Shek Borkowski Official Website | LTA Agency » UEFA Women’s Champions League http://shekborkowski.com Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:50:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 FIFA demonstrates its ignorance of women’s football http://shekborkowski.com/2009/12/fifa-demonstrates-its-ignorance-and-possible-contempt-for-womens-football/ http://shekborkowski.com/2009/12/fifa-demonstrates-its-ignorance-and-possible-contempt-for-womens-football/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:22:25 +0000 publisher http://shekborkowski.com/?p=283 Doing little research and demonstrating its ignorance of women’s football, FIFA announced a list of 5 contenders for this year’s FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award.
The list clearly demonstrates the influence that Marta’s and Cristiane’s agent Fabiano Farah has in the halls of FIFA, and how little national team coaches participating in voting are aware of.
The list includes Cristiane (Brazil), Inka Grings (Germany), Marta (Brazil), Birgit Prinz (Germany), and Kelly Smith (England).
One could put Marta on the list for sentimental reasons or because Marta is an exciting player but the fact that Cristiane had a mediocre season with her club and played no games with Brazil speaks for itself. Prinz won the Euros but was at best average domestically. Kelly Smith is one of the greatest women’s players ever, but time and injuries have diminished her influence on the game. She still was one of England’s key players during their successful Euro run but her club form was hampered by injuries.
So the Euro champion and top scorer, and the UEFA Champions League winner Inka Grings should win the award but what about other players who should have been on the list if FIFA did their due diligence?

Genoveva Anonman

Genoveva Anonman

Three players come to mind right away.
Christie Rampone is the Franco Baresi of women’s football. She led her club to WPS title and anyone doubting her experience, leadership and her importance to her national team and her club is not following the game.
Linda Bresonik. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a big fan of Bresonik. For me she is a complete player who can play in any position and and is a winner everywhere she goes. Like Grings, Bresonik is another Euro and the UEFA Women’s Champions League winner.
Genoveva Anonman, the Equatorial Guinea captain, who in 2008 single-handed won the African title for her country, saved FF USV Jena from relegation and very simply is the best African player at the moment.

]]> http://shekborkowski.com/2009/12/fifa-demonstrates-its-ignorance-and-possible-contempt-for-womens-football/feed/ 2 About Zvezda http://shekborkowski.com/2009/11/about-zvezda/ http://shekborkowski.com/2009/11/about-zvezda/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:53:34 +0000 admin http://shekborkowski.com/?p=95 The Zvezda Stadium

The Zvezda Stadium

We compete in the Russian Women’s Premier League. The level of competition is very good, players are technically very sound, and premium is placed on tactical discipline. We play in the Zvezda Stadium, capacity 20,000 (pictured).

Zvezda and Rossiyanka are considered the top two teams with majority of Russia WNT players in the two sides. Russia has two places in the UEFA Women’s Champions League (CL) and both us and Rossiyanka have qualified for the 2010 CL.
Champions League is one of the main reasons I was keen on moving to Russia. I would submit that CL is the best women’s club competition in the world.
Playing in any league, teams know their opponents very well, get in a routine and at times the excitement is not there. For the best teams in Europe, CL represents an opportunity to face opponents with different playing styles, philosophies, and of higher abilities than they routinely face in their domestic leagues.
When Zvezda faced Norwegian league and cup winners Roa IL, our opponents had in their squad 11 players with at least 1 international cap for Norway.

Zvezda starters

Zvezda starters

For our home game we had about 3,000 fans, and they were LOUD. (Singing, flag waving, flares are part and parcel of our games). It was fun, and I can’t wait till we get going again.
Our daily routine is rather simple. Players get in the lockeroom around 10:00AM. Training starts at 11:00AM.
At 1:00PM we have lunch in the stadium cafeteria – food is quality and plentiful.
We train again at 6:00PM and eat dinner around 7:45PM.
Our stadium has artificial, heated turf of the highest quality and is very well maintained by the stadium crew.
Our nearest league opponent is located about 700 miles away, so we fly to all of our games. The club owns two buses, but we rarely use them except to take us to the airport and back.
Our current staff includes a GM, equipment person, a full time sports medicine doctor, a full time masseur, a video guy, me, Kaloyan, and two Russian assistant coaches.
Life in Russia, though different, is good. Food is relatively inexpensive and of very good quality, while electronics and clothing are much more expensive than in the US.
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