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Leah is running
Safe to say we all find it absolutely soul crushing to see our girls get carried off with season and career threatening injuries. I have written so much about this that chances are you are currently opening a new tab and closing this page. But whenever one of those players makes a huge step in their recovery its assimilated in a few different ways that I always find interesting.
The first thing I feel is happiness! Yay! they’re that much closer to being fit and returning to the squad because we love and need them. We all know how time away from doing what you do best can be very difficult and especially when that activity has so much to do with the identity and sense of self of that person. There is also the huge amount of relief that overcomes me as it relates to their livelihood. And of course I understand times are changing but there are still players that aren’t making insane amounts of money so a bad injury can affect their present moment but also their short term future if they wanted to buy a home, to invest, to start a company or to pay for their UEFA badges. It all costs money and not playing (yes they get paid still) but it might affect a lucrative new contract or a potential transfer.
The other thing that I always feel is like I’m walking into a surprise party. Like every time there’s a post like the one with Leah today it’s almost when I least expect it so the news is always rather overwhelming in the best of ways. I almost have a hard time watching the whole video because I get emotional honestly, not even going to lie. I can just imagine 1/20th of their feelings and be totally disarmed by the enormity of it all.
Lastly I’m brought back down to reality by the fact that even though it might feel like “quick” or “speedy recovery” we all know that it has been the slowest hours from the slowest days, from the slowest months. What we see is the big events, so to speak, in the recovery arc but in reality its these tiny micro wars they have to wage every single day to get to where they are TODAY, whatever that may be.
But let’s allow ourselves to dream and hope and ponder. What would a squad with Leah, Amanda and Laia fully fit look like. Would they rotate? *Insert Boromir saying: One does simply not rotate Leah Williamson. But seriously, with those 3, would you play 3 at the back? Will she come back and play as a 6 or alongside Lia and have Viv and Kim rotate? Whichever permutation of these plays exists on the pitch we will be so spoiled. With Laia and Amanda we can experiment… we can probably have them also step in for Lia when she needs to not play every minute or every game.
Hope you have a great Friday and I’ll be posting a quick preview too before the match, of course.
d ❤
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On To Saturday
The match vs Linköping was solid. Beating a team away from home is always a tough thing and to do so in the first game of the season, even before the domestic campaign starts made me very, very happy. Before I get to all that, can I just say how great it was to see our OG girls such as McCabe, Manu, Lia, Kim and Caitlin starting? All for the same team too! That was what I have been looking forward to the most for a few months and I was just overwhelmed with a sense of calm. They’re back… which means a big part of me is back and I know a big part of yours is as well.
I was taken by total surprise by the Swedish side, specially because I knew absolutely nothing about them and had no idea what to expect. Pretty sure they have at least one player that featured heavily for Sweden during the World Cup but it’s not like I knew a ton of any of their players, which allowed me to focus exclusively on our squad, especially the new players, whom I thought did quite well.
I liked how direct Cloe was and how she embraced being on the ball, and that’s about the extent of my “expert” analysis. Thought I will say that it’s good to actually watch her and not like I did during the World Cup. Russo was great, even if she missed a sitter, I absolutely LOVE her and to me, she fits right in. I know it’s only one match and she didn’t really set the world alight but I have all the faith in the world that she will come good. There’s just no way she won’t, and I’m willing to give her a ton of time until she does. And talking about fitting right in, Amanda was absolutely incredible. She’s an absolute Rolls Royce of a defender and holy crap am I glad we got her. Her composure, her ability on the ball, her height. It was just awesome to see and I cannot wait to see what that partnership with Codina will be like. I just has to be badass doesn’t it?
Lastly, 2 of the 3 goals were headers and that is a very good sign. I was very worried as far as that department goes when Rafa left and of course without Leah, Viv orJen as she is getting less time.. regardless, Lina and Caitlin had superb goals and knowing that Amanda and Laia can head a ball real well, then this dimension is going to be another thing to add to our offensive palette.
Saturday is the next and final CL qualifier and hopefully I can actually watch the entire thing without interruptions every 12 seconds. I have a feeling the next few days are gonna feel as long the past 3 months felt.
d ❤
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11 mins away
From the season starting… maybe not the WSL but our girl’s campaign start. The lineup is not exactly how I thought it would be but I am very excited to see a few players and dynamics. All of this btw will be covered post match during a live YouTube stream a few minutes after the game.
Overall I’m just relieved that after something like 9 months we get to watch the girls play again. So that first and foremost. For a lot of us Arsenal Women is a safe space and a community that we love being a part of and I understand how it can be a massive part of someone’s identity so them being back means there’s a big part of someone that is back too, in case they felt a little lost. That’s ok and you’re not alone. Places like these are meant for you to be a part of and belong.
I’m also extremely excited to see Amanda play and how she, hopefully, takes control on the CB pairing and helps LWM with positioning and moreover, allows Lotte to go forward if she wants and we have a solid cover at the back. I also wanna see Amanda link up with Lia and Kim from a deep position and see that whole interaction as well.
Lacasse is a player I know nothing about honestly so I’m happy I get to see her because I barely watched Canada during the World Cup and when they played against Ireland there was only one team I was interested in. Sorry to my beloved Canadians, but it wasn’t your team.
Russo in an Arsenal shirt is something that is both energizing and also calming, not sure how I can explain it but it just feels like she belongs and she hasn’t even kicked a ball, let alone the hat trick that I’m expecting.
Lastly what I look forward to the most is seeing that core… the OGs… Manu, McCabe, Kim, Lia, Maritz and Frida.
Enjoy the match and see you right after! Check my twitter.com/demianarriaga for the link
d ❤
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Meado in the squado
The day I’ve been waiting for, the way you’ve been waiting for, the day we’ve been waiting for, the day SHE’S been waiting for. Our Beth is in the squad, she’s traveling and hopefully she will feature if she’s ready. Right off the gate I would say just wait a bit longer but that’s just me being over protective but she wouldn’t be in the squad if she wasn’t fit. It’s been a long time coming to say the least.
I haven’t felt anything near an ACL tear and the recovery time needed, let alone the mental adversity she has had to overcome but the emotions she has to be feeling have to be so overwhelming and difficult to explain. I’m so very proud of her. The time I was unable to play drums was a very short one and that freaked me out more than anything I have gone through and again, this wasn’t anywhere near what she had, so to beat a dead horse: it’s incredible and I’m proud of her.
In other news Vilda has been fired as the Spanish national coach. A massive win and an appointment that should’ve ceased to be many months ago if not years and years.
A new episode of That Arsenal Women Podcast is out NOW and you can listen here:
And a reminder that I will be doing a live after the whistle YouTube stream tomorrow shortly after the match, duh. d ❤
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We can be Scary AF
This is it… the week is finally here. AWFC PLAY THIS WEEK!! Not sure how else to express it haha. I’m so damn excited. I’m also very excited about the men’s win over man Utd yesterday because it is always big for the club, the morale and the momentum as a whole and if you kept up at all you would have noticed that a few of our girls were at the stadium. They are always there supporting, posting about it, bigging up the boys. I mean even Beth, a Man Utd fan, was posting about our squad winning… if that’s not love I don’t know what it. And you know what I’m gonna say… I wish those same dudes would support out girls even more. Post more, attend matches, show up for them in person time and time again would speak volumes. Not just at the Emirates but at Borehamwood too… but you’ve heard me talk about this so much you are probably over it so I’m not gonna keep banging on this drum.
So let’s think about this win as a win for the club, across the arsenal universe. How could we keep momentum? How do we continue riding this wave? How do we keep bringing misery to Utd when they are down? I know how: YOU BUY MARY EARPS.
I gotta be honest… she’s not my favorite player, I don’t love her vibes or attitude, etc etc etc but she’s among the best in the world. I’ve posted so much about Manu and I love her but getting Earps would be so massive, not only after getting Russo, but damn, while they are dazed and confused is when we can keep getting pay back from selling Van Persie. Anything that makes a rival club weaker is something that I will keep my eye out for.
Usually I’d say let’s focus on us, ignore what other teams are doing or going through but getting Mary Earps is about the biggest form or looking out for ourselves as I can imagine. It would send massive shock waves through the entire football world the same way that Arsenal did when we got Declan Rice, spending all those millions and we all saw today why we spent that money.
It says we’re not messing around… we’re serious, we’re deadly serious, and we are so good and prestigious we will go after all the best players in the world because we are historic, we are unprecedented, we are the bloody Arsenal and we’ve been in the shadows for way too long. Getting over Chelsea and getting back to being the best of the best in England is well within our control. We need to take advantage of every single thing we can and continue building a scary afc squad.
Wednesday is the start of that and I know you’re ready.
Podcast coming Monday.
Enjoy your week!
d ❤
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3 more sleeps
Four more for me technically but the season is almost here. It has felt like the longest summer ever honestly, not just because of the World Cup but for some personal reasons too. It’s. Been. Interesting. and I welcome the next few days and weeks will be even more interesting, and that is due to a few factors which I would bet my life you are also thinking about. Or maybe not.
How will Jonas actually line them up? I wonder which one of us will get the starting lineup correct… but if the rumor that I heard from a VERY RELIABLE SOURCE within the club is right, then only insiders know. I’m lying. I have no idea and I just made that up and this is exactly how rumors start, how silly is that? But really, the only thing I keep reading from random “ITK” twitter accounts is that we’re actually signing Mary Earps. They know absolutely no more than you do, honestly so don’t believe them if you don’t want to. I find it funny and interesting and I’d love to think that we would be willing to basically dismantle Man Utd and I’m here for that. These are the kinds of things that go through my head most of the day.
There was also some uproar about us not registering enough midfielders for the Champions League situation… well yeah. That’s part of the issue with injuries and also transfers, but I think we will be ok for the next 2 CL matches at the very least but yes I still think we need cover for Lia. I’ve been already so happy with the defensive transfers, that I would like the same for our midfield. I would like to see a no nonsense defensive midfielder that is close to the level and quality of Lia and we need her to rest as much as possible too, poor woman plays too much.
The other thing I wonder is how different the team will look from the match on Wednesday and the season opener vs Liverpool. My guess is that it won’t be that much different, because we don’t need the rotation and I still thing Jonas will try a new formation but what the hell do I know? I’m just basing that on England and The Netherlands playing a 3-5-2 and being fairly successful.
I’m falling asleep so a lot of what I said maybe didn’t make sense but know that I thought it did when I wrote it. haha.
But I’ll finish with the fact that I haven’t heard any news on Rubiales at all. Which bothers me a lot if I’m being totally honest but I hope Monday brings something else. til then:
Enjoy your Sunday!
d ❤
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I’m angry today
One of most frustrating things about today’s world is the lighting speed of the news cycle. It doesn’t matter if it’s the war in Ukraine, a school shooting in the USA, a natural disaster in Asia… nowadays they all feel like news about a lottery winner. A random person won, done, bye. I understand the normal decline in interest, and I certainly don’t expect anyone to keep up with every piece of news in every area of life, fully committed every single day.
Among the things that have me angry today is that I’m willing to bet large amounts of money that I don’t have, that a lot of current male players have been strategically waiting for the Hermoso/Rubiales situation to die down so they don’t have to take a stand. This grinds my fucking gears. And what bothers me the most in when I think of the female footballers that post about the situation and how they must feel when their male counterparts don’t say a thing.
And you might say: well X player said this, or an ex player did that… well, it’s not enough is it? Where is Messi? Where is Mbappe? Where is Ronaldo? I get the argument that it’s not their fight or responsibility but think about this: if the news cycle is quick and they can ignore it until it works for them… why can’t they post something knowing the news cycle is quick and most people will forget they did it? So which one is it?
Every single female footballer I follow reposted the Jenni post. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. In turn, no male footballers that I know and have asked about shared it.
It might sound like its deflating and defeating for women but make no mistake: they have never relied on or depended on men because of behaviors like the one I’m complaining about. They know men won’t save them, because they are part of the problem.
When you’re in open water and are being attacked by a shark, the last thing you would say is: “oh, I hope another shark comes here because he’ll fight that other shark”
Terrible example but I think you get my point.
Have a great Saturday.
d ❤
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Listen to this
This is a must listen podcast…
d ❤
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From “Oh sh*T to F*ck Yes!”
Since there are not a lot of news regarding Rubiales, other than I got to finally see Xavi give his opinions on the matter (they were fantastic), I will be finally be talking about the massive signings that are Amanda and Codina. And holy sh*t am I’m excited. I have been going on for months about the importance of depth in defense, specially in the CB position and now we have a solid of a partnership, at least on paper, that we can hope for without Leah Williamson.
My “Oh sh*t” moment was when it dawned on me that we would be without Leah for maybe a year and Rafa forever… I wasn’t too excited about the potential of LWB being our start CB, even with all her progress, her lack of experience is something that I don’t want in a CB, and it’s nothing personal. So I’m always going to prefer Jen and it’s fair to assume Jonas won’t start her often unless he absolutely has to, something that I disagree with but I’m also very subjective and I’ve Beattie, the hero, the goat.
Amanda was signed BEFORE the World Cup and Codina after. I was incredible to have seen Amanda flourish and be among the best players in the whole tournament, and I didn’t really know anything about her so every chance I got to see her play and kill it, I was super pleasantly surprised. And I was also surprised when I heard rumors about Codina signing and now that it’s finally official I can tell you that I don’t even know how in a blink of an eye (it was actually slow ass months but for the sake of this I’m implying it was “overnight) that “oh shit” went to a f*ck yes!
A World Cup star PLUS a World Cup winner!!!! Oh and by star I mean Steph, Caitlin, Katie, Lia, Noelle, Russo AND Laia. UNREAL!!! We are getting closer and closer to having a squad that I think can rival the best teams in the world. I think most of our players now can intimidate any team and I say we go for more… go for Earps, go for Beth England… go for Asllani.
Not sure I’m ready to leave my biased attachments behind but we need to be ruthless if we want to get to that super high level and that’s where Viv, Beth, Leah, Kim and company deserve.
This is all I got for now…let’s see what rumors start up next and hopefully I will hear news that Rubiales is fired or went to jail.
d ❤
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Trying new things
As you can imagine, being consistent with this blog brings many challenges, specially during the off-season when sometimes it feels like I’m making up topics out of thin air. Or recently with Rubialesgate, I have felt a responsibility to keep people updated since I know I have some readers who basically visit this site to get some news here and there. Said responsibility extends to feminism and more.
Among those challenges is the time difference. Most of my audience comes from the UK and The Netherlands. And whoever is reading this, wherever from please know how much I value you! So in the spirit of connecting more and doing it in a better way, did some auditing so to speak and I realized the times of my blogs weren’t the best. Ideally these are things you wake up to, not blogs that you read after you got home from work, so my plan is to post around midnight LA time which will be early morning for you in that side of the world, instead of the usual 8am ish times of my current posts.
I’m a firm believe of habit building and anchoring a habit with another one and also having a reward, and in this case it’s all very clear and obvious to me. We’ll see what happens but I’m making a proactive shift from what worked for me to what I believe will be “better” for you. Because you are why I do this. To offer something different to what’s the norm in the Arsenal Women blog world and of course to help distract you from anything insane going on in your life.
Now, to parlay that with AWFC, I think that Jonas will be trying lots of new things. This summer has been silently loud… massive changes right in from of us and I cannot wait to see how much stronger we will look in just a few days time. Signing Codina is so, so, so massive. The squad depth is developing nicely and knowing we can start this season with Amanda Ilestedt and Laia Codina at center back!?!? Are you kidding me?! And if we have to rotate, even without Leah, we have Jen, Steph, Noelle who can play there as well.
I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!
d ❤
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A very subjective look into AWFC 