Di Maria looks like she likes a good time. The Chelsea forward called Harder. Not the best name to have on the back
Maria Leon? Agreed! Harder, yeah, a nice party with her and Magda Eriksson would be great FT: Barcelona 4:0 Chelsea Well done Barcelona for a magnificent victory. Chelsea were never allowed enough chances to come back in the second half. I don't think Lyon or Wolfsburg will dominate the women's game the way they used to. More big sides, including Barca and Chelsea obviously, as well as Bayern, PSG and Man City are proving tough opposition, along with a number of clubs from the Women's Super League, are making the overall competition more exciting.
I don't follow the women's team as religiously as the men's but there's another interesting story coming out of Spurs. Two ways you could take this one: 1) That change of manager (quoted post) wants to put her own stamp on the squad and is completely changing it up 2) Cost cutting. There's quite a few first team players that have been let go, some of those particularly surprising. Are they going to be replaced by better players? Letting 11 players go is one hell of a change. Good or bad, Spurs are going to look unrecognisable next season.
New WSL season kicked off this weekend so thought I'd give this a bump. BBC and Sky both showing more games this season. I think all other games are available on the FA Player. Watched the Everton v Manchester City game yesterday, you can definitely see the standard is improving. Everton looked alright until 1-0 and then just collapsed, City strolled to a 4-0 win in the end. Their squad seemingly pretty strong as they brought more of the 'household names' off the bench such as Ellen White and Jill Scott. Spurs themselves won 1-0 with what was a near unrecognisable team (to me anyway). Sounded like a dominant performance which probably doesn't bode well for Birmingham the rest of the season as Spurs are likely to finish in the bottom half I would think. United won on Friday night, whilst Villa came from behind to beat the newbies in Leicester. I think Chelsea play Arsenal today which should be a good contest. Brighton presumably host West Ham in the remaining fixture, I think those two might be at the Amex and Emirates too so will potentially draw some decent crowds. There was roughly 4,000 at Spurs yesterday.
Our woman’s team play at Crawley, I believe. I think the club are looking at bringing them closer to Brighton if possible to boost crowds though.
Ah fair enough, makes sense. Even more reason to want Lewes to get promoted from the WSL Championship then, not much difference between WHL and the Dripping Pan!
We've massively invested in women's team. They've taken over our old training ground and most matches will be played at the King Power. I expect they will be a big part of the womens game in a few years.
They did win, but it was odd seeing Reading have a goal not given because the goal line tech we've all become used to isn't in use for the women's game.
The problem is whether you want an equal game or the same imbalance you have in the likes of the FA Cup. The resources aren't there for it to be used in every WSL game at the moment. Not all of the stadiums are up to the standards of the men's game and I think they said in commentary today that the officials aren't full time either. There was a clear offside in Arsenal's winner today but I think they're a way off having the same technology we're used to. The only argument would be to use it when you can. At the moment they're not, which seems daft when Arsenal are playing at the Emirates but they don't play there every week.
Just had a look through the World Cup qualifying results & there's some proper thrashings going on ala ol' skool from the men's game , not even England men's team in their pomp would beat Luxembourg 10-0 & that on the back of an 8-0 win against North Macedonia .
Looking forward to going to England next July for the Euros. Good chance to get a couple of grounds in. Just a shame that they put Brighton & Southampton games on the same day! Draw is in a month or so and should tell us whether France play their games in Rotherham, Leigh or Milton Keynes! Awesome!
Opportunity for me to tick off a couple of new grounds too. I've got tickets for games in Sheffield and Brentford. Looking forward to the draw and seeing which games I'll be going to.
Been reading mixed reviews about Brentford's new ground. Not especially keen to go there but I suppose I will.
Interesting weekend of results in the WSL. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City have long been the top 3 in the women's game.. Manchester United finished 4th last season which was perhaps a sign they were looking to break up that dominance. That top 4 from last season went head to head this weekend with the London clubs both coming out with massive wins: Manchester United 1-6 Chelsea Arsenal 5-0 Manchester City Two incredible results really. I'd probably have backed Chelsea to win their game regardless but the Arsenal result was particularly surprising and impressive. To beat what is considered one of the best teams in the country by 5 is no mean feat. City also crashed out of the Champions League early so their manager is severely under pressure. They only lost one league game last season, they've lost two already this season. There's only 22 league games so you don't get many opportunities to drop points - the only game City lost last season decided the title. Arsenal and Spurs both currently have maximum points. Spurs are miles off that top 3 in reality and have been somewhat fortunate with a couple of nice home games to start the season (they've played the bottom two at home). I think Spurs will probably be targeting a top half finish which would represent a bit of progress - only their third ever season in the top flight so they're still a bit behind some of the more established clubs. The title looks like it'll probably be contested between Arsenal and Chelsea - Arsenal beating Chelsea with a controversial winner on the opening weekend could be a massive moment in the women's game if it determines where the title goes. As for the bottom end.. Leicester, Reading and Birmingham are all without a point as yet. I think Reading are probably the best of those so reckon it'll be one of the other two to go down. With so few league games (22) though it could easily come down to their head to head games as to who stays up and who drops.
Saturday's Women's Super League derby between Manchester United and Manchester City attracted a record peak audience of 1.1m on BBC One. There were also 114,000 live streams of the 2-2 draw on BBC Sport online. The television figures surpass the 800,000 viewers BBC One received on the opening day of the season for the match between Everton and Manchester City. That Goodison Park encounter was the first domestic women's league game to be broadcast on network TV in the UK. At the weekend, City overcame a red card for Georgia Stanway to claim a point against United in a pulsating clash at Leigh Sports Village. Manchester derby draws record TV audience
Having it on the BBC obviously helps, as does it being a derby and an international weekend. I've watched a few games so far, plus the highlight shows, and it's decent enough for the neutral. Most teams seem to try and play football, albeit Arsenal and Chelsea look pretty clear of everyone this season. No idea what's happened to City as they should be finishing 3rd at worst. They probably still will but only 1 win in 5 is pretty shocking, even accounting for some of the decisions that have gone against them.
How come the English never get that far in the CL though? Seems to be a lot of German clubs along with PSG & Lyon... No interest for Europe just like the men?
