A very subjective look into AWFC

No matte how poorly a league campaign starts or finishes, when you’re in a cup competition there’s always a chance of getting silverware. In our case there were 3 cups, two of them domestic and we have failed to win, yet again. If I’m not mistaken the last time we won an FA Cup was ten years ago and I wasn’t even following AWFC then, which seems like a lifetime ago because I cannot see myself without our club being a priority in my everyday life.

The reality is that we got beat by a Brighton team that deserved it much more. That is unacceptable and if were to put the blame on anyone I would say its absolutely Renee’s fault and without a doubt Clare and the board.

I say Renee because there’s no universe where you field a weak team for such a big match, and you don’t have to look farther than Mikel Arteta’s stubbornness and lack of proactivity. I cannot believe we copied the MO from MA and it is just a terrible result for a club that wanted to build from last year’s CL triumph.

Would players want to join our club if we stink up the joint domestically? IDK. City are gonna run away with it and we threw it away the first few matches. I’m convinced they will win the CL next season and they always just keep getting world class players for as many positions as possible and we just don’t and that’s where I blame Clare and the board.

How the fuck do you not have a proper replacement for McCabe? Foord and Frida have made such poor decisions over the past couple of years that I don’t know if they would start for many elite European teams. Again, it’s all about recruitment and don’t even get me started on Taylor playing left back when she’s a right back. We can sign Ona all you want… she’s still a right back so essentially we will have Fox, Holmberg, Hinds and Batlle?? hahahahaha wtf.

I wrote about McCabe yesterday and the only player in world football that is a close enough replacement would be Bacha and she still doesn’t have the bite and aggression that Katie has. I’m so scared the club will treat her like they treated Viv. Pay her whatever she needs and keep her for as long as possible FFS.

If the whole Stina and Russo partnership was something to build upon why change it? I’m not the biggest fan of it but still, two matches and that somewhat worked… but sooo many changes.

Also, can anyone tell me what was Daphne doing for the second goal?? It feels like she took her hands away from the shot and she could’ve stopped it. Watch it over, it’s madness!!!!!

We just looked like a whole different team and the substitutions did absolutely nothing either.

What a strange match.

We cannot play like this in the WSL or we will not make the CL and guess what? The club isn’t gonna like that from a money perspective and Ona isn’t gonna come and why would you extend a contract or sign a new one if we don’t play elite football?

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d

Eleven. Just eleven. That is the amount of matches that Katie McCabe has left in an Arsenal shirt if she is to actually leave our club and those 11 are only if the girls make it to the CL and FA Cup finals. This is gonna happen a lot with a lot of players as the club moves them on or pushes them out or however you wanna see it.

You can be sad about it, you can try to make it a “positive” thing or, if you’re like me, you can do both. I will miss her very much, she’s one of my players and like I’ve said before, the player I’ve seen in person the most. Only 3 times but enough to make me so very happy. You are all so lucky that you’ve seen her so many more times.The point being that we need to appreciate them NOW, specially Katie who as you know (if you’re read this blog) I see as a “throw forward” player aka a player of the future aka we want every player to be as dynamic as her.

And not to be rude but my guess is that it’ll be the same amount of matches for Beth, Stina, Frida, Pelova, Manu, maybe Steph, which I don’t think my heart could handle.

Every summer brings a risk of legendary players moving on. I love them all but I love some more than others, that’s just a fact and I would trade some of the players leaving for a fan favorite or two. When some of them go a lot of what we know and love about Arsenal Women will go and the club and board are doing what they can to make you believe some of these women are replaceable.

Katie isn’t, and neither is Steph and Viv, DvD, Jill, JORDAN NOBBS, etc weren’t but they want new fans to cling onto new players so they perpetuate “loyalty” by way of merch sales and match attendance. Make no mistake about it.

Honestly NONE of them are. Every single woman that has ever laced up a pair of footballing boots at any level is a queen, a goddess and will forever have my respect, which they will have with any footwear too. I just have to point out sometimes how at the end of the day Arsenal is a money making entity, that’s what they value: MONEY, more than actual success and I mean that as it mostly relates to the men. Shocker!

Make sure you share some love with her and with yourself. Sit with the feeling of how privileged we have all been to watch them all play for us, together on the same pitch “countless times.”

I’m not over Dom leaving, let alone Lia Walti or even Leonie Maier who deserved more and so did Vicki Schnaderbeck.

Say hi to Katie for me.

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That’s one of those crazy things that happen in football. People that don’t love this sport would have a hard time understanding how someone, let alone millions of people, be happy by losing. Needless to say theres a caveat to this and we had won the first leg, duh.

Lots of positives to take from yesterday. Daphne flawless, Alessia had probably her best match ” as a 10″ ever for us, Kim solid as per. Also when Beth came in she once again proves she’s among the best players on the pitch and we NEED her at 10 supporting Alessia.

However, there was a lot of things that Renee needs to address IMO.

The first one is telling her coaching staff to calm the fuck down. These men are just yelling and screaming and complaining to the 4th ref all the time. I cannot think of any other women’s club where this happens and if they all have to be sent off and be in the stands forever then so be it.

Let the woman do her job, in peace.

I also cannot understand how Foord and Frida keep making the same mistakes over and over and their poor decision making didn’t cost us yesterday but it will if they keep doing it. That’s just how football works and we got so lucky yesterday. Had McCabe been sent off as she should’ve, those last few minutes would’ve been insane and potentially catastrophic.

Foord always tries to run through people and it never works because they are people and not clouds. What’s with that? She was through on goal and made the worst possible decision but as I have said before, all is forgiven FOREVER because of that tackle vs Rolfo in the final last year. So, I’m sorry Caitlin, I apologize, you do you, boo.

We simply cannot afford to not score like we did yesterday. If we play against Lyon or Barcelona or Bayern, we will have to be considerably more ruthless because if we won’t have Leah and Steph, WE WILL CONCEDE GOALS. I don’t know how bad Steph’s injury is but we better hope that she’s back when the tie comes.

The goal we allowed was really had. Watch it back… really, really poor defending and we got lucky to be fair. LWM had one of her best matches for us I’ve seen in a while but these types of mistakes are among the reasons why I think we need Leah and Steph, as much as possible. BTW she had a very cool interview with Jen Beattie for the feed here in the USA.

Let me clear something up too, I’m not worried about our defense. Holmberg is the real deal and Hinds is as solid as you’d want a player to be. Katie is Katie and I trust her with my life and also we need to talk about the very few matches she has left in an Arsenal shirt.

I’m gonna miss her.

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d

Happy Monday, friends!

I hope you all had a great and that you are all feeling how “North London is Red”… For me in Los Angeles and for many all over the world, that just isn’t a thing nor is it as big of a deal for us as it is for people in England. Not playing it down, enjoy your bragging rights. Now, we can talk about this at length and I can defend what I said in the sense that I am not trying to minimize the importance of a derby, but I just feel that the magnitude of the NLD is greatly overhyped and unfair.

We are trying to be fed parallels to the men’s game all the time and this is a perfect example. Rivalries grow through time and usually, kinda the point, both sides win often and it’s somewhat evenly split. And I get it… there are geographical factors, historical ones, etc. I get it…

I think it’s unfair to basically bully Spurs when they have no fighting chance. As a club we have so much more history, resources, coverage, respect, etc and of course it’s easy to beat spurs, there’s truly no competition. I get we should be ruthless and all of that, but its much more meaningful to see “London is Red” than “North London Is Red”… meaning we beat Chelsea, the true competition and titles wise the past few seasons, we are the Spurs to their Arsenal.

Look, I get it. I was born and raised in Venezuela where baseball is a religion. My local team for Caracas, Los Leones, was and is one of the most successful clubs. To be contrarian I started supporting Los Navegantes del Magallanes, a team from miles and miles away, who were battling for the top and championships every year too. It’s like El Clásico for us. It’s super even and it goes back and forth.

El Clásico in Spain, for women, is so, so, so one sided, just like the NLD. Anyway, I just don’t love when these marketing machines spoon feed us what we should value and what should be a rivalry so there is more money to be made. I understand that its for the fans as well but I’m just not that impressed.

5-2 was great, I loved it, don’t get me wrong but that’s what should’ve been, and I know you agree.

Beyond sad that Asllani has done her ACL, one of my favorite players in woso. Such a shame. Truly hope she can come back from this.

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d

There are so many things to talk about Just when I thought I had a lot on me plate to write about, the news about Kim Little dropped this morning and of course this is something that I need to write about. There’s also Chelsea and a conversation I was a part of which included the one and only Suzy Wrack.

The fact that Kim signed a contract extension can be summarized by this reaction: FUCK YES. It’s fantastic news every way you look at it. It’s great for the club, for the squad, for the fans and I hope that Kim makes as much money as she can. We are so lucky to have her be such a massive part of Arsenal and she deserves a statue at the very least.

I will never forget how much hate and vitriol I got on twitter because I kept going on and on about how Kim and Lia were the best midfield partnership (this is before Mariona and I still think it anyway). There was so many fans saying that we needed to replace them or at the very least bench them. Now, I don’t actually have problem with people thinking that or feeling that other players are the future, that’s their opinion and I respect it. What bothered me then and still does now is how dismissive they were about Kim. As if she was just another player. She’s not.

She’s Kim Little.

And there has only been ONE and there will only be ONE Kim Little.

Now, onto the Chelsea match. I had predicted a 4-2 and the two goal difference did come to fruition. I enjoyed the match a lot as most fans did but I don’t think the tie is over, by any stretch of the imagination. Not just because we’re playing away from home next week, but because they will have Ellie Carpenter and Sam Kerr back plus Sonia Bonpastor will surely make adjustments. Let’s just hope that she pulls an Arteta and makes the subs when they game is lost already, but Sonia is not a coward now, is she?

Lastly, I should’ve shared this before and I actually thought I did but here’s a long conversation we had on The Highbury Squad with not just the amazing host and queen herself Sophie Nicolaou and also with Albert Umoh aka AlbertJTV but we were joined by one of the most important voices in women’s football, Suzy Wrack.

If for whatever reason the player doesn’t show up above this line you’re reading then click HERE

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