Germany and Spain’s U-17 Women’s teams have qualified for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica next year. Both sides reached the UEFA U-17 Women’s Championship final, which is taking place in England at the moment. Congratulations, girls!
Germany beat Italy 1-0, with Ricarda Walkling providing the goal, while Spain beat hosts England 3-0 courtesy of Pilar Garrote’s strike and a brace from Andrea Sanchez.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuuHbum4mcs]
In French women’s football, Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Rodez 7-0 to knock Montpellier down to fourth place. Watch all seven goals from the game above.
Olympique Lyon also look set to pick up the league title again after winning all ten of their league matches so far, despite crashing out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
They defeated Montpellier 4-1, with goals from Wendie Renard, Camille Abily and Megan Rapino. Way to go girls – time to defend that trophy!
Meanwhile, an interesting story has emerged from Australian-based Turkish player, Gulcan Koca, who plays in the W-League and recently joined her national team for the Euro qualifiers. She described the cultural differences as interesting.
“It was a bit scary at the start, although I can speak Turkish, there was still a language barrier. Everything is very strict and disciplined which I found hard to adjust to because in Australia we are more causal and lenient, so adjusting to Turkish rules and guidelines was very hard at the beginning.” – Koca
“I was once asked if I had a kangaroo in my back yard which made me laugh. The style of football is a bit different too, it is very technical in Turkey as opposed to physical, whereas in Australia we aim to have both. Going from playing amateur or semi-professionally in Australia, to a strict camp environment and training twice a day, and all that was involved – including meeting the men’s team – was a surreal experience.”
