NEW COACH FOR MATILDAS
Tony Gustavsson, who was assistant
coachasUSwonthe2015and2019
World Cups and 2012 Olympics, is to
become the new coach of Australia.
The 47-year-old, who is currently
coaching Hammarby in his native
Sweden, will take over onJanuary1.
He replaces Ante Milicic who left to
take over men’s Australian league
newcomers Macarthur.
The first target for Gustavsson is
next summer’s Olympics, but the main
focus will be on the 2023 World Cup
which is to be jointly-hosted by
Australia and New Zealand.DORTMUND START TEAM
Borussia Dortmund, hitherto the most
significant European club without a
women’s team, are to start one. Like
Revierderbyrivals Schalke, they will
begin in the eighth-tier amateur
Kreisliga B next season.
Dortmund, who had
been criticised by their
own fans for not having
a female section,
acted after polling
supporters.
Portoarenowthe
biggest European club
without a women’s team.SAEVIK TO LADY WOLVES
Wolfsburg strengthened after selling
Pernille Harder to Chelsea by signing
Norway striker Karina Saevik from
Paris Saint-Germain. The Lady Wolves
had already recruited Pauline Bremer
from Manchester City. Elsewhere
Everton’s Dutch defender Kika van Es
returned to Twente and Australia’s
Jacynta Galabadaarachchi left
West Ham for Napoli.BARCA WIN FIRST CLASICO
La Liga opened with a bang with the first
official women’s Clasico. Barcelona tookAppointment...Gustavsson with
Matildas forward Caitlin FoordClasico hero...Barca’s Patri
Guijarro opens the scoringAward
winner...
Chelsea’s
Pernille
Harderthe spoils, winning 4-0 in the capital
with goals from Patri Guijarro, Lieke
Martens, Alexia Putellas and an own
goal. The match was Real Madrid’s first
under their own name having played
under the CD Tacon banner last season
despite changing ownership in 2019.CONSOLATION FOR HARDER
Pernille Harder was crowned UEFA
Women’s Player of the Year, her second
success after winning in 2018. On
both occasions she reached the
Champions League final with
Wolfsburg but lost to Lyon.
Harder was also voted
Forward of the Year but
Lyon took the other
honours withJean-
Luc Vasseur, Sarah
Bouhaddi, Wendie
Renard and Dzsenifer
Marozsan named Coach,
Goalkeeper, Defender and
Midfielder of the Year respectively.CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHANGES
The pandemic forced UEFA to delay
and abbreviate the early rounds of the
Champions League with the preliminary
round mini-tournaments replaced by
two single-leg knockout rounds in
November. These would cut 40 entrants
down to ten qualifiers to join the 22
seeds in the round of 32, which itself
was postponed to December.
3-4 Nov:First qualifying round
18-19 Nov:Second qualifying round
8-9 &15-16 Dec:Round of 32141 England
19 Scotland
13 Wales
11 Australia
10 Republic of Ireland, Norway
9 Germany, Netherlands
5 USA, France
4 Northern Ireland, Canada, Sweden,
Denmark, Switzerland, South Korea
3 New Zealand, Spain
2 Finland, Austria, Poland
1 Czech Republic, Belgium, PortugalPLAYER NATIONALITES IN WSL
the game. All the top players now want
to play in England.”
Australian Steph Catley, who joined
Arsenal after six years in the NWSL,
concurred. “Right now this is the place
where you want to play football because
you’re coming up against the best players
in the world, week-in, week-out.”
WSL’s global reach is not complete.
There is not, at present, an African player
in the league, although there have been a
few, notably Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala, now
of Barcelona, who played for Liverpool
and Arsenal. Nor are there any South
Americans, though Ester (Brazil) and
Christiane Endler (Chile) previously played
for Chelsea. They will come though, drawn
by rising wages, the lure of teams affiliated
to world-renown Premier League clubs
and the chance to play at Wembley and
in the Champions League. That is a
combination few leagues can match.
Marquee signing...
Alex Morgan