On the other she is best remembered over the last year or two as often a cause of formational change on both of the teams she finds herself on. She is no longer the first choice number 10 that she tried so hard to be for so many years. She is sometimes viewed as someone who is best left on the bench until two thirds of the game have finished. She blocks people on Twitter for seemingly mentioning her name, media included.

She is both the player who has managed 15 games with 7 goals and 3 assists on just 1200 total minutes in the last 2 seasons and the player who can fire a shot from 30 yards out that no one can stop seemingly at will. She is both a player who has a work ethic that is legendary for how she will not stop training nor does she slack off in her desire to be the best she can be, and someone who will block media on Twitter.

So where does that leave us in 2018 when Lloyd is heading home to New Jersey after a career away from it?

Should Sky Blue fans rejoice that the home town girl is back to lead them to the post season? Should they jeer and criticize the team for trading away a player that scored 17 goals in 2017 in Sam Kerr to end up with Lloyd in return?

Personally? I think they should wait. They and we all need to see what 2018 Lloyd looks like. They should hope that after two years of starts and stops she’s ready to take on the world and show that the two World Player of the Year trophies at home were given on merit and not name recognition.

So Let’s Talk About The Roster

We can talk about who Carli Lloyd is as a player or who might appear in the captain’s armband all we want, but at the end of the day it’s the 18 to 20 players that make the roster that matter.

My projected roster if nothing changes is more straight forward than I would have guessed before looking at the options. Breaking them down section by section it becomes pretty clear getting under the 20 player limit might be harder than expected.

Goalkeeping

Starter: Kailen Sheridan
Backup: Caroline Casey
Overseas: Casey Murphy

With the reports that Casey Murphy, has signed in France the team is left deciding between Kailen Sheridan and Caroline Casey as they were in 2017.

It will come to little surprise to anyone that Kailen Sheridan will be the likely starter for the team. The Canadian international is young, green at times but has the greater upside between the two.

Defenders:

Defenders kept: Christina Gibbons, Kayla Mills, Mandy Freeman, Rebekah Stott, Erica Skroski, Erin Simon

Let’s see preseason: Amandine Pierre-Louis

Likely out: Cassidy Benintentem, Domi Richardson

Sky Blue’s defense was thin last year and it remains thin in 2018, albeit in different ways than the year before.

Gibbons is a better midfielder than defender but she will likely be needed on the wing more than the midfield. Mills is an unpolished defender at times but if she can pull her talents together in her second year in the league might be a true blessing for the team. Freeman showed a lot of promise before being injured in 2017. While she had some rookie moments she does look to be a net positive for the team. Stott is a truly great centerback that Sky Blue received in a trade, along with Katie Johnson, for giving up the rights to Caitlin Foord. Skroski is a better centerback than outside back but her ability to play both might be the biggest blessing for head coach Reddy as she readys her lineups each week. Simon can be a nice late game sub on the outside even if her speed can at times be an issue.

Benintentem and Richardson are both likely not making a 20 person roster. The team might try to keep them around for practice purposes but there are just not enough open spots on the roster.

The Attack

Attackers: Thaisa, Daphne Corboz, Sarah Killion, Raquel Rodriguez, Jen Hoy, Shea Groom, Carli Lloyd, Katie Johnson, Maya Hayes, Janine Beckie
Let’s see preseason: Madison Tiernan , McKenzie Meehan, Michaela Abam, Imani Dorsey, Kiana Palacios

The one area Sky Blue is blessed in is attacking talent. They have strong center midfielders, wide players, and center forwards. They have up and coming players, international talent, they have a little bit of everything. I would break them down the way I did the defenders but neither of us have that kind of time.

The 16 attacking players listed above are frankly just too much. There are too many of the same kinds of players, too much talent for the 6 attacking spots in a starting 11.

The bottom line is that Sky Blue needs to make a trade. If they are able to package say 3 of their young talented attackers for a starting level outside back. Otherwise they will be cutting deep into the players newly drafted and likely from those drafted the year before and still coming up short on defense.

This attack will score. They have midfielders who can get the ball down field and forwards who can score. Say what you want about Lloyd but she is good at finding space outside the box and letting off a shot most other players would not try.

So, What Does It All Mean?

Sky Blue has added a new head coach, Denise Reddy, they have traded away fan favorites, they have changed the make up of the team in fundamental ways.

And on paper they look nearly identical in all but player names.

They are still a team with a depth of attacking talent. They are still a team with major defensive questions. They are still a team with a pair of young goalkeepers who are growing in to their gloves.

If the right trades are made, and so far the trading under Reddy has been a solid B, to bring in at least one more starting defender and offload some of the redundant attacking talent?

They have a shot at landing on Cloud 9 at the end of the season with a trophy in hand.

Interviews with Emma: Yael Averbuch

Posted on by RJ Allen

Emma Bayer is an 11 year old who will be doing a recurring interview series for Backline Soccer. You can find more out about how Emma got in to soccer here.

We move from our last interview with Ashley Hatch who has one year of professional experience, to a player with quite a bit more, Yael Averbuch. Yael has been a member of Sky Blue FC, the Washington Spirit, Western New York Flash, FC Kansas City (now Utah Royals) and now the Seattle Reign as well as playing in Russia & Sweden. 

Birthdate: 11/3/86

Nickname from teammates: YaYa

Hometown: Upper Montclair, NJ

Age started playing: 7

College/major: UNC, psychology

Career aspirations after soccer: Continue to grow the business I started, Techne Futbol. And help influence player development on a larger scale.

Why did you pick your particular uniform #: Well, Sydney Leroux actually asked me if she could have my old number (14) to have the same number as her husband Dom Dwyer. So I said yes and #10 was an open number so I took it!

Pregame meal: I love eating breakfast as a pregame meal. So, toast, eggs, fruit and yogurt!

Workout music: old school techno

Favorite cartoon character: Cat Dog

Fave movie: Remember the Titans

Fave actress: Keira Knightly

Hidden talent: I can rap a couple really fast Busta Rhymes songs, shhhhh

Mentor (in soccer or life): my dad

Fave charity/cause: To Write Love on Her Arms

Life motto: Pursue your dreams with every ounce of your being, and above all, love the journey.

Superstitions: I try to avoid them because I get VERY superstitious when I start

Pets: a dog named Ajax

If you were going on Amazing Race, which teammate would you want as a partner, and why? Becky Sauerbrunn because she’s as crazy/competitive as me if not more.

Euro Roundup: An Introduction

Posted on by RJ Allen

Hello and welcome to a new weekly segment on Backline Soccer. Most of our coverage focuses on the USWNT and the NWSL, but I’m here to give you an insight into soccer, or football as we call it, in Europe.

What is the Euro Roundup?

It’s a weekly segment that informs you about results and news from around Europe’s leagues. Not only that but there will be results and news from international teams–did you know that World Cup Qualifying is already in full swing on this side of the Atlantic? 

European action

There is no single schedule for European leagues, with some operating on the traditional fall-to-spring schedule, but others mixing it up a bit and running on the calendar year. Those already in action include many of the bit names–including the English WSL (after a schedule reset this year), Frauen Bundesliga, Division 1 and Primera Division. One league that operates on the calendar year is Scotland, who just announced the fixtures for the new season, with matches scheduled to begin next month, and then running all the way up until 28th October.  Glasgow City, who have won 11 league titles in a row, start off the defence of their SWPL1 title against Stirling University FC at home on 11th February. As with many European countries, Scotland has a tiered structure, with leagues running down through SWPL2 to SWFL2. 

All that means there is plenty of ground for this column to cover!

Transfers

The transfer window is currently open in Europe. For those unfamiliar with that system, it means that teams can buy players even when they are contracted to a club. The price is negotiated to buy out the old contract.  For example, Fran Kirby was signed by Chelsea from Reading after the World Cup in 2015. Her fee was a British record £40,000-£60,000 (about $53,000-$82,000). It’s possible that has since been broken (unlike the men’s side, transfer fees in women’s football tend to be kept quiet). When a player is out of contract, they’re effectively a free agent.  Another way of getting a player to the club is a loan. In this case, the player remains owned by the parent club but is lent to another club for half or a full season. Some clubs enter in a clause whereby they can’t play against their parent club. Some clubs that have these loaned players may look to buy them later on.

These transfers are limited to two windows during the season: one over the summer and the other in January. This is the same as on the men’s side of things, although the timing of the windows is a little different. For example, the WSL opened it’s transfer window on the 29th December and it will close on 25th January.

One league that I’ve been keeping an eye on is the WSL. The most recent big news–likely familiar to NWSL fans–was Nadia Nadim’s transfer from Portland Thorns to Manchester City. She’s already made an impact scoring a header in a 5-2 win over Reading.

There’s also a lot of news associated with the league’s transition to a winter season. Because of the switch, many existing contracts didn’t quite line up well with the new season. That’s produced a lot of renewed contracts, with Birmingham renewing the contracts of Marisa Ewers, Andrine Hegerberg and Aoife Mannion and Reading re-signing Molly Bartrip, Grace Moloney and Rachel Rowe.

But there have also been some moves. Birmingham recently lost Bella Linden to Koln in Germany and Chloe Peplow to Brighton. Reading lost Mandy Van Den Berg who was part of the winning Netherlands squad at the Euros. She and the Royals terminated her contract mutually and she has now joined Valencia in Spain.

There’s still a few weeks til the window closes so expect quite a few more signings and renewed contracts to occur.

World Cup Qualifiers

As previously mentioned, World Cup qualifying is already going on in Europe. Teams recently reached the halfpoint point in the process, meaning that we’re getting close to the in/out line for some teams.

You can look forward to a future article in this series that goes into more detail about the UEFA process. For now, here are a few quick highlights:

As hosts France, France will qualify automatically. In order to keep ticking over and stay prepared, they have a schedule heavy with big friendlies in the various venues for the World Cup in 2019 (as well as the now-annual SheBelieves Cup in the States).

All other countries have to go through the rigours of earning their right to play at the World Cup. There are seven groups, with the winners of each automatically going through.If qualifying concluded now, the following would be through: Wales, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Spain. However, since not all teams have played the same number of matches, there’s some fluidity there.

The past round of qualifying did produce some interesting results with Iceland beating Germany 3-2 in October. This ended Germany’s run of 19 years without losing a World Cup or Euro qualifier. Another interesting result was when the current European champions Netherlands drew 0-0 with the Republic of Ireland. Interestingly, the Republic of Ireland is in the same group as Northern Ireland.

The next round of fixtures starts on 22nd January, with Israel taking on Finland. After that, one interesting set to watch out for is England playing Wales both home and away–with just a point separating them and the Lionesses with a game in hand. You also might want to keep an eye out for the next match between Iceland and Germany, and for the Irish teams playing each other.

That’s a lot to cover, but hopefully this overview whets your appetite for more coverage. You can look out for this segment to go up every Tuesday, bringing you your weekly European fix. Thanks for coming along for the ride.