I nearly didn't I wasn't planning to repeat last year's Women's Draft World Cup, but the excellent football on display in France has changed my mind.
So, here we are again. Once again, I will be using the excellent Women on FM19 database to create my squads. In this post I'll quickly outline the format of this year's event.
Rules
For those of you unfamiliar with this website's Draft World Cups, the premise is that players represent the nation they play their football in, rather than the country of their nationality. For example, Brazilian Marta plays for Orlando Pride, so she will represent USA rather than Brazil.
I am delighted to say I have been able to expand this year's tournament, from 10 teams last year to 12 teams this year. Returning from last year are the defending champions France, as well as England, USA, Germany, Scotland and Sweden. Joining the frey are Spain, Italy, Norway and Netherlands. There are numerous players spread around the database elsewhere, so two composite teams are included (a DWC tradition):
To replicate the real Women's World Cup, we will have three groups of four, with the top two from each group qualifying, as well as the two third-place teams with the best record.
This means that the knockout rounds will have quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals (one round more than last year).
Draw
Based on a mixture of last year's performance and general squad strength, the seedings for the draw are:
And the resulting draw is:
So, here we are again. Once again, I will be using the excellent Women on FM19 database to create my squads. In this post I'll quickly outline the format of this year's event.
Rules
For those of you unfamiliar with this website's Draft World Cups, the premise is that players represent the nation they play their football in, rather than the country of their nationality. For example, Brazilian Marta plays for Orlando Pride, so she will represent USA rather than Brazil.
I am delighted to say I have been able to expand this year's tournament, from 10 teams last year to 12 teams this year. Returning from last year are the defending champions France, as well as England, USA, Germany, Scotland and Sweden. Joining the frey are Spain, Italy, Norway and Netherlands. There are numerous players spread around the database elsewhere, so two composite teams are included (a DWC tradition):
- Rest of Europe (Iceland, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Czechia, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Finland, Cyprus, Wales)
- Rest of World (Canada, China, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Chile, Israel)
To replicate the real Women's World Cup, we will have three groups of four, with the top two from each group qualifying, as well as the two third-place teams with the best record.
This means that the knockout rounds will have quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals (one round more than last year).
Draw
Based on a mixture of last year's performance and general squad strength, the seedings for the draw are:
- Pot 1: France, England, USA
- Pot 2: Germany, Spain, Italy
- Pot 3: Sweden, Scotland, Rest of World
- Pot 4: Norway, Netherlands, Rest of Europe
And the resulting draw is:
In the next episode we're going to get stuck into the tournament, with Group A!