Page 12 - Women's Soccer Scene Issue No.14 2020-21

Great Britain will face Chile in the opening game of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games football
tournament this summer. Hege Riise’s GB Football squad join hosts Japan, Canada and Chile
in Group E, playing their first two group games in Sapporo.
Great Britain meet Chile on 21st July in the Sapporo Dome [kick off: 4.30pm local]
followed by hosts Japan on 24th July [kick off: 7.30pm local] before travelling to Kashima to
take on Canada on 27th July [kick off: 8pm local].
The top three nations from each group will then progress to the quarter-finals at the end
of July, with the final to be played on Saturday 7th August in Yokahama’s International Stadium.
There are 12 nations competing in this year’s Olympic football tournament and it is only
the second time in history that Great Britain will take a women’s football team to the Games;
the first time was nine years ago at the London 2012 Olympics. Great Britain qualified for the
Tokyo Games due to England’s performance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019.
Hege Riise, an Olympic gold medallist with Norway at the Sydney Olympics in 2000,
was appointed in March to lead GB Football. Responding to the draw, Riise said: “Now that we
know what our tournament journey will look like and the opponents we face, we can really
focus in on our preparations for the Olympics.
“There is no doubt we have been drawn in a very exciting group. The host nation Japan
are an extremely talented team and have been a strong force in women’s football for many
years. Canada are another very good physical team, as we saw earlier this month when England
and Wales both faced them at home in the April FIFA window. Chile are not a team I know
quite as well, but they put in a very impressive performance against Cameroon to secure their
place in this summer’s Games for the first time in their history.
“The players on our shortlist for Great Britain know what is expected of them if they are
to make our 18-player squad. Physical and mental resilience, together with versatility, will be
very important to our chances of success at the Games. These are the qualities we need in order
to cope with the demands of Olympic tournament football, with a high frequency of games over
a short period of time.
“We will name our GB squad towards the end of May and with our first training camp
now only eight weeks away we can’t wait to get started.”

For The 2021 season which kicks off soon, the Cumberland FA Women’s League will be known
as the Andrea Buggy Women’s League.
Fred Conway, Chairman of Cumberland FA and the Cumberland County League
commented: “We’re delighted to involve more teams in the Andrea Buggy Trophy while raising
awareness of suicide prevention with the support of Every Life Matters, Cumbria. It means
there will be more conversations regarding mental health and wellbeing reaching further
across the grassroots community.
“Football was so important to Andrea and her family. She played for numerous
women’s teams including Windscale, Workington Reds and more recently had been involved
with Allerdale Wildcats. We want to pay our respects and hopefully, in some small way, support
her family and loved ones by honouring her memory, her life and her love of the game.”
At the moment there are eight confirmed teams in the league, with all teams provided
with details of Every Life Matters, Cumbria which provides awareness, support and training
across the County.
In memory of Andrea and to raise the awareness of suicide prevention, Cumberland FA
are working alongside Clubs across the County with more events planned in the future.
Cumberland FA will be making a donation to Every Life Matters as well as donating a
percentage of discipline income during the competition.
(Source: www.cumberlandfa.com)
Issue no. 14 - 22 April 2021 news@womenssoccerscene.co.uk