International Players I will Love to See in the WPS

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Permalink Reply by Kristi Lincourt on May 8, 2009 at 9:31pm

chevy said:

Kristi Lincourt said:

chevy said:

jon fuller said:

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I watched a documentary about the German women recently that was made during the months up to and including the WWC '07. They were talking about the attendance at the World Cup games being around 50,000 or close to it, then going home for the German Budesliga, and having maybe 500 people in the stands. They don't like that. From what I could tell, they feel inferior, and thought that the only way to keep interest in the women's game over there was to win international matches.
If anyone is interested in watching the documentary, I found it on YouTube. It's called " Die besten Frauen der Welt ". There are English subtitles, because I surely don't speak German!

Nice find. I watched the whole thing and cracked up when they were watching the semi-final between Brazil and the US. "Keep on dancing Marta you will be crying come Sunday." Good stuff.

I understand what you were saying as far as them not drawing well for the Budesliga but this is also going to be the first well publicized women's world cup in Europe. The quality of the women's game is leaps and bounds better from the last world cup held in Sweden in '95. I believe this world cup has the potential to be a game changer for the women's game in Europe.

Agreed. The SARS epidemic in China before the '03 WWC really messed up the distribution, and one can only think that the '07 Cup should/would have been in Germany (or another European country), and the 2011 Cup would've been in Canada, seeing how they were the runner-up to Germany.
Anyways, the Germans will put on an entertaining show, for sure. Hopefully, it will open up the eyes of those over there who still think that womens' football is a joke of some sorts. BUT they also have the Womens' Euro every four years, too. They have one this summer in Finland, and the last one was in England. The stadiums had good attendance, and the TV ratings were good, but whether it was the Ladies' EPL, the German Bundesliga or the leagues in France, Norway or Sweden, the club games are still sparsely attended.
About the documentary, yeah, I thought that was a funny part, too. I also liked when they were laughing at the photos of themselves, especially the one of Nadine Angerer "running like a girl". LOL

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Permalink Reply by Carmen Wales on May 10, 2009 at 6:15am

SO.. the last womens game I saw was in the big COMMERZBANK ARENA which will be one of the Arenas during 2001 wolrdchampionship.. and there were 45.000 viewers- which was european womens soccer record! it was a test for the worldchampionship attendance... but reality is that the final Bundesliga round matches ( first division) matches even from the so-called BIG Teams as 1. FFC do have only round-about 1.000 viewers maximum!! and in germany they are nearly all non-professionals .. the do not earn money with playing football and if- not as much for living by it! Germany won the european championship so many times and imagine this- when we won in 1997 the players got a winning "Bonus" which was : each of them got a coffe set- yes dishes for the players!!
in the past few years the public interest has grown very much her in germany also the media interest- well it also depends on the fact, that the german girls are very successful -maybe if they weren't, it would be different- but still there is a huge difference between male players -playing in some low category teams but earning about 10.-20.000EUROS monthly and high class women player!! this is the reason why many first class players from euopean womens teams went to the usa - everytime a pro-league there opened for foreign players!
so I was very surpised that the germans did not went back to play the whole season at the WPS!!

Kristi Lincourt said:

chevy said:

jon fuller said:

Obviously once the world cup is done, your going to see alot of germans wanting to come over I think, i've looked up the results of those european leagues and that team schelin is on didn't lose a game for like a year and killed almost all their opponents, obviously the money is good but there is no competition outside of maybe 4 or 5 teams in all of europe. the only problem however is if expansion is going slowly, there is going to be no room for all these players, however if the league got to something like 12 or 16 teams, and obviously this a ways away, i would really like to see some players from lesser known female soccer countries. this will really develope them and even their national soccer team. the wps would then truly be a worldwide league with everything. yah know go to lesser european powers like italy, russia, iceland, netherland, switzerland, ireland, scout some players and develope them. africa has to have good players, i'm guessing they just don't have the funds to develope players, there has to be talent there, and also brazil, i bet there is alot of undiscovered talent there as well even with their talent of their national team. i really feel like this should be the goal of the wps, truly become a worldwide league, this will not only better the league but make the international competitions truly great. soccer is becoming big in the usa, female soccer might take a little longer to grab on to, but noone can deny it is starting to gain on the big sports very slowly.

Judging by the Brazil friendly attendance numbers in Germany of 44,000+. If they can generate that kind of interest country wide for the World Cup in 2011, I wouldn't be surprised if Germany tries to establish a professional league of their own in 2012. They already have a league infrastructure in place. They just need to start paying all their players professional contracts. If they follow the WPS business model of limited spending and control expectations they could round up enough international talent to make a solid league comparable on the level of the WPS.

As for Schelin, if I am not mistaken Sonia Bompaster and Camile Abily both got pulled out of her team(Olympic Lyonese, I think?). I would expect their games(and thus the league) to become much more competitive now. Similarly to what happened to Arsenal(and the FAWPL) with Smith, Scott and Carney leaving.

I watched a documentary about the German women recently that was made during the months up to and including the WWC '07. They were talking about the attendance at the World Cup games being around 50,000 or close to it, then going home for the German Budesliga, and having maybe 500 people in the stands. They don't like that. From what I could tell, they feel inferior, and thought that the only way to keep interest in the women's game over there was to win international matches.
If anyone is interested in watching the documentary, I found it on YouTube. It's called " Die besten Frauen der Welt ". There are English subtitles, because I surely don't speak German!

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Permalink Reply by Federico Lambea on June 28, 2009 at 4:35pm

I Add:
From Japan: Iwabuchi, Ikeda.
From Nigeria: Dede.
From Spain: Melissa.
From Canada: Kara Lang &Christine Sinclair
From USA Hope Solo, Scurry & Aby Wambach.
Frm Norway, Erika Skarbo.
From Italy, Patrizia Panico.
From Germany: Nadine Angerer, Bajramaj, and sisters Banecki.
And as Coach, the best, Pia Sundhage
SoccerBrainiac said:

I suppose the Fara you are talking about is Fara Williams of Everton Ladies FC.She is a solid midfield player.

As far as the English league is concerned, The WPS has what it takes to be the best in the world. The English haven't gone Pro have they ?

Shobha Kondragunta said:

Women's premier league in England has really picked up. I watched Everton vs Fulhum live. Farah (last name?) is a fantastic player. Everton beat Arsenel (Kelly Smith plays on this team)for league title last year. But not sure if British players want to leave their league because it is doing very well, relatively speaking.

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