Belgium women's national football team

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Belgium
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s) Belgian Red Flames
Association Belgian Football Association (KBVB/URBSFA)
Confederation UEFA (Europe)
Head coach Ives Serneels
Captain Aline Zeler
Most caps Femke Maes (84)[1]
Top scorer Aline Zeler, Tessa Wullaert (25)
Home stadium King Baudouin Stadium
FIFA code BEL
First colours
Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current 28 Steady (18 December 2015)
Highest 26 (March 2014, December 2014)
Lowest 35 (November 2010, March 2011)
First international
 France 1–2  Belgium
(Reims, France; May 30, 1976)

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 2015, they have not yet reached the end stage of a major tournament.

History

Early days (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.

Decay (1990–2011)

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.

Return to victories (2011–present)

A new era of victories 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 (just short of qualifying). Following these improvements, the RBFA invested in more growth in 2015, targeting qualification for Euro 2017.[2] After a succesful start in their qualifications group, the team were invited to play at the 2016 Algarve Cup in Portugal, one of the most prestigious women's international football events.

Players

Current squad

The following players were convocated for the Euro 2017 qualifier against Serbia on 30 November. [3][4]
Caps and goals are updated as of 30 November 2015 after the previous match against Serbia.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1GK Justien Odeurs (1997-05-30) 30 May 1997 (age 27) 9 0 Belgium Lierse
1GK Nicky Evrard (1995-05-26) 26 May 1995 (age 29) 12 0 Belgium Gent
1GK Diede Lemey (1996-10-07) 7 October 1996 (age 28) 0 0 Belgium Anderlecht


2DF Janice Cayman (1988-10-12) 12 October 1988 (age 36) 47 8 France Juvisy
2DF Maud Coutereels (1986-05-21) 21 May 1986 (age 38) 48 4 Belgium Standard
2DF Laura Deloose (1993-06-19) 19 June 1993 (age 31) 2 0 Belgium Anderlecht
2DF Heleen Jaques (1988-04-20) 20 April 1988 (age 36) 55 1 Belgium Anderlecht
2DF Elien Van Wynendaele (1995-02-19) 19 February 1995 (age 29) 5 0 Belgium Gent
2DF Nicky Van Den Abbeele (1994-02-21) 21 February 1994 (age 30) 14 0 Belgium Lierse
2DF Lorca Van De Putte (1988-04-03) 3 April 1988 (age 36) 44 2 Sweden Kristianstads DFF
2DF Imke Courtois (1988-03-14) 14 March 1988 (age 36) 8 0 Belgium Standard


3MF Julie Biesmans (1994-05-04) 4 May 1994 (age 30) 33 2 Belgium Standard
3MF Tine De Caigny (1997-06-09) 9 June 1997 (age 27) 12 4 Belgium Lierse
3MF Cecile De Gernier (1986-05-25) 25 May 1986 (age 38) 26 5 Belgium Standard
3MF Silke Demeyere (1992-06-20) 20 June 1992 (age 32) 2 0 Belgium Lierse
3MF Audrey Demoustier (1985-03-17) 17 March 1985 (age 39) 40 4 Belgium Standard
3MF Lien Mermans (1990-09-27) 27 September 1990 (age 34) 36 7 Belgium Lierse
3MF Davina Philtjens (1989-02-26) 26 February 1989 (age 35) 39 4 Belgium Standard
3MF Marlies Verbruggen (1988-01-08) 8 January 1988 (age 37) 37 0 Belgium OH Leuven
3MF Justine Vanhaevermaet (1992-04-29) 29 April 1992 (age 32) 5 0 Belgium Lierse


4FW Jana Coryn (1992-06-26) 26 June 1992 (age 32) 6 0 Belgium Lierse
3MF Elke Van Gorp (1995-05-12) 12 May 1995 (age 29) 11 3 Belgium Lierse
4FW Tessa Wullaert (1993-03-19) 19 March 1993 (age 31) 37 25 Germany Wolfsburg
4FW Sara Yüceil (1988-06-22) 22 June 1988 (age 36) 9 2 Belgium Standard
4FW Aline Zeler (captain) (1983-06-02) 2 June 1983 (age 41) 70 25 Belgium Standard

Recent call-ups

The following footballers have been selected for Belgium in the past 12 months, but are not part of the current squad.

Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club Latest call-up
GK Sofie Van Houtven (1987-08-03) 3 August 1987 (age 37) 21 0 Belgium OH Leuven v.  Norway on 23 May 2015


DF Jody Vangheluwe (1997-07-15) 15 July 1997 (age 27) 0 0 Belgium Gent v.  Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 October 2015
DF Britt Vanhamel (1995-12-29) 29 December 1995 (age 29) 0 0 Belgium Anderlecht v.  Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 October 2015


MF Davinia Vanmechelen (1999-08-30) 30 August 1999 (age 25) 0 0 Belgium Standard v.  Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 October 2015
MF Tinne Van Den Bergh (1995-01-14) 14 January 1995 (age 30) 2 0 Belgium Lierse v.  Norway on 23 May 2015
MF Anaelle Wiard (1991-03-23) 23 March 1991 (age 33) 14 5 Belgium Anderlecht v.  Norway on 23 May 2015
MF Isabelle Iliano (1997-03-02) 2 March 1997 (age 27) 1 0 Belgium Gent v.  Norway on 23 May 2015
MF Niki De Cock (1985-12-30) 30 December 1985 (age 39) 56 4 Belgium Lierse S.K. v.  South Korea on 11 March 2015


FW Yana Daniels (1992-05-08) 8 May 1992 (age 32) 22 4 Netherlands FC Twente v.  South Korea on 11 March 2015
FW Riana Nainggolan (1988-05-03) 3 May 1988 (age 36) 1 0 Italy ASD Res Roma v.  South Korea on 11 March 2015
FW Lola Wajnblum (1996-01-22) 22 January 1996 (age 29) 1 0 Belgium Anderlecht v.  Bosnia and Herzegovina on 22 September 2015

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Staff

Manager Belgium Ives Serneels
Assistant manager Belgium Tamara Cassimon
Goalkeeping coach Belgium Sven Cnudde
Fitness coach Belgium Cédric Lehance
Physiotherapist Belgium Fabienne Van De Steene

Current campaign

The Belgian Red Flames are currently competing for qualification to the Euro 2017 championship. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Competitive record

Belgium has not yet reached the end stage of any major tournament. Their best qualification rounds so far (as of 2015) have been for 2003 World Cup, 2013 Euro and 2015 World Cup.

FIFA Women's World Cup

UEFA Women's Championship

Records

Femke Maes
  • Belgium's biggest win was against Greece (11–0) on 13 September 2014.
  • Belgium's highest rank on the FIFA Women's World Rankings, officially introduced in 2003, was 26 (in March and December 2014).
  • The Red Flame with the most caps is Femke Maes, who featured in the national team 84 times (7061 minutes played).
  • The highest amount of goals scored by a single player is 25. This record is shared by Aline Zeler and Tessa Wullaert.

References

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External links

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