Welcome to the Thunder Football Newsletter. #4
I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please forward this email to a friend.

What today’s email is all about:

• Thunder Football’s Preseason Predictions ⚽️

• Updates from the Women’s World Cup 🏆

• FPL: Join now! 🤝

• Standing Ovation: Desiree Ellis 🇿🇦

• Memes 😂

Thunder Football’s Preseason Predictions

Highlights from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

The Defending Champions are out!

Sweden 🇸🇪 eliminated the 2-time defending champions, the United States 🇺🇸, in a thrilling match that needed penalties to decide a winner.

This marks the worst result ever for the US Womens National Football team who has never placed lower than 3rd in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup before 2023.

Well done Africa!

For the first time in the FIFA Women’s World Cup history, three African teams have qualified for the Round of 16!

Germany and Brazil fail to reach the Round of 16

After drawing 1-1 with South Korea, 2nd-ranked Germany suffers their first group stage exit ever at a Women’s World Cup. They finished 3rd in their group behind Colombia and Morocco.

Brazil’s elimination means that the all-time leading goalscorer at the World Cup, Marta, has played her last World Cup match.

Upcoming matches

All match times are UTC+2

Remaining Round of 16 Matches

• 7 August 2023

  • 09:30 - England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 vs Nigeria 🇳🇬

  • 12:30 - Australia 🇦🇺 vs Denmark 🇩🇰

• 8 August 2023

  • 10:00 - Colombia 🇨🇴 vs Jamaica 🇯🇲

  • 13:00 - France 🇫🇷 vs Morocco 🇲🇦

Quarter-Final Matches

• 11 August 2023

  • 03:00 - Spain 🇪🇸 vs Netherlands 🇳🇱

  • 09:30 - Japan 🇯🇵 vs Sweden 🇸🇪

• 12 August 2023

  • 09:00 - Australia/Denmark vs France/Morocco

  • 12:30 - England/Nigeria vs Colombia/Jamaica

City signs Croatian Centre-back 🇭🇷

See what we did there with the alliteration?
The other option for the title was: Guardiola gets Gvardiol

21-year-old Croatian centre-back, Josko Gvardiol, just became the 2nd most expensive defender in the history of football.

He still sits behind the all-time great: Harry Maguire

⚡️ Join the Thunder Football Fantasy Premier League ⚡️

The English Fantasy Premier League (FPL) starts in a few days. Are you ready?

If you’ve got Haalaand in your team and selected as Captain against newly promoted Burnley, then you’re probably ready.

What exactly is FPL?

• It’s that one thing you do every season after vowing the previous season that you’ll never play again.

• It’s the agony of choosing to use your Triple Captain Wildcard on a player who then gets a red card in his first game of a double gameweek.

• It’s where you start rooting for players instead of teams.

• It’s where you spend hours researching, looking at stats, comparing; only to be beaten by the new person in the league who still doesn’t get the offside rule.

That bad huh? Then why do 11+ million people play it? Because we love it!

Check out this useful article by the makers of the FPL explaining it a bit better than me: FPL basics: What is FPL and how to play

A legend in South African football! As both a player and coach.

This week we celebrate the women who lead Banyana Banyana to the Wolrd Cup knockout stages.

The recipient of our Standing Ovation: Desiree Ellis

As a player: Desiree Ellis was part of the first-ever South African women’s international soccer team (Banyana Banyana) and scored a hat-trick in their first-ever game. Not a bad start. She became captain of Banyana Banyana and lead them to victory at the inaugural COSAFA Women's Championship in 2002 before hanging up her boots.

As a coach: Desiree Ellis became the head coach of Banyana Banyana in 2016. With Ellis’ guidance, Banyana Banyana became Champions of Africa for the first time in the 2022 African Cup of Nations. She also lead them to qualify for the 2019 and 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup.

Banyana Banyana made history when they beat Italy to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time ever and even though they eventually lost to the Netherlands in the Round of 16 they still made the entire South Africa proud!

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