IFFHS NEWS AND STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 48
Picture : Kristie and Samantha Mewis : two sisters in the US World Champion Team !
IFFHS NEWS AND STATISTICS
8 US PLAYERS = RECORD
8 US Players have appeared in the 2020/21 UEFA Champions league matches last week! A Record in the History : they are Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig), Sergino Dest (FC Barcelona), Konrad De La Fuente (FC Barcelona), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge), Weston Mac Kennie (Juve), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Gio Reyna PICTURE (Borussia Dortmund), Chris Richards (Bayern München).
13 IN A ROW
Olympique Marseille (France), the UEFA Champions League Winner 1993 ( PICTURE) , holds the record of the most lost matches in a row : 13, after a new defeat against Porto last week !
But the club is also THE ONLY CLUB in France to have won the UEFA Champions League. Also a record for the most popular club in France !
MOROCCO AND PEDROS
Reynald Pedros, who coached the Women’s World Best Team Olympique Lyon during two years (2 UEFA Champions League, 2 Ligue 1 titles, 2 French Cups)) became last week the new Coach of Morocco’s Women National team.
UEFA WOMEN’S EURO
UEFA Women's EURO qualifying is in progress with a record 47 teams competing for 15 places alongside hosts England in the finals from 6 to 31 July 2022.
- Qualified: Denmark, England (hosts), France, Germany, Netherlands (holders), Norway, Sweden
- Confirmed in top two of group: Austria, Belgium, Iceland, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland
- Can also still qualify: Belarus, Czech Republic, Finland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Ukraine, Wales
· The group winners and the three runners-up with the best record against the sides first, third, fourth and fifth in their sectionswill join hosts England in the final tournament.
· The other six runners-up will play off in April for the remaining three berths in the 16-team finals.
• The Netherlands are defending champions and reached their first Women's World Cup final in 2019.
• World Cup semi-finalists Sweden and England (as Great Britain) will join the Netherlands at the Olympic tournament in Japan in 2021.
• France, Germany, Italy and Norway reached the last World Cup quarter-finals, Spain went out in the last 16 and Scotland, on debut, fell in the group stage.
• Denmark were EURO 2017 runners-up while Austria and England also made the semis.
• Germany won every EURO from 1995 until 2017, when they succumbed to Denmark in the last eight, a run of six straight tournament victories.
• Germany have won eight titles and Norway two, while Sweden and the Netherlands have one each.
• Cyprus are making their senior competitive debut while Kosovo are also in their first Women's EURO.
• France and Austria were in the same group at UEFA Women's EURO 2017 and both made it through.
• Finland coach Anna Signeul was in charge of Scotland when they marked their finals debut in 2017.
• Norway qualified ahead of Wales for the 2017 finals.
Portugal pipped Finland to the 2017 play-offs on their way to a debut finals. Switzerland beat Belgium on away goals in the 2019 Women's World Cup play-offs before losing to the Netherlands.
A NEW TRIO
Cristiano Ronaldo (132 goals in 176 matches) and Lionel Messi (118 goals in 146 matches) dominate since a long time the All Time Ranking of UEFA Champions League Goal Scorers. Since last week, the third place (long time held by Spain’s Raul with 71 goals in 144 matches) has changed with the presence of Poland’s and Bayern’s Goal Scorer Robert Lewandowski, 71 goals in only 94 matches !
NEUER = 15
Manuel Neuer has broken the Champions League record for the most consecutive wins. The victory over Salzburg 3-1 was Neuer's 15th straight win in UCL.
The German goalkeeper beat the former record of Cristiano Ronaldo who won 14 consecutive Champions League matches with Real Madrid.
8 YEARS AGO
8 years ago, the FC Barcelona entered in the HISTORY of World Football when the team was composed for the first time of 11 players coming all from the MASIA, Barcelona’s Youth Academy ! It was against Levante in La Liga, Barcelona won 4 – 0 with : Victor Valdes, Martin Montoya, Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Pedro !
VIDAL = 3
Arturo Vidal was sent off in the Champions League Inter – Real Madrid (0-2) matching the record of Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic which have been expelled for three different clubs in UCL. Vidal got previously red cards for Bayern and Barcelona.
RIP ANELE NGCONGCA
South Africa defender Anele Ngcongca died on November 23 in a car accident at the age of 33.
Throughout his career, Ngcongca played for Genk in Belgium, Troyes in France, Western Provinces and Sundowns in his home country. He recently signed a contract with AmaZulu but didn’t have time to play a single game for the new team.
For the South African national team, he has played 53 matches; represented the country at the 2010 World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013 and 2015.
US WOMEN FACTS AND RECORDS
Women World Champion 2015 and 2019, USA, won the revanche match against 2019 World Cup Finalist, Netherlands, 2 – 0 last week. Facts and records about the match :
- Alex Morgan’s first appearance since the 2019 Women’s World Cup Final, a span of 509 days. It was also Morgan’s first appearance for the USA since the birth of her daughter on May 7.
- Kristie Mewis returned to the field for the WNT after an even longer lay-off, making her first appearance for the USA since March 10, 2014. When she took the field with her younger sister Samantha, it was the third time the sisters had played together for the USWNT, breaking the tie with the Fair sisters, Lorrie and Ronnie, who played together twice in the late 1990s.
- The Mewis sisters had previously started one game together and came off the bench in one game together, which was Sam’s first cap at the 2014 Algarve Cup.
Her second career international goal came 2,722 days
after her first on June 15, 2013, the longest span between goals in WNT history.
- History was made when 20-year-old forward Sophia Smith entered the match and became the first player born in the 2000s to earn a USWNT cap. Her former youth club teammate at Real Colorado, 21-year-old Jaelin Howell, also earned her WNT debut when she entered the match in the 89th minute. The pair of Coloradan natives became the first players born after the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup to appear for the USA.
· The USWNT is unbeaten in its last 15 matches in all competitions against European nations, winning the last 13 in a row by an aggregate score of 34-5. The last European nation to beat USA was France in January of 2019 in Le Havre.
· The USA is riding a 32-game unbeaten streak and has scored two or more goals in 28 of those games.
· U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski is 11-0-0 in his first 11 games (two at the end of 2019 and nine this year), setting a record for best start for a head coach in USWNT history. The victory against Netherlands broke a tie with Pia Sundhage for the best start for any head coach in USWNT history.
· Of Andonovski’s first 11 games (counting the Netherlands), six have been against teams ranked in the top-13 in the world.
· Alex Morgan became the 12th player to compete for the USWNT after becoming a mother, joining Joy Fawcett, Shannon Boxx, Stephanie Cox, Tina Ellertson, Danielle Fotopoulos, Sydney Leroux, current USWNT GM Kate Markgraf, 2019 Women’s World Cup champion Jessica McDonald, Carla Overbeck, Christie Pearce and Amy Rodriguez.
· Kristie Mewis, making her first appearance for the WNT in 2,454 days, marks the second-longest span between caps by any player in USWNT history. Defender Keri Raygor went 2,466 days between her eighth and ninth caps from March 1994 to December 2000.
· Mewis’ span of 2,722 days between WNT goals is the longest in team history, breaking the previous record of 2,387 days held by Lori Chalupny.
