Football in the UK and Ireland season 2019/20

I am most likely not enough involved in following FA WSL to care, but I had fun with sheplays.com's league during the WWC, so thank for pointing that out.

 

I was never going to pick her given her current health status, but van Es' cost is steep, especially for someone who barely featured at the World Cup. All three WC Dutch midfielders also cost a lot while Miedema is unsurprisingly tied for most expensive player.

 

I thought I read somewhere that audio only solely applies to UK viewers. I’m really looking forward to the Manchester Derby, so hopefully I can find a way to watch it if it is audio only for international viewers.

 

Okay, thanks. This will be my first time being able to watch weekly matches of a team I support in a non-US league. So, I hope the streaming will be pretty good.

 

I've got the FA Player, and... oh my god. It's full of shareable content I would share some, but it's all unavailable unless you sign up, which shouldn't be necessary. In any case, it's well-designed and I hope the live games will be just as good. Hopefully their fixture review videos will be a springboard for the Kmita twins to become TV hosts.

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjBywwm1WPo



Maren Meinert and Ireland couldn't agree terms, so it fell through. Vera Pauw has got the job as the new coach:

- https://www.the42.ie/vera-pauw-feature-4796326-Sep2019/ (Archived)

In her long managerial career, of course she's had ups and downs, as seen in this Pauw comments mix, or Pauw Pourri

That technical advice in full: "please forfeit"

 

Thank you for quoting a KK thread from 2009, and my good old friend @Micol in particular. I miss her (as I miss many people who were here in the past).

 

Some thoughts on the Manchester Derby

1) I thought Zelem was superb in the first half with two high quality throughballs; so, it was unfortunate to see her be mostly at fault for Weir’s goal.
2) Groenen’s dribbling and touch on the ball were good/really good today, and her pressing and interceptions (the best being on Scott in the first) were mostly good as well. However, she was overly ambitious in the second with her passing, and the one cross on the short corner was poor. Fantastic slalom past a City defender and into the City box. I thought she got a bit of tunnel vision and should have played it early to the runner in the box, and the ball got stuck under her feet on the final dribble. Classic fight though after losing the ball, and City ended up getting lucky that the ball hit the inside of the post and went straight to Roebuck.
3) I was impressed with Galton who had two really good crosses and a shot on target after a Groenen pass and Toone dummy. Ladd and McManus had solid competitive debuts.
4) Earps wasn’t at fault for anything during the match, but I thought she was just too slow and casual at times with her gameplay.
5) Weir was indeed the standout of the match. Great goal and a really good dribble through three in the second half.
6) United were the much better team in the first, and City were much better in the second. A number of sloppy moments in the second half, but I thought United still gave a pretty good account of themselves with a stellar save and a matter of inches keeping them away from a draw.

 

Liked a good deal of what I saw from Groenen (i.e. off the ball work and turns/dribbling), but she definitely messed up her good work in beating Bonner on that breakaway. May have thought Toone was offside on the second opening, but she still should have passed there or on the first opening.

 

I missed this game but want to see a replay to check out Groenen. What is this breakaway mistake to which you are referring?

 

I think you can go to the 82nd minute on the FA Player replay, and you’ll see the play soon enough. Groenen after some phenomenal work should have found Toone but got the ball stuck under her feet instead. It was only classic grit from her that had the ball hitting the post.

I don’t remember the minute, but if you catch it, I’m a little curious how much of a penalty shout you think United had on the City defender taking out Groenen while getting nothing on the ball. It’s not clear cut at all because the ball goes through Groenen. However, the player still goes to ground getting Groenen and none of the ball, and the play wasn’t dead with Groenen possibly still having the chance to play the ball if she hadn’t been taken out. A bit conflicted myself.

 

It was the 30th minute (29:00 to 30:00). Anyone can feel free to call me biased, but I think a penalty there wouldn’t have been that unwarranted. That challenge was largely why Groenen didn’t go straight in with the side of her left foot in my opinion; so, for a no call, it should have either gotten the ball or none of the player. It also took Groenen out of play on a live ball even if she probably wouldn’t have gotten there. I can understand the other side of the argument, but this is still another example of how fortunate City got in this match. Weir was fantastic in the second, and that was the biggest difference on their side. (There was admittedly also a Weir PK shout in the second; I haven’t seen that again yet.)

 

All very close results, despite involving teams that in the recent years advanced quite far in the UEFA Women's Champions' League: Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal...
No scores like the recent routs in Spanish League (Barcelona-Tacón 9-1) or in French League (Reims-OL 3-8).

This should be the sign of a quite healthy league, compared to other major European ones.

 

Not an Arsenal fan, but there’s a reason why Mead’s the captain in my lineup for ShePlays.

 

Lyon conceded 3? And it was 5-3 at one point. Wow. A blowout, but not a good game defensively.

 

For comparison, Lyon have conceded 6 or fewer goals in 7 of their past 8 seasons. 8-3 is a defensive disaster for them.

I'm really glad to see the FAWSL looking so even the first weekend out, just because I like competitiveness. That said, it's important to look at who played who: the matches this weekend were, from last year's season, 6v9, 5v8, 1v7, 2vP (derby), 3vP (derby), and 4v10. If you assume derby matches are always gonna be close, then every match except Arsenal v West Ham was somewhat expected to be even. (Which I also like to hear since I don't want NWSL to lose its reputation for parity!) X-D

 

I suspect a lot of people may have predicted Chelsea to win by more given the beating Spurs took recently from Arsenal. However, breaking games down based on who played who also crossed my mind, and Chelsea did start slow offensively last season. Quite excited about Man Utd’s prospects for the season, but a very tough next match.

 

As it's been noticed on the French thread, it was ten years (!!!) since the last time Olympique Lyonnais had taken 3 goals in a single league match.