Archive for the ‘Soccer’ Category

Hope Powell & Lianne Sanderson have NO hope together

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Article written by Jacob Omolaso for ladiesprofessionalsports.com
 

Hope Powell has a nucleus of players at her disposal but her relationship with her players is starting to expose some interesting revelations.

In my pursuit to unearth the relationship between Hope Powell and Lianne Sanderson, the personnel issues for the England women’s football came to light recently when Hope Powell selected the team to play against Turkey for the World cup qualifier on Thursday 29th July 2010.

The team was announced on 12th July 2010; however an article on the FA website stated that: “slight injuries to Kelly Smith and Karen Carney have rendered the American-based duo unavailable for selection”.

However the website for Women’s Pro Soccer (WPS) league in the United States illustrated that the girls played as followed;

Karen Carney played 82 minutes and a full game of 90 minutes, respectively on Wednesday 7th July 2010 and Saturday 10th July 2010.

Kelly Smith played 87 minutes and 84 minutes, respectively on Sunday 4th July 2010 and Sunday 11th July 2010.

Both women continued to play in every game since the above dates.

In seeking retraction from the England FA, I was advised by the PR Manager that the women had a “slight injury knock” and therefore it was not worth the journey from the United States; and “this was an opportunity for them to rest”.

Another team selection has been announced on 5th August 2010 for the game against Austria in Krems on Saturday 21st August 2010. The England FA website headlined “Smith and Carney recalled”, but Karen Carney was substituted by her club Chicago Red Stars, after playing 46 minutes due to an injury.

Hope Powell might just advise Carney to rest yet further. However reviewing past England FA physiotherapist assessment on players such as Anita Asante, who was played in Euro 2009 despite injuries, suggest Chicago Red Star’s investment in Carney might just be pointless. Anita is now plying her trade successfully with Washington Freedom in the US WPS league.

Anita Asante was once Hope Powell’s survivor but no longer on the selection list for England at the age of 25, and neither would England fans see Lianne Sanderson play for England under Hope Powell. I suppose this is the end to an era of quality and pleasing, watchable football by England Women. Lianne Sanderson is being excluded from the England setup at the age of 22 years old, after being selected into the England squad five years ago by Hope Powell. This has been five years of insult and degradation to which no adult should tolerate in their profession. 

I am sure Lianne Sanderson will tell the football community in her autobiography about how she remained composed after travelling from America to Spain and not making at least the substitution bench, and sometimes being made to do intensive training an hour after arriving on a long flight from America.

What was the point of Hope Powell selecting Lianne Sanderson, when there is a total dislike for Lianne? I guess the media knew Lianne Sanderson’s winning success with Arsenal LFC, and Hope Powell couldn’t resist an intelligent skilful and likeable player.  

The England FA website did not bother to give any reason for Lianne’s omission from the squad. However, I spoke to the FA’s Public Relations Manager, who confirmed Lianne Sanderson will no longer be available for selection under Hope Powell.  There seems to be a tussle between Hope Powell finally admitting to the general football public that she does not like Lianne Sanderson – hence the reason she does not play her- And Lianne having had enough of accumulating air miles having rarely played any football with England.

Lianne Sanderson has always been an outcast with Hope Powell’s England setup, maybe because Lianne did not bond with Hope Powell as the rest of the players at Loughborough’s National Player Development Centre. Lianne played within the junior England setup and the 1st team without the England development programme. Lianne has natural ability for the game and was developed further by Arsenal FC under the youth development programme.  

There will be players who possess a similar ability to Lianne’s in the England setup in the future, but the last decent and watchable game for England happened to be Lianne’s last game against Austria on 25th March 2010. All the games since Austria have been shocking to watch.

The England FA board and the Professional Football Association remain quite on the England Women’s issues, which they should be leading. I wonder if the women’s game is still a token gesture and an unnecessary distraction which needs to be sidelined. I suppose the men’s team is suffering just as much and in much need of intensive care.

Article written by Jacob Omolaso on behalf of ladiesprofessionalsports.com
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Twelve years service and one exhibition silverware

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Article written by Jacob Omolaso for ladiesprofessionalsports.com

The England football manager Hope Powell has had relatively a job for life. Therefore, what has prevented England women’s football team from being successful?

 In my previous article on football titled “Is the new Women Super League (WSL) a game of CATCH 22?” which can be read on my website ladiesprofessionalsports.com. I wrote about the new league which may possibly improve standards in the long term; however this does not protract from the performance of The FA and Hope Powell’s one trophy cabinet.

Hope Powell is certainly qualified according to the football badges accredited to her, but the same can be said of previous Men’s team managers. The Men’s team have had managers and coaches with similar FA & FIFA badges and sometimes even more qualification than Hope Powell; but were unsuccessful in securing a title and therefore relieved of their duties by The FA. Since being appointed by The FA in 1998, Hope Powell has secured one International trophy in the annually played tournament hosted in conjunction with The FA; the Cyprus Cup. The Cyprus Cup was won in 2009, and the team were unable to mount a defence a year later in 2010, finishing 5th position out of 8 teams.

The last major tournament, Euro 2009 hosted in Finland brought a humiliating and embarrassing defeat in the final by Germany. Although England qualified from the tournament group stage as the best third placed team; the team nonetheless evaded my prediction of facing Germany at an earlier stage. This unfortunately glossed over the England performance and prevented reform.

Again I ask myself why the lack of success by England, The FA and Hope Powell?

I suggest there’s a possibility The FA does not want a successful women’s team, thereby outshining and outperforming the men’s team. But isn’t that partisan and blatantly sexist? That’s very debatable, or has Hope Powell surrounded herself with individuals who are more in agreement with her strategy rather than those who will challenge the status quo? I obviously do not have inside knowledge of what’s happening within The FA and Hope Powell’s management structure, but the ONE trophy cabinet in twelve years is proof that can not be glossed over or disputed.

The US national team have had a man as a head coach and currently a Swedish woman, Pia Mariane Sundhage, as a head coach. Therefore besides the financial package there is no limitation to source a head coach for England. Hope Powell has had a good run and has done a reasonable job. Pulling the England team to 8th position in the FIFA World ranking is a good achievement, but the next phase and push for success should be provided by another management structure that’s willing to give The FA the hard truths.

The disarray within England’s football structure has seen Lord Triesman quit his post and previously the FA Chief Executive, Ian Watmore, resigning within nine months of holding his post. The women’s game needs to break away from the dysfunctional operation of the football association and possibly model the women’s English game on the American Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS). This is mainly because the current men’s league system is flawed and it’s on borrowed time; and there’s no plausible reason for the Women’s game to follow the same path.

The England Women’s team recently played against Austria whom is 40th according to FIFA ranking. The game was modestly decent as I watched online, and therefore I prompted myself to go to Millwall’s stadium the Den and watch England play against 20th ranked Spain.

The game at the Den wasn’t too pleasant to watch as the embattled and injured Kelly Smith tried her utmost to be creative. After Kelly Smith was substituted at 59th minute, and as I unbearably watched the game descend to awful; I couldn’t help thing about those watching women’s football for the first time.

There’s a lot of criticism about how women play football, the game against Spain emphasises these criticism.

The women’s game can not afford to loose support, and therefore the best players should be chosen. There are exceptionally better players in the current women’s premier league who are not in the England squad.

Football is the nation’s leading game and therefore the England women’s team should be more competitive in the major tournaments. The lack of success is possibly a combination of neglect by The FA to push for productivity and Hope Powell’s team selection and decision making. I would err on the side of caution, should the FA move Hope Powell to another superficial post to oversee the restructure, as this would seem as a continuation of the status quo. 

I sincerely urge the FA to be as relatively judgemental of the women’s game just as the men’s game.

Is this a fair reflection?
Constructive view points and comments are welcome.

Article written by Jacob Omolaso on behalf of ladiesprofessionalsports.com
 © LadiesProfessionalSports.Com  All rights reserved

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Is the new Women Super League (WSL) a game of CATCH 22?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Article written by Jacob Omolaso for ladiesprofessionalsports.com

There’s a bullet train with carriages labelled WPS (USA), W-league (Australia), Bundesliga (Germany), Division 1 Féminine (France) and Damallsvenskan (Sweden). Lagging behind is the England Women’s’ Super League (WSL) only just commencing in 2011 which is supposed to be the women’s’ professional equivalent to the men’s Premier league. The Men’s Premier League started in 1992-3 season and has since been awash with cash, which is regrettably wasteful.

The England Premier league is considered to be the best men’s league in the World. To date The FA has had seventeen (17) years to establish the women’s football league.

I have been following the development of the women’s game in England tentatively for the last 20 years and there’s a critical issue which the FA did not address before launching WSL; that is:

 Is there an adequate pool of English players in the league to make the league successful?

To be clear…..I don’t believe there are enough quality English players in the current league to justify WSL in 2011. I appreciate the introduction of WSL but The FA has not done the necessary ground work in building the existing clubs infrastructure.

A recent example can be illustrated with Charlton LFC which was disbanded 2007 due to the relegation of Charlton FC, the parent club. Unfortunately, there was no olive branch given to the ladies to secure their budget by The FA. Charlton LFC was a successful outfit in their own right, competing and winning the FA Cup.

The FA would notably argue that there has been record investment in the women’s game; to which I commend their efforts. But the association is missing a few lessons from other modestly successful women’s leagues mentioned at the beginning. The lesson primarily concerns the question of investment. The investment which I refer to loosely concerns the quality of the players that exist within the existing English league. The WPS inaugural season, which I followed all throughout the season, is a reasonable and most recent example of how to operate a league.

Even without the limited five international per team, permitted in the WPS, the collegiate system which is operated in America provides enough quality to sustain my interest. There is a wealth of competent players from within the US. Much can be said about the collegiate system but the Women’s Bundesliga, Division 1 Féminine and Swedish Damallsvenskan operates a divisional promotion and relegation system.

There’s actually a tangible in-depth quality to sustain supporters at the games in these leagues.

WSL is being thrown in the deep-end with the announcement of ESPN obtaining exclusive media rights to the new league.  This deal is a way forward in terms of raising cash flow for subsequent re-investment.

 However this brings us to the main concern of the league being a game of CATCH22. The existing players are not strong enough to maintain supporter’s interest and the league itself needs to generate funding.

The situation has become direr with the potential departure of existing England Internationals for the American professional league of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS). There are already five regular England players, playing at WPS; and another three will join next season.

The quality of the games will be substandard and this I fear would either drown the league or create a minor league unworthy of investment, ticking along a slow track enviable of the bullet train.

This is not intended to be a doom monger of an article but to put the league on a higher gear and prevent a slow burn in the short term; in order to maintain the vision for the long term. There are a lot of people waiting at the next station for a sustainable and attractive league, the FA should not disappoint.

Article written by Jacob Omolaso on behalf of ladiesprofessionalsports.com

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