The Ladies Try to Change Lyon’s European Luck
By: Inara | October 11th, 2007Lyon’s ambitions to be ranked among Europe’s best female teams will be put to the test this week as they enter the UEFA Women’s Cup second qualifying round. And though I hate to say it, OL Ladies probably have a better chance at European glory this year than the men’s side.
When FC Lyon Fémenin came under the umbrella of Olympique Lyonnais a few years back, one of the goals Jean-Michel Aulas set was winning the UEFA Women’s Cup. Like the men’s side, OL Ladies are slowly becoming the face of French football, and while Scandinavia remains the powerbase of women’s football (the players are all semi-professional), Lyon is attempting to bridge that gap by offering employment to prospective recruits within OL Groupe, the club’s holding company. This is a very big attraction to players, who not only have jobs but can train as often as necessary.
“We have been given the money, now we must bring back silverware” - coach Farid Benstiti.
It’s for this reason that Lyon are able to bring in the very best female footballers in France - as well as a healthy dose of Brazilian talent. OL ladies boast 17 internationals of the 23 player squad, and two of those were finalists with Brazil in the FIFA Women’s World Cup this past month.
Of course, advancing won’t be easy. Like the men’s side, the women are in the group of death, having to contend with last year’s beaten semifinalists Brøndby IK and Kolbotn IL, as well as Sparta Praha. Of the four teams in the group, only two will advance to the quarterfinals. The good news is that Lyon was selected to host all of Group D’s matches in this round.
OL will be doing what they can to help out the ladies. First of all, the club will be broadcasting all the matches live on OLTV. For those wishing to attend the games, the prices for tickets are a steal at €4 (€10 for all three matches).
But the biggest factor? Though they normally play at the Plaine de Jeux, OL Ladies will be playing their three qualifying matches at the Stade de Gerland, where normally only the men play (the other three teams will play at Stade Pierre Duboeuf). Lyon have been requesting far and wide that OL fans show up to support the ladies, so hopefully there will be a big crowd.
Match dates for Group B4:
Thursday, October 11 at 1 PM
Lyon (FRA) - Brøndby (DAN), Gerland Stadium
Kolbotn (NOR) - Sparta Prague (RTC), Pierre Duboeuf StadiumSaturday, October 13 at 11 AM
Lyon - Kolbotn, Gerland Stadium
Sparta Prague - Brøndby, Pierre Duboeuf StadiumTuesday, October 16 at 1 PM
Lyon - Sparta Prague, Gerland Stadium
Kolbotn - Brøndby, Pierre Duboeuf Stadium
Recent results:
OL Ladies warmed up for Europe with an emphatic 10-0 victory over Vendenheim last Sunday (Necib 6, 18, Thomis 15, 25, 59, Katia da Silva 24, 30, 58, 92, Brétigny 83). The week before, Lyon beat Montpellier 2-0 (Necib 10, Brétigny 83).
Current D1 standings:
1 - LYON, 20 pts, +25
2 – JUVISY, 18 pts, +15
3 – St ETIENNE, 16 pts, +3
4 – MONTPELLIER, 13 pts, +5
5 – TOULOUSE, 12 pts, -2
6 – EVREUX, 12 pts, -4
7 – LA ROCHE, 11 pts, -1
8 – VENDENHEIM, 11 pts, -11
9 – PSG, 9 pts, -4
10 – SOYAUX, 8 pts, -4
11 – HENIN BEAUMONT, 8 pts, -14
12 – ST BRIEUC, 7 pts, -10
I will be busy for the next few days, so I may not have another post up until Sunday. But please keep me up to date with comments!
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Comments
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I think its great that OL are getting behind the girls team. Women’s football is still so small in Europe and this type of commitment can really help.
Doesn’t sound like the crowds will be that great as they’re only opening up a small part of the stadium for tickets but hopefully it will be significantly more than the girls match usually see.
And I shall be doing my bit. I’m bringing my son and 14 of his class mates along to watch the match, half of whom are girls so who knows perhaps we’ll have some future OL feminin stars there to watch. They’re currently in training to sign and saute as loud as they can!Posted from
France
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Well done Storm!
The ladies’ team shows how involved and busy Aulas is.
It is not allowed to have professionnal players, but Aulas went round this problem by offering the players jobs in his group…
Aulas always spends time with the ladies as well.Some of you can tell me if I’m wrong, but did he copy that from Montpellier?
Oh, and by the way, I love Loulou Nicollin! (who doesn’t anyway)
Posted from
Japan -
Well, Lyon tied with Brondby (the group favorites) 0-0. Kolbotn beat Sparta Praha 3-1. If Lyon can beat Spata Praha and get a draw with Kolbotn, that might be enough to get them through (assuming Kolbotn beat Brondby).
The problem with the women’s competition is that instead of six games, each team plays only three, so less chance to wipe away a bad result.
Posted from
United States -
The leftmost sitting gal has nice shoes :D. 10 bucks for seeing 20 ladies stop talking for once, and chasing a common goal( no pun), priceless
Posted from
India -
this shows just what a difference there is between the haves and havenots… OL got through their prelim mini-tournament in macedonia with 29 goals scored and 0 allowed!
brondby and OL are the favorites in the group and barring surprises will both finish with 7 points and qualify for the quarterfinals.
i was really itching to go but it just wasn’t possible. i fear the turnout wasn’t amazing since there was no word in the article. does storm have any details? any of the OL men there? my guess is that JMA was there as of the half dozen ladies’ matches i’ve seen at n°10 he was at about half of them.
Posted from
France -
Guignol - I’m none the wiser I’m afraid. I didn’t go either last night.
All I know is that when I enquired about the Saturday game tickets at the beginning of the week and whether Wednesday would be too late for good seats as I was needing quite a number, I was told there definately wouldn’t be a problem. Also all our tickets are in block Dc which I think is the first one they are filling, so I would guess that they’ll probably just fill that block for the match. And I suspect last night’s match would have had a lot lower turnout as it was mid week.Still I’ll have a look out for the attendance figure on Saturday - and JMA and co!
Posted from
France -
Storm, that’s awesome that you’re taking all those kids - I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of them left with dreams of playing in that very stadium.
I was looking for pictures of the match but couldn’t find any, unfortunately. If take any, I’d be grateful if you could share. And let us know how the game goes tomorrow! Kolbotn played well against Sparta Praha, so it might be a tight match.
Posted from
United States -
So as you guys probably know by now OL won 1:0
The match was great, the best I’ve seen OL feminine play. Really good football from both teams and perhaps because it felt more evenly matched that some of the girls matches (those with 13:0), more like the men’s matches.
Having said OL were definitely the dominant team and had at least four other strong chances.
We scored at 10 minutes into the match thanks to a goal from Camille Abily, who was fantastic throughout. She was definitely the playmaker in the match, and completely dominated the right wing, very very strong.
The other player who was very impressive was Wendie Renard playing in defence (right back) – support strong and barely let anything past her. She wore the no 3 shirt and at one point was right up in front of the Kolbotn goalmouth – if she’d have been bald I could have swore Cris was back.
Also good were Sonia Bompastor (captain) and Shirly Curz.
Overall no question that OL were the stronger team and deserved to win, defence was rock solid, mid field pretty good (I only hesitate because saw a little too much possession lost here) but finishing not always so strong. No doubt Katia is very capable up front but there were some big misses from her too.
One thing that really impressed me was the on field communication between the players. As captain, Sonia Bompastor did a good job, but others (e.g. Camille Abily) were strong communicators on the field too, noticeably more intra team communication than in the men’s matches.
As far as the spectators go Stadt Gerland really was quite empty, though larger gates than the girls would usually get. There was no official announcement but I would guess between 2,000 -3,000. I didn’t seen Aulas though I’m sure he must have been there. No noticeable players from the mens’ team though – but given that many were either away on international duty; watching the French match (times horribly co-inciding with the girls match – ouch); or watching the England trash Rugby in Paris (Coupet) I guess they were otherwise busy.
A really nice touch was that after the match all the players came out and signed autographs. The OL bus then came to collect them and drive them off, but a couple of the players and the trainer when home by their own steam and just casually walked out of the ground. Cute.
And I have to say I was really proud of my guys, they sang their hearts out bless them and caused a lot of smiles (and praise from the feminine trainer as they walked past!)
Overall a great match, great result and the team did women’s football proud.
Posted from
France -
i’ll bet JMA was there, but up in the loges where he has a phone and all… after all, the man has a day job!
now we just need to draw with prague to get through… if we finish second we’ll probably meet arsenal ladies, last year’s champions, but with a few goals OL will probably win the group.
Posted from
France -
Guignol - turns out he wasn’t there, like Coupet he was at Stadt de France watching the rugby. I guess he picked the wrong match!
I also saw the attendance figure in the Progress - only 949, no wonder our singing carried…
Are you going to tomorrow’s match? Unfortunately i can’t but should be good given that the final whistle will hopefully signal qualification (and with any luck avoiding Arsenal).Posted from
France -
Storm, thanks for the rundown! It sounds like there were still close to a 1000 people there, which is probably more than the ladies usually get. There will probably only be half that for tomorrow’s game against Sparta Praha.
It’s in Lyon’s best interests to top this group - this way they can avoid meeting Arsenal in the next round. We all know how Lyon is cursed in the quarterfinals.
Posted from
United States
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