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Post Match Stream
Minutes after the match vs Chelsea I was a guest on The Highbury Squad chatting about all things AWFC, the match itself, the terrible refereeing and much more. I will write much more and not be so polite on Friday most likely but in the meantime…
Here is the link…
If you don’t see the video please click HERE
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NLD is NBD
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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Kim, Chelsea and Suzy
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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Quick CL 1/4s Prediction
Usually my nights and days before a match this big would be filled with sleepless nights, lack of concentration and anxiety filled days. Not to jinx it but I haven’t had a single ounce of worry about today’s game. Not because I don’t rate Chelsea or anything like that, but because I need to tell myself that “we got this.” I am dealing with so many things (all of them positive) that I cannot let this occasion derail me.
I have been doing my best to essentially ignore the news, something I’m not proud of, but it is something that I very much need at the moment and I guess I have recently developed a mindset that, for this moment in time, if something is not going to add anything positive then I will put it aside for a bit.
No Guro Reiten for Chelsea is fantastic. She is the only player that I was actually terrified of whenever she played against us and not, I don’t feel that way about Lauren James or even Sam Kerr. This is not a decision I make, it’s just what I feel and of course LJ is now going to have an amazing night lol.
I am terrible at predictions but for the sake of doing one I will go ahead and say that we will win 4-2, based on absolutely nothing but hope.
The reason why I can see it being a high scoring situation is because of both teams’s defenses. I know you all hate me for not being on the LWM bandwagon and I still haven’t seen anything that fills me with confidence. Laia is a much better defender but she hasn’t gotten than many minutes and if we’re not going to have Leah and Steph, we absolutely need Katie McCabe and Emily Fox.
How do you not start the Ireland captain? That would be insane.
Unforgivable too.
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Polar Opposites
The last couple of days have been such a rollercoaster of emotions for a lot of us as AWFC, AFC and just football fans as a whole. Not only were there insane matches in the Premier League but also the WSL had fantastic matches. Add to this Feyenoord vs Ajax which was an INCREDIBLE match and another unreal game was the Madrid derby. Let’s not chat about that final that our men and our manager took part in…. what also hurts to talk about is Australia losing the final of the women’s asian cup.
I feel so bad for Steph Catley and Foord. Steph’s post match conference was a tear jerker and I honestly felt it was so cruel that they didn’t win but as we all know, in football like in life it’s not what we deserve but about what actually happens. Hats off to Japan. I really enjoy watching The Matildas and I wish the football goddess would’ve rewarded them one way or another but I think the love their nation has shown them could be considered a massive victory.
On the other side of the spectrum we saw AWFC absolutely batter West Ham, scoring 5 goals in said match. I didn’t watch it live but I did rewatch it last night… without a doubt the highlight for me was watching Beth play as a 10 which is something I’ve been crying out for YEARS.
Beyond happy to also have seen Chelsea drop points against LCL too so in that sense we can all be full of joy. And, speaking of Chelsea, we all know we play them in a couple of days for the CL quarter finals. They have a great squad and a great manager but they’ve been the total polar opposite of where they were last season or in seasons prior. Yes I know it’s not literally the polar opposite but you know what I mean.
I hope I have time to write tomorrow a bit of a preview but you should be able to watch me on The Highbury Squad’s YouTube show at 7pm UK, I think, when we will be chatting with Suzy Wrack, who has more knowledge about football in one strand of hair than I have n 40 lifetimes.
Apparently there won’t be our first choice duo at CB which worries me a lot. Not having Steph and Leah vs Kaneryd, ABJ, LJ and co is giving me so much anxiety. I will be an absolute ball of nerves and depending on that backline I will either be extremely confident or not. The thought of facing Chelsea without our best XI is not the worst thing because I will always have hope in our squad, but the CB pairing is the most key partnership the pitch, specially in CL knockout match. That sounded so obvious…. sorry.
Not ready to make any predictions to be fair. Sorry x2
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Weird Match
As you all know I currently live in Los Angeles and for the past 20 years being in this time zone, I’ve had to wake up to watch Arsenal at 4am, 6am, etc depending on daylight savings time. That’s the price you gotta pay to live in California and let me tell you, if that isn’t being a “real fan” then I don’t know what I’m doing.
Since 2019 I’ve been waking up at that time, mostly both weekend days because the girls also play and sometimes they don’t have back to back matches, meaning that my alarm’s activity is on fire on Saturdays and Sundays.
It’s hard to stay awake at those hours specially when it’s super dark and I’m very comfortable and cozy in my bed snuggling with my wife, who is usually more excited about the matches than I am. But I gotta tell you, yesterday I did not fall asleep, I was kept up by how weird that match was.
I’m sorry but this was one of the most boring matches I remember watching, ever. My highlight was seeing DvD start and playing well but aside from that, it was a truly forgettable match. There was very little football played. So strange…
I know I’m gonna get some hate for this but Sophia’s tackle on DvD was absurd, uncalled for and very dangerous. This following a red card but a bad tackle too so there might be something there for the coaches to address because it’s gonna cost us again and even worse, she’s gonna end up hurting someone really bad.
Of course I’m exaggerating and there have been worse matches and I do have to say I enjoyed seeing Chloe back and of course when Beth came in. Also my goodness Borbe has been very, very solid. I wouldn’t pick her over Daphne if fit but she has been an unreal option and cover for Manu. Who seems to be recovering well.
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I can’t do this to you
Regardless of your background, ethnicity, gender, politics, marital status, height, allergies, hair color, music preference, there’s one thing we can all agree on, something that is universally accepted and that is that we, the world as a whole, does NOT need another man with a podcast. The world also doesn’t need a man that used to have a podcast to revive it.
As much as I like to be an ally and “help” this is very self righteous, specially when I volunteered said help. I know it is welcome and I have made many friendships through it all and hell, I’ve also have been able to open some doors that I only could’ve dreamed of… Doors I plan on going through very soon, but that’s another story.
The demand just isn’t there either lately to be fair and if That Arsenal Women Podcast is to continue at some point, I will need to revamp it, from the ground up and make it comparable, from an aesthetic and social media strategy, to whatever is out there. Yet, whatever is out there is not really a thing, there are not many so I always felt having another voice in that very much NOT busy space, was a good thing.
I have the intention of bringing new and different things to the podcast space but I just cannot commit to it. I cannot allow my life to revolve around a club, any club, for any reason unless I am being paid to make it a priority. Make no mistake, AWFC and AFC are the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing on my mind before going to sleep. But to make really, really good quality content and all that it entails, that takes a looooooot of time and commitment.
We see some podcasts and YouTube shows that just aren’t up to par with what the standards are nowadays. The hosts might have the best intentions in the world but if the lighting is awful, the camera angles aren’t flattering and their dirty laundry can be seen, literally, then we won’t truly be excited to watch nor will we be likely to watch or listen often. No matter the quality of the conversation.
My short lived Youtube version was a failure by every measure had I measured it but they whole concept was more of a commitment to myself and to the players, to carry something out that I felt could be different and fresh, regardless of who watched it or liked it.
This is why I always say that YOU should have a show. YOU should have a podcast. SHOW should have a live stream. You will all do better than I ever could specially a younger generation that has more technological nous and can do things in one minute that would take me 5 hours.
I think the woso world is in a weird phase… it seems to have grown in a way that wasn’t contained, so to speak, and its just a massive mess at the moment with so many matches, so much social media, so many matches again, not too much money still, etc. It might be the perfect time to document a lot of these things.
At the same time, I’m not utterly in love with AWFC at the moment as I see things and patterns that don’t make me feel like the board or club “deserves” my all. The squad still has some OG’s that I will die for, but some other players I just do not connect with and if they will be at the club for many years to come then I have zero problem admitting that I will not be as enthusiastic.
Just being honest.
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Pay Our Players
That is the amount of money that our club is paying one of our players, and he’s one of many that are making around that amount. That is a lot of money and the contract and wages as a whole will give all of them generational wealth. That is the way modern football goes and I’m not criticizing it nor am I implying that male players should be making that money also because the reality is, in the big scheme of things, that just a handful of people are lucky enough to make it to a position where they earn that much, and I’m sure they deserve where they are.
To be fair I do criticize it and I criticize the money, the toxic masculinity of it all and how unfair the disparity is. And I’m not saying that equal pay is the solution or anything like that because I’m not smart enough to make a case for it without proper data or reasoning behind it other than “of course women deserve that much money” and so do trans athletes and disabled ones as well. There is soooooo much money out there and I think that’s my point, as clumsy as I’m sounding.
If our club has enough money to pay Saka 300k a week, you cannot tell me that they don’t have 100k PER YEAR to pay our players more. And let me be clear about a few things: as much as I’m applying it to AWFC it can be said across the board for every “major” club that doesn’t support their women’s team. Yes it would be an investment but it’s a worthy one. Another thing I want to make clear is that I’m not a finance expert nor do I claim to make sense, it’s more of a wishful thinking thing.
Take all the merch they sell us, so many ranges that you walk into the Armoury and get an anxiety attack. To make all of those items you need to spend a LOT and as much as I could say: “spend it on the women’s team” I’m not a fool and I understand part of that revenue does in fact go into them. What I mean is that we can allocate more money or give them exclusive ranges much more often and have them essentially split the earnings.
I know it doesn’t work like that. I’m naive and hopeful but I’m not delusional. You can stop laughing now.
My wish is that in the very short future at our club (and in other clubs but also ours we, the self appointed leader in women’s football – and for good reason and thanks to Vic Akers) we can see our girls make a lot more money that they are making now.
We need them safe and able to retire in a healthy, responsible and holistic way.
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DVD LCL KNVB OMG
You don’t need me to tell you this but I will. DVD is my favorite player of all time and she’s the reason why I am obsessed with woso. I fell in love with AWFC because of her and what she has meant to me as a player is something I cannot express with words. She, alongside Viv, are the most incredible players I’ve ever seen and I think it is absolutely criminal that they never won a Ballon D’or, but that’s a whole different thing.
The fact that we all get to watch her play, after so many injuries and setbacks is nothing short of a privilege, specially when at some point it didn’t seem like we’d see her this season, based only on the secrecy of her club and how tight lipped they’ve been about her situation.
Either way I don’t care. All I want is to watch her on that pitch be the player she is. The world of WOSO deserves it and simply put, she is one of the architects of the modern game and of our club as a whole.
She is one of the main reasons there are traveling fans and we owe so much to the dutch contingent. That means not just the Dutch players but the fans too… they have been just as important as the English fans and they don’t get the love they deserve.
The same way you cannot deny FC Barcelona men’s dutch heritage, the same thing can be said about Arsenal Women. And I’m not taking anything away from the OG English players and from other nationalities too, what I’m saying is that DVD, Viv, Jill, Dom, SVV etc were not just the backbone of our club for a while but their relationship with fans and their role in the football zeitgeist as a whole cannot be understated.
I’m very emotional about this fixture and whatever happens I’m gonna be happy. I want Arsenal to win every match and I want Van de Donk to win every single match she ever plays, in any sport or setting, ever.
Unreal how good LCL have been this season no?? Also, they’d be even better had Daan played more matches. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finish top 3 next season.
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Serena? Really??
Sometimes Arsenal FC just shoot themselves in both feet and everyone else’s feet around them. They try so hard to do something cool but its as if they are consulting the worst people possible and even if they had good intentions they just continuously miss the mark and end up being so tone deaf.
First thins first: I LOVE SERENA WILLIAMS. She is a goddess. Every single human on earth should admire her and look up to her and I absolutely love that there are other men that, like me, think she is a hell of a role model. Not taking anything away from here.
A few days ago we celebrated International Women’s Day and they asked a few of the Arsenal men players who was the most inspirational female athlete of all time. Literally any Arsenal Woman player was there. Literally say any one of them, past or present. I don’t care if Serena has accomplished “more” than any of our players have… that’s not the point. The point is that they and the club, had such a massive opportunity to make some young men follow whatever their favorite footballers say and point them in the direction of AWFC.
Would it truly hurt to say Rachel Yankey? Kelly Smith? Leah Williamson? KIM LITTLE FFS ?!! Hell you can even just say Alessia Russo…
What an opportunity missed but that’s ok because they’ll sell us more merch in a few weeks!!!!
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A very subjective look into AWFC 