one reason for the parity is during the pre season, the top 3 have proven that their not all that good; Arsenal lost 0-3 & 2-5 to Wolfsburg & Barcelona, Chelsea by a whopping 0-5 to Bayern Munich & to usual French League/3rd place, Montpelier,2-5(none of these scorelines suggest even close games). Man City, has lost a ton of stars of the last few of years; Bronze, Duggan, Parris, Nadim, Alsani, Mcanus, Lawler, Ross, Beattie, guess we could add Carli Lloyd to that list. Meantime, clubs like West Ham have brought a "H U G E " diversity of foreigners into their squad. Looking at their roster. they only got 3 out of 20 players that are actually English England - West Ham United LFC - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics, photos, videos and news - Women Soccerway
Arsenal played Wolfsburg and Barcelona in the early stages of their pre-season. I think they'd be a little more competitive if it were to play those teams now. Have you heard that there's a FA WSL proposal to limit the number of foreign players a team can have? I saw a reference to this yesterday. Haven't seen any specifics on it--whether it is going to happen or just a proposal, but it is something that could significantly affect some teams.
Chelsea also came very close to knocking Lyon out of the Champions League last season while Lyon took care of business easily against Barcelona in the final. While I could be wrong, I think it was more just a more difficult than usual preseason for English clubs rather than a clear indication they’re much worse than other top clubs. Edit: I think only two of those City players you listed can really be seen as current club level stars (Bronze and Parris). Edit: The losses for Arsenal definitely don’t look as bad when you look at the errors, such as dispossessions/dangerous giveaways and keeper mishandlings, that proceeded a number of the goals conceded. Still losses, but things would have been closer.
Once Brexit is done, the FA will be able to impose quotas of non English players. They currently have a homegrown regulation at 50% of the squad. Put it this way, Arsenal were in breach of it the whole season as they had 5 homegrown out of 19 but they were never penalised. Homegrown only exists because the EU gives the FOM and prevents UK from doing an English only rule as it would discriminate against EU citizens.
50%? That’s stricter than on the men’s side. Then again, Arsenal’s numbers would put them at risk of even meeting the less strict limits of the Premier League if they had to put together a 25 player squad. Do you know if it’s at least three years playing in the UK before 21, or is it stricter than that on the women’s side?
Same as men 3 years before 21, Arsenal have 2 scottish players who qualify this season Little and Beattie, loads of Welsh, Irish and Northern Irish player also qualify .
ShePlays is pretty comprehensive in their bonus point considerations, but they don’t give any points when it comes to dribbles, which surprises me a bit. Don’t know how Groenen doesn’t finish with more than 1 defense point since she had four interceptions by my count. The post hit won’t count as a shot on target, but since it was a successful tackle and she had another one earlier, that arguably should be another defense point. So, Groenen should have had three bonus defense points in my opinion. I’m sure people likely have complaints about other players as well though. I couldn’t find a comment box there, so apologies for ranting a bit here.
At least 4 interceptions now that another has come to mind. I think I got a decent total, but I’m just very confused about how Groenen didn’t finish with at least two more defense points. Being over the top now though, so I’ll leave it at that here.
here's the full replay of Chelsea vs Spurs. Definitely for those who like the aerial view(the camera & majority of the fans were seated very high). 25K were in attendance, but from I've read; a lot of free tickets were given away Kirby & Bachmann were missing, Kirby cuz of injury/rumours got Bachmann lost favor with coach Emma Hayes. Cuthbert with just sub play, which is kinda shame cuz not starting might hurt her chances of making the GB/Olympics squad
All tickets were free, a lot of people did not turn up as the game was sold out. Hayes said Bachmann got injured just before the game.
I saw one reporter suggest that free tickets don’t provide people with the most incentive to show up, and that does kind of make sense to me.
yes with pricing between 5 to 10 anyway... going for free just offer the " fans" the option not to turn up. Same at the FA Women's Cup final, loads of freebies.
Glasgow and Hibernian are the top two clubs. Glasgow has won the league 13 times, including all 12 of the most recent seasons, and the two clubs have 27 top-two appearances out of 34 possible (i.e. 17 total seasons).
Neither. Celtic and Rangers have their own sides in the SWPL; both have finished second in the league at least once.
I wonder why the high bleachers were more packed while the premium, lower ones were only half filled? Did Chelsea hand free tickets to their regular men's season ticket holders?
I don't think any EPL stadium has bleachers - it's all individual seats (right?) (Валерий Дед, cc-by-sa) If you're interested, I posted an update in May, @Sam Miami - https://www.bigsoccer.com/posts/37822674 Glasgow City are on course to become the 2019 season champions much more easily than in 2018's title race. They haven't dropped a point in their 13 games, with 8 to go. Their last two league wins were against Celtic (2nd) and Rangers (5th). Rangers 0 - 4 Glasgow City - SWPL 1 (8 Sep 19) - youtu.be/sr3E8eAXZgw City and Celtic will meet again in the Scottish Women's Cup quarter-finals on Sunday (15 Sep), while the level-3 SWFL club Aberdeen host Rangers, after Aberdeen beat the top-flight Spartans in Edinburgh in the previous round.
Reading v Man City Everton v Bristol Tottenham v Liverpool Brighton v Chelsea West Ham v Birmingham Man Utd v Arsenal ( monday night)
Reading 0 City 2 Everton 2 Bristol 0 Tottenham 1 Liverpool 0 Brighton 1 Chelsea 1 West Ham 1 Birmingham 0 Everton top of the League ahead of City. Liverpool bottom with Birmingham alongside them. Utd v Arsenal tonight live on the FA player like all the games.
I'm glad Arsenal vs Man Utd, especially the second half, was of a high quality (in my opinion) because I might not have made it through a Groenen-less match otherwise. (Not a Man Utd men's team fan, the opposite in fact. Only a Man Utd women's team fan thanks to Groenen, but bar that one poor clearance, Zelem has really impressed me.) Too much offensive quality in the end for Man Utd Women to handle (what a player Little is even if her part in the goal was more luck), but they could have definitely gotten a result with Toone and Ross missing big chances. Liverpool should be an easier test on paper, but if Man Utd keep missing chances, a result there isn't guaranteed. Note: I really hope for better transparency on injuries/fitness concerns from Man Utd and other WSL teams in the future, but I'll be holding my breath on that front.
Wow, what a game between Arsenal and ManU. It was fairly lackluster early, with ManU sitting back and playing defense, as they would for almost all of the match. And they defended well. Arsenal spent a lot of time probing and kicking the ball around, but to little effect as they had trouble penetrating ManU's defense in the first 25 minutes of the game. ManU had the best early chance when, off a counter, Toone had a wide-open header off a nice cross to the back post but she sent it wide. Could have been a goal. After the 30 minute mark, Arsenal began to assert itself and ramp up of the pressure. ManU keeper Earps stole a goal from Miedema, clawing the Dutch striker's powerful header off of the line and then denying her again on the rebound shot. In the second half it was all Arsenal, as they kept the ball and steadily poured on the pressure and ManU defended valiantly. Earps made two great saves on Kim Little, who was outstanding for Arsenal. ManU had one excellent counter chance but it was thwarted by a nice save by the Arsenal keeper. Van de Donk came on as a late (70' or so) sub for Arsenal. In the last 10 or 12 minutes Arsenal swarmed the ManU box and the defenders were gassed and hanging on. The Gunners did everything but put the ball in the net. Miedema looked to have scored on a cheeky flick--but the ball hit the post! By the end the ManU players were so tired they were standing in place, and Van de Donk won it when she took the ball into the box, laid it off for Evans, I think, and then she corralled a loose ball/rebound and put it in the net at the 88' mark or so. A deserved, hard-earned win for the league champs. ManU again acquitted itself nicely but simply didn't have the ball enough to do much more than the occasional counter. Earps was particularly good for ManU and really gave them the chance to escape with a point, but it wasn't quite enough. Good match.
True, but both of those counters should have been goals. Ross has to start scoring those clear chances if she's going to keep being Stoney's #9. I thought Ladd was the weakest performer out of the midfield 3, and seeing as she played at RCM, that made me miss Groenen even more. However, it seems like others thought she was the best performer in the midfield. Completely disagree, but that's part of football. That was Little, who was indeed outstanding. Earps was great, but most of Arsenal's shots were right at her or very close to her. Closely check out van de Donk's winning goal as well. That was going straight at Earps as well before McManus intervened and deflected it past her own keeper. Can't really disagree, but I do think a draw would have been a fair result here. Arsenal did dominate that second half, but United's two best chances were clear cut, well created, and better than almost all of Arsenal's chances. Ladd also had a half chance.