Hello Arsenal Women aficionados!
The traditional Arsenal Women Journal might well be in holidays mode but that’s no reason to rest.
Sorry for the lack of updates, recently, but I took a break and travelled a bit, while keeping an eye on the Arsenal Women world – of course. Obviously, everyone’s attention is on the ongoing World Cup, where our players are making us proud. Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord shone in Australia’s hard-fought qualification to the knockout stage, Alessia Russo opened her account after two indifferent performances against Haiti and Denmark, while Lia Wälti and Noëlle Maritz helped Switzerland to emerge as surprise winners of Group A, ahead of Frida Maanum’s Norway.
Elsewhere, Katie McCabe scored a trademark screamer from distance but could not prevent Ireland from crashing out at group stage, while Katherine Kühl helped Denmark grab the second spot in Group D, behind England, and Victoria Pelova starred for the Netherlands, who won Group D ahead of the United States.
Overall, it has been a very good World Cup for our players so far, with the only exception of Sabs D’Angelo and Cloé Lacasse, who suffered an unexpected early elimination from Group B, the most Arsenal-themed group at WWC. The reigning Olympic champions were battered 4-0 by Australia in the final game of the group stage and finished third, one point behind Nigeria.
The most impressive of the lot was Amanda Ilestedt, though, who already scored three goals and showcased her incredible aerial skills on set-pieces – something Rafaelle was very good at. The Swede centre-back, who arrived after terminating her contract with PSG, is putting herself in the best position to take the place vacated by the Brazilian, who returned to the US shortly after the end of the season. Losing Rafaelle is a big blow, at both ends of the pitch, and although the former PSG player is not as technically gifted, at least she will provide a similar goal threat from corners and free-kicks. It will be interesting to see who will partner Leah Williamson at the back, once the England captain has fully recovered, and I won’t be surprised to see Jonas Eidevall using Lotte Wubben-Moy and Amanda Ilestedt on both sides of the central defence to see who’s more comfortable playing as left centre-back – assuming there won’t be any new arrival at the back.
With the start of the new season still far away, it is natural to turn the attention to the transfers market and speculate about the future of this or that player, scan every single rumour, but the club seem rather quiet these days and I suspect not much will happen until the World Cup is over. The additions of Alessia Russo, Cloé Lacasse and Amanda Ilestedt are very welcome to strengthen a squad that was (and still is, to some extent) ravaged by injuries in the second half of last season, however I have a feeling that we could do with a couple of extra bodies, especially at the back.
With Leah Williamson out until November at least, and Laura Wienroither likely to miss the first half of the season, Jonas Eidevall has a very limited pool to choose from: Steph Catley, Noëlle Maritz and Lotte Wubben-Moy are pinned down for a starting place at the beginning of the season, with new signing Amanda Ilestedt likely to feature from day 1, but Jen Beattie is one year older, Teyah Goldie is also recovering from an ACL rupture and Anna Patten has been sold to Aston Villa.
Even if we add Katie McCabe to the mix, we have six players available to cover four positions from now until next winter, which sounds a bit too light for me.
The World Cup will soon enter the knockout phase and we can expect more players to take the centre stage, having their names earmarked, being scouted, perhaps some talks starting but coaches and football associations will surely work to have their players protected from any distraction, so I don’t foresee anything major happening right now. We still have twelve players competing in Australia and New Zealand and a handful of them have a very good chance to get far in the competition, possibly all the way.
Although many would hope that they all come back as early as possible, I would rather see everyone go as far as possible and be energized by a positive, perhaps even unexpected, run at the World Cup. I don’t really like the idea of having disappointed, deflated players coming back to London and I would prefer to have an exhausted but happy set of players bowing out of the World Cup, get some rest and be ready to kick on with the Arsenal.
The first players to get to the pitch for the last-16 round will be Noëlle Maritz and Lia Wälti for Switzerland and Frida Maanum for Norway, who will face Spain and Japan, respectively. Both their teams will be the underdogs in their respective games, I hope one of them will be able to pull a surprise result and create yet another upset down under. Then it will be time for Victoria Pelova and our Swedish trio to take on South Africa and the USA, respectively, before England faces Nigeria and Kathrine Kühl’s Denmark play co-host Australia – in the first Gunner v Gunner face-off.
Let’s wait and see how goes and who comes home, who creates the next WOW! moment and who heads home earlier than they expected.
The Summer Diaries will continue throughout the months of June, July and August, then the Arsenal Women Journal will return and there are a few more surprises to come…
Speak to you soon!
Italian living in Switzerland, Gooner since mid-nineties, when the Gunners defeated my hometown team, in Copenhagen. I started my own blog and podcast (www.clockenditalia.com) after after some experiences with Italian websites and football magazines. Covering Arsenal Women with the occasional rant about the boys.
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