Belgium women's national football team
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| Nickname(s) | Belgian Red Flames | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Belgian Football Association (KBVB/URBSFA) | ||
| Confederation | UEFA (Europe) | ||
| Head coach | Ives Serneels | ||
| Asst coach | Tamara Cassimon | ||
| Captain | Aline Zeler | ||
| Most caps | Femke Maes (84)[1] | ||
| Top scorer | Femke Maes (24) | ||
| Home stadium | King Baudouin Stadium | ||
| FIFA code | BEL | ||
| FIFA ranking |
27  1 (27 March 2015) | ||
| Highest FIFA ranking | 26 (March 2014, December 2014) | ||
| Lowest FIFA ranking | 35 (November 2010, March 2011) | ||
| |||
| First international | |||
 France 1–2 Belgium .svg.png){kind=small} (Reims, France; May 30, 1976) | |||
| Biggest win | |||
Belgium 11–0 Greece  (Leuven, Belgium; September 13, 2014) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
 Spain 9–1 Belgium (Alginet, Spain; February 29, 2004)  Norway 8–0 Belgium (Oslo, Norway; September 26, 1992) | |||
The Belgium women's national football team (nicknamed Belgian Red Flames) represents Belgium in international women's football. It is controlled by the Royal Belgian Football Association, the governing body for football in Belgium. Their home stadium is King Baudouin Stadium and their current coach Ives Serneels. During its history the team has had poor results, but has shown improvement in the Euro 2013 and 2015 World Cup Qualifiers.
As of 2014, they never reached the end stage of a major tournament.
History
The Early Games (1976-1984)
Belgium played its first match against France on May 30, 1976, which ended in a 2-1 victory for them, the game was played at Stade Auguste Delaune in Reims, France.
A year after its debut, the Belgian Red Flames played against Switzerland and France, tying both matches 2-2 and 1-1 respectively. Their path followed in 1978, again playing with the same teams they played in 1977, beating both 1-0 and 2-0, thus following with Yugoslavia, also winning 1-0, a year later came its first defeat, 3-0 against England and other against France 2-0. Then came their first tie, against the Netherlands with a 2-2. In the following years it played mostly against European teams.
First Tournaments (1984-1989)
The first qualifier Belgium participated in was in the 1984 European Competition for Women's Football in Group 4 together with the Netherlands, Denmark and West Germany. It started with a good 3-2 win against the Netherlands, but lost 1-0 against Denmark, later they achieve a draw against West Germany by 1-1. Despite having neutral goal difference, the Belgian Red Flames were beaten 5-0 by the Netherlands, his last two games against Denmark and West Germany were 2-2 and 1-1 draws. Of this way Belgium failed to qualify for the tournament.
Their second qualifier was the 1987 European Competition for Women's Football where they were in Group 3 alongside France, the Netherlands again and Sweden. Their games against France were one win and one loss, both 3-1, with Netherlands their games were defeats 3-1 and 3-0 and finally, its matches against Sweden were a bulky 5-0 loss and another defeat by 2-1, leaving Belgium without chances of qualifying for the Cup.
The time that Belgium came close to qualifying for a competition was at the tournament in 1989, where they played in Group 4 against Czechoslovakia, France, Spain and Bulgaria, disputing eight games: winning two, drawing four and losing two, with 7 goals and 4 against them and with 8 points (considering that before 1994 victories were worth 2 pts., draws 1 and defeats 0) and thus did not qualify for the competition.
Poor Results Era (1990-2011) and Return to the Victories Era (2011-present)
The Belgian team suffered a series of poor results from 1990 to 2011, although they had an improvement in the 2003 Women's World Cup Qualifiers, winning 5 games and losing one, while in the qualifications of the UEFA Women's Championship the maximum of games won during that time was 3 matches, in the 2009 edition.
Its victories time began with the arrival of manager Ives Serneels in 2011, who led the team during good qualification campaigns for Euro 2013 and 2015 World Cup, both times ending third in the group (thus not qualifying).
New investments in 2015.[2]
World Cup Record
| FIFA Women's World Cup record | FIFA Women's World Cup qualification record | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D * | L | GF | GA | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | |
 1991 |
Did not qualify | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 12 | ||||||||
 1995 |
6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 13 | |||||||||
 1999 |
8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 23 | |||||||||
| 2003 |
6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 9 | |||||||||
| 2007 |
8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 25 | |||||||||
 2011 |
8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 13 | |||||||||
 2015 |
10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 34 | 11 | |||||||||
| Total | - | 0/7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 52 | 17 | 4 | 31 | 95 | 105 | |
- *Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
UEFA Women's Championship Record
| UEFA Women's Championship record | UEFA Women's Championship Record qualification record | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D * | L | GF | GA | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | ||||||
   1984 |
Did not qualify | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 12 | |||||||||||||
| 1987 |
6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 17 | ||||||||||||||
| 1989 |
8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 1991 |
6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 12 | ||||||||||||||
| 1993 |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||||||||||||||
| 1995 |
6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 13 | ||||||||||||||
| 1997 |
Belgium and 17 other nations were not part of a proper qualification group | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 |
Belgium and 16 other nations were not part of a proper qualification group | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 |
8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 39 | ||||||||||||||
 2009 |
8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 15 | ||||||||||||||
| 2013 |
10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 18 | 8 | ||||||||||||||
| Total | - | 0/11 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 62 | 18 | 13 | 31 | 67 | 128 | ||||||
- *Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
Current squad
| No. | Pos. | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Sofie van Houtven | Tienen |
| 12 | GK | Kelly Ickmans | Sinaai Girls |
| GK | Sabrina Broos | Sint Truidense | |
| 2 | DF | Julie Gregoire | Standard Liège |
| 3 | DF | Heleen Jaques | Turbine Potsdam |
| 4 | DF | Maud Coutereels | Standard Liège |
| 5 | DF | Lorca van de Putte |  Twente |
| 13 | DF | Berit Stevens | Standard Liège |
| 6 | MF | Julie Biesmans | Standard Liège |
| 7 | MF | Cécile de Gernier | Anderlecht |
| 9 | MF | Annaelle Wiard | Anderlecht |
| 14 | MF | Lien Mermans | Lierse |
| 15 | MF | Marlies Verbruggen | Lierse |
| 16 | MF | Kristien Elsen | Lierse |
| 18 | MF | Laurence Marchal | Anderlecht |
| MF | Niki de Cock | Lierse | |
| MF | Sara Yüceil | Standard Liège[4] | |
| 8 | FW | Audrey Demoustier | Standard Liège |
| 10 | FW | Aline Zeler (c) | Standard Liège |
| 11 | FW | Davina Philtjens | Standard Liège |
| 17 | FW | Stéphanie van Gils | Lierse |
| FW | Jana Coryn | Zulte-Waregem | |
| FW | Yana Daniëls | OH Leuven | |
| FW | Inge Heiremans | Lierse | |
| FW | Angélique de Wulf | Sinaai Girls |
Staff
| Manager | Ives Serneels |
| Assistant manager | Tamara Cassimon |
| Goalkeeping coach | Sven Cnudde |
| Fitness coach | Cédric Lehance |
| Physiotherapist | Fabienne Van De Steene |
References
- ↑ "Alle Belgian Red Flames" (in Dutch). Royal Belgian Football Association. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
- ↑ http://www.insideworldfootball.com/world-football/europe/16176-belgians-invest-in-women-s-game-from-grassroots-up-targeting-euro2017
- ↑ http://www.belgianfootball.be/nl/selectie-nationale-damesploeg
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/BelgianRedFlames
External links
- Official website
- FIFA profile
- List of international players, belgianfootball.be
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