LIONESSES, THE ENGLAND NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM

Today, The Weasleys and The Grandma have visited Wembley Stadium in London, and they have met the history of the England women's national football team, the Lionesses, who are now participating in the FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, that has started today in Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau.

Before, they have practised All, Both and Neither.

More information: Both & Neither

The England women's national football team, (nicknamed the Lionesses) has been governed by the Football Association (FA) since 1993, having been previously administered by the Women's Football Association (WFA). England played its first international match in November 1972 against Scotland.

Although most national football teams represent a sovereign state, England is permitted by FIFA statutes, as a member of the United Kingdom's Home Nations, to maintain a national side that competes in all major tournaments, with the exception of the Women's Olympic Football Tournament.

England have qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup seven times, reaching the quarter-finals in 1995, 2007 and 2011, finishing third in 2015 and fourth in 2019.

Since 2019, England, as the highest-ranked Home Nation, have been able to qualify an Olympic team on behalf of Great Britain; other British players may be selected in the event of qualification.

They reached the final of the UEFA Women's Championship in 1984 and 2009, and won in 2022, marking the first time since 1966 that any England senior football team had won a major championship.

The success of the men's national football team at the 1966 FIFA World Cup led to an upsurge of interest in football from women within England. 

The Women's Football Association (WFA) was established in 1969 as an attempt to organise the women's game. That same year, Harry Batt formed an independent English team that competed in the Fédération Internationale Européenne de Football Féminine (FIEFF) European Cup.  Batt's team also participated in two FIEFF World Cups held in Italy (1970) and Mexico (1971).

Following an UEFA recommendation in 1972 for national associations to incorporate the women's game, the Football Association (FA) later that year rescinded its ban on women playing on English Football League grounds. Shortly after, Eric Worthington was tasked by the WFA to assemble an official women's national team. England competed in its first international match against Scotland in Greenock on 18 November 1972, 100 years to the month after the first men's international.

On 31 July, England defeated Germany 2-1 in extra time in the Women's Euro 2022 Final at Wembley, with Chloe Kelly's 110th-minute close-range goal from a corner being the decider after goals in normal time by Ella Toone for England and Lina Magull for Germany. It was the team's first-ever major trophy and was the first major international championship won by an England team (men's or women's) since 1966. The final was watched by a crowd of 87,192, a record for either the men's or women's European Championship.

More information: England Football

Wembley Stadium  is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. 

The stadium hosts major football matches including home matches of the England national football team, and the FA Cup Final. 

Wembley Stadium is owned by the governing body of English football, the Football Association (the FA), whose headquarters are in the stadium, through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL). With 90,000 seats, it is the largest stadium in the UK and the second-largest stadium in Europe.

Designed by Populous and Foster and Partners, the stadium is crowned by the 134-metre-high Wembley Arch which serves aesthetically as a landmark across London as well as structurally, with the arch supporting over 75% of the entire roof load. 

The stadium was built by Australian firm Multiplex at a cost of £798 million (£1.27 billion today). Two partially retractable roof structures over the east and west ends of the stadium can be opened to allow sunlight and aid pitch growth.

In addition to England home games and the FA Cup final, the stadium also hosts other major games in English football, including the season-opening FA Community Shield, the League Cup final, the FA Cup semi-finals, the Football League Trophy, the Football League play-offs, the FA Trophy, the FA Vase and the National League play-offs. 

A UEFA category four stadium, Wembley hosted the 2011 and 2013 UEFA Champions League Finals, eight games at UEFA Euro 2020 (including the final and both of the semi-finals) and hosted the final of the UEFA Women's Euro 2022. It will stage the 2024 UEFA Champions League Final. 

The stadium hosted the Gold medal matches at the 2012 Olympic Games football tournament. The stadium also hosts rugby league's Challenge Cup final and music concerts. The stadium also hosted NFL London Games until 2019 and was also the temporary home of Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur between August 2017 and March 2019, while White Hart Lane was being demolished and their new stadium was constructed.

More information: Wembley Stadium

We won the cup, and it is just unbelievable.

Sarina Wiegman

THE BEANS: EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE, EVERTYTHING...

Nereyda Bean and occupational hazards

Today, The Beans have continued with their English classes. They have revised som aspects of grammar like Future Continuous (Be going to), Question Tags, Demonstratives, All-Both-Neither and Some & Any Compounds.

It has been an intensive morning and the family has been talking about the present problems of some great cities: the increasing price of homes and the way to regulate the massive tourism.

More information: Demonstratives & Some-Any Compounds

The Beans have written some messages of hope, love and friendship in their Venice banners and have congratulated Nereyda Bean who has passed another level of her favourite mobile app: How to survive at work without being damaged.

After the breakfast, the family has listened an interesting Anton Bean's story about The Coco Island and The Grandma has been talking about chemistry and how satellites are helping to find human remains witnesses of wars and genocides.

Finally, they have decided to buy The Coco Island and built a little resort for all the members of the family because Anton Bean is sure that the island still keeps three hidden treasures and The Beans want to find them.

This afternoon, The Beans have visited the Golden Gate Bridge, perhaps the most popular symbol of San Francisco.

More information: Universitat de Barcelona I & II

 

The Beans on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide 1.6 km strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the American city of San Francisco, California, the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. 

The bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and the United States.  

It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Frommer's travel guide describes the Golden Gate Bridge as possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world. At the time of its opening in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 1,280 m and a total height of 227 m. 

Today, the Golden Gate Bridge is neither the longest nor the tallest in the world, but remains the tallest bridge in the United States.

More information: Golden Gate

San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate characteristic of California's coast, with moist mild winters and dry summers. San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation.

Grandma's memories in the 30's

Among major U.S. cities, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for June, July, and August. 

During the summer, rising hot air in California's interior valleys creates a low pressure area that draws winds from the North Pacific High through the Golden Gate, which creates the city's characteristic cool winds and fog. 

The fog is less pronounced in eastern neighborhoods and during the late summer and early fall. As a result, the year's warmest month, on average, is September, and on average, October is warmer than July, especially in daytime.

More information: History.com

Because of its sharp topography and maritime influences, San Francisco exhibits a multitude of distinct microclimates. The high hills in the geographic center of the city are responsible for a 20% variance in annual rainfall between different parts of the city. 

They also protect neighborhoods directly to their east from the foggy and sometimes very cold and windy conditions experienced in the Sunset District; for those who live on the eastern side of the city, San Francisco is sunnier, with an average of 260 clear days, and only 105 cloudy days per year.

It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears 

is said to be seen in San Francisco.
 

Oscar Wilde