Babe of the Month - Danish Ladies Footballer Pernille Harder

Pernille Mosegaard Harder was born 15th November 1992 in Ikast, Denmark and is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a striker for VfL Wolfsburg as well as for the Danish national team.

Pernille started playing football when she was five or years old with the boys in her birth city of Ikast. Her Mum and Dad and sister both played so they sent her to play soccer and she really loved it. Pernille says that "they didn't have a girls team until she was 11 years old, but I played and practised with boys in high school and that was a really important part of my development."

Pernille has always been a Manchester United fan, and says that David Beckham was her footballing inspiration.

Harder played for Team Viborg between 2007 and 2010 and then for IK Skovbakken from 2010 in her country's Elitedivisionen, before signing for Linköpings in June 2012.

She made her international debut aged 16 in 2009, scoring a hat-trick in Denmark's 15-0 win over Georgia.

Harder chose Linköpings, another Swedish club for her next destination because she wanted a new challenge, but also because she wanted to remain in Scandinavia. In September 2013 she scored all four goals in Linköpings' 4–1 win at relegation-bound Sunnanå SK.

In the 2015 Damallsvenskan season Harder scored 17 goals in 22 appearances for Linköping, winning a series of national awards including Årets Anfallare (English: Forward of the Year) and Årets Allsvenska Spelare (English: League Player of the Year). At the annual awards gala she shared the stage with male winner Zlatan Ibrahimović (below) and was described as "hyper-talented" and "world class" by Swedish national coach Pia Sundhage. Harder was also voted Danish Football Player of the Year in 2015.

Harder enjoyed further success in the 2016 Damallsvenskan season, retaining the League Player of the Year award and helping Linköping win the Damallsvenskan title.

By now a transfer target for the biggest clubs in women's football, it would have been easy for Harder to stay in Sweden. She had scored 70 goals in 87 appearances for Linköpings, twice winning the Swedish cup and winning the league in 2016 as top scorer with 24 goals in 22 games.

 

However Harder's agent announced in November 2016 that she would be leaving Linköping for a new challenge. In December 2016, it was announced that Harder had signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with VfL Wolfsburg running from January 2017.

The lure of the Bundesliga was too strong. Pernille said: “I always wanted to go to Germany one day. I guess it’s because the German league is the strongest league in Europe and possibly the world. All the games are hard. We’re one of the best teams in the world right now, with a lot of good players, and that’s why I always wanted to come here."

"It’s a little more physical, all teams are fit and physically strong. The way teams defend in the Bundesliga compared to Swedish league is very different. In Sweden we’re standing in zones and defending the space behind us. In Germany it’s go forward and go 100%. It’s very different for me when I have the ball and it’s given me a new way of thinking and has developed my game."

In her first season in Germany Wolfsburg pipped the holders, Bayern Munich, to the Bundesliga crown as the team secured the league and cup double.

Last Sunday Wolfsburg Ladies beat Chelsea Ladies 2-0 in their Women's Champions League semi-final second leg to win 5-1 on aggregate and reach the final, where they will face Lyon at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy Dynamo Stadium in Kiev on 24th May. Harder scored the opening goal in Wolfsburg's 2-0 win.

This season, with her team two points clear of second-placed Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga Women's League, with the German Cup Final (DFB-Pokal) on the 19th May, Harder and her team-mates are targeting the treble!

On her International career: At the inaugural 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand, Harder was part of the Denmark team who won their group before losing 4–0 to eventual champions North Korea in the quarter-final. Still 16 years old, she contributed a hat-trick to a crushing 15–0 win over Georgia in her senior international debut in October 2009, and she has continued to score regularly for the Danish team ever since.

Harder scored further hat-tricks against Austria and Armenia in 2011 and Russia in 2013. She was named in national coach Kenneth Heiner-Møller's Denmark squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2013. With nine goals she had been the team's top goalscorer in qualifying.

In October 2013, Harder won her 50th cap for Denmark in a 1–1 draw with Serbia. She scored Denmark's goal in the match. In March 2016, Harder was appointed captain of the national team.

In 2017, she was named in national coach Nils Nielsen's Denmark squad for the UEFA Women's Euro 2017. She captained the team to the final and scored a goal in Denmark's 4–2 defeat by hosts the Netherlands. She was voted runner-up to Lieke Martens in the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award for 2016–17.

Pernille Harder is one of the five nominees for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2018 award.
On being nominated she said: "It's an honour. A nomination like this is one of the things you work really hard for your whole career, so I'm really happy to be nominated and 2017 was a really good year for me."

Away from football, Pernille enjoys playing golf.

You can follow Pernille on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

Babe of the Month - Anouk Hoogendijk. Putting the 'sexy' back into Dutch football.

Anouk Anna Hoogendijk was born on 6th May 1985 in Woerden, Netherlands.

She is a Dutch female international footballer who can play at centre back or as a defensive midfielder.

Anouk joined FC Utrecht in 2007 after a spell training with SV Saestrum.
Hoogendijk realised her ambition of playing abroad when she signed an eight-month contract with English WSL (FA Women's Super League) club Bristol Academy in January 2011.

In February 2012 Hoogendijk returned to Utrecht, before moving on to newly formed AFC Ajax  in May 2012. The transfer represented "a dream come true" for Hoogendijk as she had been a girlhood supporter of Ajax's male team.

In January 2014, Hoogendijk signed for Arsenal Ladies (right) where she wears the number 6 shirt. The 28-year-old joined the Ladies' setup from Ajax and was the club's third defensive acquisition ahead of the 2014 campaign, following the signings of England captain Casey Stoney and goalkeeper Siobham Chamberlain.


Arsenal Ladies' general manager Vic Akers said on completing the signing of Hoogendijk :

"We are delighted to be welcoming Anouk to Arsenal Football Club. 
She's a top quality defender, who has proven herself on the international stage with Holland, in the Eredivisie with Ajax, and of course in the Super League with Bristol."

Anouk added: “I’m excited to be returning to England, and to have the chance to play for Arsenal Ladies. They are one of the leading women’s clubs in the game, with an amazing history, so it is a real privilege to have signed for them. I am looking forward to meeting my new team mates and preparing for the 2014 season.” 

On 6th August 2004 Hoogendijk debuted for the senior Netherlands women's national football team, as a half-time substitute in a 2–0 defeat to Japan in Zeist, Netherlands.


Hoogendijk played in every match as the Netherlands reached the semi-final of the UEFA Women's Euro 2009. In the quarter-final penalty shootout win over France, she struck the winning kick. The Netherlands were eventually knocked out of the tournament by England.
In June 2013 national team coach Roger Reijners selected Hoogendijk in the Netherlands squad for UEFA Women's Euros 2013 in Sweden, and to date Anouk has 94 international caps and eight international goals to her name.

You can follow Anouk on Twitter on Facebook and Instagram

Babe of the Month - Laure Boulleau

Laure Boulleau was born 22nd October 1986 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Laure is a football player who currently plays for French club Paris Saint-Germain of the Division 1 Féminine. She primarily plays as a defender and is a member of the France women's national football team. Boulleau has made nearly 150 appearances for PSG, scoring 13 goals and has 42 caps for the French women's national side.



Laure began her senior football career in 2003 at CNFE (Fernand Sastre National Technical Centre), commonly referred to as INF Clairefontaine ("Institut national du football de Clairefontaine"), INF, or simply Clairefontaine. She spent two years at the centre that specializes in training French football players. The academy is one of twelve elite academies located in and around France that are supervised by the French Football Federation (FFF). Only the best players from the Île-de-France région train at the Clairefontaine academy.

In 2005 Laure joined Paris Saint-Germain Féminines (PSG Ladies) based in Paris, France. The club has been the female section of Paris Saint-Germain since 1991. PSG Ladies is managed by Camillo Vaz. The Stade Georges Lefèvre of the Camp des Loges in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, with a capacity of 3,500 seats, is the main stadium of the club. Paris Saint-Germain won the Division 2 Féminine in 2001 and were promoted to the top-tier. Since then PSG has never been relegated from the Division 1 Féminine. The ladies were Cup runner-ups in 2008. PSG captured their first major title and most prestigious honour to date after claiming the Coupe de France Féminine in 2010. In 2011 PSG finished runners-up in Division 1 Féminine and qualified for the UEFA Women's Champions League for the first time in its history, following a decisive victory over second-placed Montpellier in the final match of the season.

You can follow Laure on Twitter on Facebook and on Instagram

Congratulations Team USA - Women's 2012 Olympic Football Champions

A crowd of 80,203, setting a new Olympic record for women's football saw the United States beat Japan 2-1 in an entertaining and dramatic Women's Olympic Football final, at Wembley a few hours ago. This was a re-match of last summer's Women's World Cup final, when Japan beat the USA on penalty kicks.

An eighth minute goal by midfielder Carli Lloyd following good work by Alex Morgan gave the USA an early lead. Her sublime cross on the turn was headed home by the onrushing Lloyd six yards out, but it was Japan who dominated possession and had the better scoring chances in the first half.

Lloyd is mobbed by her US team-mates after scoring the opening goal in the Olympic final 

Christie Rampone had to make a clearance off the line from a shot by Nahomi Kawasumi in the 17th minute. Then in the 18th minute Ogimi missed two chances to draw Japan level. First US goalkeeper Hope Solo showed magnificent agility to tip the Japan striker's header onto the crossbar. The ball fell to Rachel Buehler, but her poor attempted clearance went straight back to Ogimi, but sadly she could only manage to blast her follow up shot from close range high and wide.

Hope Solo keeps Japan at bay with this outstanding save from Ogimi's header

In the 25th minute, Japan had their first of two clear cut penalty shouts turned down. Tobin Heath stuck out her arm and clearly handled the ball following a free kick, but no penalty was awarded.

The Americans' nearly went two up in the 28th minute, courtesy of a near-own goal by Azusa Iwashimizu. A deep cross to the back post was about to be met by Alex Morgan, but Iwashimizu's headed interception saw the ball bounce off her own post and away with Fukumoto stranded.

Then in the 33rd minute Aya Miyama's rasping drive from 12 yards cannoned off the crossbar to safety, and Shinobu Ohno curling right-footed shot from the edge of the box five minutes later beat Solo and the upright by a whisker.

At the break the USA still held a slender one goal advantage.

Early in the second half, an even more obvious penalty offence was committed by the US defender Rachel Buehler, who 'rugby tackled' Saki Kumagai to the ground. Incredibly, no penalty again was given by German referee Steinhaus Bibiana.

Nine minutes into the second half the USA doubled their lead, Lloyd getting her second goal of the night and what a goal it was! She dribbled her way through a number of defenders and towards the edge of the penalty area, before hitting a rocket of a shot across the face of goal and into the far corner of the net, giving Fukumoto in the Japan goal no chance. A contender for goal of the tournament!

Yuki Ogimi deservedly pulled a goal back for Japan in the 63rd minute. Following a goalmouth scramble, Ogimi was on hand to poke home and cut the United States lead to set up a tense final quarter of the match.

Japan did have one last great opportunity to equalise in the 83rd minute, but unlike their other chances, it came as the product of a gift and not their spectacular build-up play.

Rampone, who had been excellent all evening committed a horrendous mistake on the edge of her own penalty box, giving the ball away and allowing substitute Asuna Tanaka to get through on goal. She attempted to curl a shot around Solo, but the US goalkeeper made a spectacular two handed diving save to her left to preserve the lead.

That would be the last great chance that Japan would produce in the match. Japan played excellent football throughout the Olympic final, but Solo's heroics, Lloyds clinical finishing and a large slice luck kept the United States from conceding more than once.

For the fourth time, the United States women's football team are gold medallists at the Olympics.

Match highlights from Wembley as USA beat Japan in the Women's Olympic Football final

Teams:

USA: Solo, Rampone(capt) (Cheyney '57), Buehler (Sauerbrunn '80), O'Hara, Le Peilbet, Boxx, Lloyd, Morgan, Wambach, Rampinoe, Heath.

Japan: Fukumoto, Kinga, Iwashimizu, Kumagai, Sameshima (Iwabuchi '77), Sakaguchi (Tanaka '59), Miyama (capt), Sawa, Kawasumi, Ohno (Maruyama '86), Ogimi.

Seen Stoke's Sling-Shot Samba Style !

After seeing pictures of a certain young lady in a London newspaper this morning, I thought it only fitting to do a little bit of research on the background of this rising star of the Brazilian women’s national football team, and look at her own unquestionably unique and rather remarkable individual talent............as the female game’s answer to Rory Delap, (below left)
the man whose deadly throw-ins have attracted a host of media attention, and have been described in some circles as 'weapons of mass
destruction on the football field.'
Delap’s gargantuan throw-ins have been the talk of football this season as Stoke City have taken their Premier League bow.


Leah Lynn Gabriela Fortune was born in San Paulo,
Brazil to American parents.
It turns out her dual citizenship is a blessing in disguise: Leah can play with one foot in each continent, straddling playing time between her club, Team Chicago, and the U-20 Brazilian national team.
However, all bets are off once Leah turns 21, when she'll have to commit exclusively to the USA or Brazil.

But for now, as the youngest player on the team at 17, Fortune is taking full advantage of the opportunities that come with a starting role for Brazil.
With a 30-goal surplus against opponents over the course of seven games, Leah and her teammates stormed through the CONMEBOL South American U-20 Championships last March, as if every game was a carnival.


However the headline cascading across Brazilian televisions and newspapers during the Tournament was 'Leah Cambalhota Mortal' - for Leah is famed for owning a trick the Brazilians had never seen before! A throw-in in which she levitates the ball into the box with her hands by means of a somersault!

Click on the Link and watch Leah in action, for Brazil in their victory over Mexico at the 2008 Women's U'20 World Cup.

Link

In her second game in the CONMEBOL, Leah connected with forward Pamela on a flip throw for the team's first headed goal in a 5-0 rout of Paraguay. 'The Brazilians had never seen anything before like it, so they were going nuts. The crowd loved it,' said Leah. Her father and Team Chicago program director, Hudson Fortune, was also on hand to see the games. 'Every time Leah had an opportunity for a throw-in, the crowd would stand and chant her name in hopes she would do a flip throw.'
And hers has a nickname, 'The Mortal Somersault.'

Leah may not be able to match Delap in the weights room, so she uses incredible leverage to get an insane amount of air underneath the ball and turn every throw in near the box into a poor man's corner, not unlike what Delap endeavours to do when he unleashes a throw for his club side.
'The Mortal Somersault' even earned Leah time on Brazil's 'SportsCenter' highlights reel following an U-20's win over Argentina.
The 'cambalhota' is a front handspring from the sidelines that slings the ball into a box teeming with targets. Fortune's flip allows her to hone in on a roving player - a move that can turn the game on its head.

After a year of gymnastics as a child, she transferred the skill to soccer and has been executing the flip throw since she was 9. The closest thing to a corner kick, the 'cambalhota' leaves most defenders gob smacked at the sight of a throw-in with 20 extra yards of firepower.

The U-20 World Cup in Chile concludes on 7th December.

The Fine Art Of The Goal Celebration

Who knows where it all started?

Charlie George lying flat out on the Wembley turf after firing the winner for Arsenal against Liverpool in the 1971 FA Cup Final?

Most celebrations are modest and merely involve the goalscorer being congratulated by team-mates, however over recent years the amateur dramatics of the modern day goalscorer has become almost as momentous as the art of scoring itself, as players & teams alike try to outshine their colleagues whether it be within their own club or that of another.

Players must spend hours thinking up, then rehearsing or practicing their celebrations and routines!

In many cases these celebrations don't involve just the goalscorer, on occasions the entire team get involved in complicated routines.

Perhaps the most bizarre team routine was Chelsea's reproduction of a classical painting following a goal by Roberto de Matteo.

One of the most memorable choreographed celebrations came when Paul Gascoigne scored against Scotland during the Euro 96 championships. He lay on his back while other England players (including Teddy Sheringham and Gary Neville) grabbed water bottles from the touchline and poured water into his open mouth. This celebration mimicked a controversial pre-tournament incident when England players were photographed in a nightclub, sitting in a dentist's chair having alcoholic drinks poured down their throats.

The 1982 World Cup saw one of the most memorable celebrations of all-time from Italian midfielder Marco Tardelli after he scored Italy's second goal against West Germany in the final. With tears in his eyes, he sprinted into his own half, fists beating against his chest, tears pouring down his face, screaming his name as he shook his head wildly. This is also called the 'Tardelli cry.'

Another famous celebration, especially in the United States, is the shirt-stripping moment by American Brandi Chastain after she converted the winning penalty in the 1999 Women's World Cup final against China. The image of Chastain with her shirt off and revealing her toned tummy and her sports bra, immortalized on the covers of Time, Newsweek, People, and Sports Illustrated, is one of the most famous in women's sports history.

In 2006, Peter Crouch's 'robo-kop' goal celebration became a fad across England, and at the same time added a new and grim chapter to the annals of terrible goal celebrations.
His 'robot dance' which was first unveiled after the Liverpool striker scored England’s third goal in a friendly against Hungary, was supposedly a reprise of Crouch’s 'performance' on the dancefloor at the Beckhams' gala party the previous weekend.
The call from 'Strictly Come Dancing' was, one presumes, not forthcoming.

Other famous celebrations in England include the Aylesbury United team, nicknamed The Ducks, going down on their knees, and waddling in a line, with their elbows flapping.

Basir "Bas" Savage of Brighton & Hove Albion celebrates by performing either the standard moonwalk, the moonwalk 360 or the side glide. This has gained him a regular spot on TV's Soccer AM with the section 'I Wanna be like Bas.'

Craig Bellamy of Liverpool celebrated his goal against Barcelona, simulating a golf swing, due to media speculation into a fight between him and teammate, John Arne Riise, at a karaoke night near their training ground in Portugal, where he allegedly tried to hit Riise with a golf club.

Tottenham Hotspur striker Robbie Keane has one of the more distinctive goal celebrations in the modern game, running to one side of the field to perform a round-off to a front somersault on the pitch, ending on one knee, and then mimicking the firing of a rifle or an arrow from a bow after he scores.

Australian players sometimes 'box' the corner flag, Rocky style, in celebration of a goal. Most notably Tim Cahill, who ran to box the corner flag when he scored Australia's first ever World Cup goal in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Now you can witness the Cahill celebration anytime he scores for his club side Everton.
The corner flag is often used by players to celebrate a goal. Roger Milla the Cameroon International famously used to dance around the flag, while Lee Sharpe posed around the corner flag after scoring, using it as a microphone as he mimed to a song in celebration.

A player rocking his arms from side to side, as though rocking a baby, usually signifies that the scorer recently became a parent, whether or not for the first time. This is a classic celebration, a beautiful moment of tender paternal love.......er in the midst of the maelstrom of a World Cup tournament match!
Brazil striker Bebeto’s baby-rocking celebration of his goal against Holland in the 1994 World Cup finals is condemned not for itself, but for the license it gave every footballer who has managed to procreate, to burden us with their indecorous familial bliss. And as we all know, there is nothing worse than other people’s babies. The whole genre, however, was redeemed by Fred, Lyon’s Brazilian striker, who during a Champions League game at last gave it a different spin by concealing a 'dummy' in his shorts, which he promptly stuck in his mouth upon scoring.

'Diving' onto the pitch with arms and legs outstretched. Supposedly first done by Jürgen Klinsmann, shortly after he joined Tottenham. Klinsmann was actually performing this goal celebration to satire his own (in his belief unjustified) reputation for diving to win free-kicks and penalties. It became known as 'doing a Klinsmann.'

Albanian-born Finnish striker Shefki Kuqi jumps with arms open wide in the air and then falls down in the grass, landing heavily.

There are some celebrations which are distinctive if only for the fact they are banal and monotonous.

Such celebrations include:
The scorer putting a finger to his mouth, as if telling the (opposition) crowd to be quiet.
The scorer putting his hand to his ear, taunting the opposing supporters for having suddenly gone silent following his goal.
The scorer kissing the club badge on his or her shirt, to show his or her love for the club.

In recent seasons, The Football Association have tried to crack down on some of the more enthusiastic celebrations in the FA Premier League. If a player incites the crowd and/or takes his shirt off after scoring a goal he is likely to get booked by the referee (e.g., Bastian Schweinsteiger during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Marlon Harewood for West Ham after scoring in the 2006 FA Cup Semi-Final against Boro, and Carlos Alberto Gomes during the 2004 UEFA Champions League Final, to name but a few).

This can cause huge controversy if the player has already been booked, since he would then be sent off. Similarly, in American women's soccer at school and collegiate levels, the practice of taking the shirt off to celebrate a goal (made popular by Brandi Chastain), has been prohibited.
However, some players get around this rule by pulling the hem of their shirts over the head, without taking the shirt off entirely, but this is not always overturned by the referees as shown by Italian Stefano Farina, referee of the 28th October 2006 famous Milan Derby which Inter won 4-3 away in San Siro, he gave Marco Materazzi a second booking and thus a red card for doing that exact act after Materazzi gave Inter a 4-1 lead over Milan.

Jumping into the crowd is also a bookable offence ('deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee's permission', as identified in Law 12), one which caused Arjen Robben to be sent off in a Premier League match in 2006. Shevchenko and Carlos Tevez also got booked when both dived into the crowd in Premier League games in 2007.

In 1999 former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler was fined £60,000 by his club and the FA Premier League for having celebrated his penalty goal against Everton by getting down on all fours and miming the snorting of cocaine off of the white touchline. Although it was seen as Fowler's response to being accused of drug abuse in the tabloid press, then-manager Gérard Houllier famously claimed that he was merely imitating 'a cow eating grass' which, Houllier claimed, teammate Rigobert Song had regularly joked about in training.


If you click on the 'article title' at the top of this piece you can view a short video compilation of varied goal celebrations from the sublime to the ridiculous & in some cases downright dangerous!
'Artists' include: Kanu, Gazza, Crouch, Bellamy, Cahill, Cisse, Fowler & Robbie Keane.

'My Goal Of The Week' - Marta Vieira da Silva for Brazil at the Women's World Cup.

'My Goal of the Week' was scored by Marta Vieira da Silva on 27th September, for Brazil against the US during their semi-final match in Hangzhou, China at the Women's World Cup 2007.

Marta, only 21 (pictured right) was born in Alagoas, Brazil and plays her club football in Sweden for 'Umea IK.'

She is the 2006 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year, was runner-up in 2005 and is currently the World Cup's leading scorer with seven goals in just five games.

Marta scored twice against the U.S, her second a magnificent individual effort in the 80th minute. Taking a pass from Renata Costa outside the penalty area, and with her back to goal she deftly flicked the ball with her left foot over both her head and that of U.S.defender Tina Ellertson to break into the box. She then cut back inside to avoid defender Catherine Whitehill, before firing a low 12-yard shot with her right foot into the bottom corner of the net to put Brazil 4-0 up.

Brazil's 4-0 rout of the Americans in the semi-final played in front of 47,818 at Hangzhou Dragon Stadium, saw the U.S teams 51-match unbeaten run come to an end.

Now Brazil will play tournament favourites Germany in the Final on Sunday 30th September at Shanghai Hongkou Football Stadium.

The U.S. will face Norway for third place on Sunday in a match that will precede the Final.

Click on the 'Link' below to see Marta's audacious strike!

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'My Goal Of The Week' - Abby Wambach for the United States at the Women's World Cup.

'My Goal of the Week' was scored by Abby Wambach on 14th September, for the US against Sweden during their Group B match at the Women's World Cup 2007.

Abby, 27 (pictured right) from Rochester, New York finished fourth in the voting for FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year in 2006.

She hit both goals in her sides 2-0 victory against Sweeden, the first from the penalty spot.
Her 2nd goal however in the 58th minute combined terrific chest control with an absolute sublime half-volley.

Now the US will play England in the quarter-finals this Saturday 22nd September.

Click on the 'Link' below to see Abby's wonder strike!

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