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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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3 Sides
I flew to Portland for a couple of days to visit my sister and to take her and my wife to see Extreme. It was amazing as always. One of their best albums is called 3 Sides To Every Story, and as the saying goes there’s “your side, my side and then there’s the truth.”
What Rubiales, the coach and even his mom are doing is lying to you and using every manipulation and control tactic possible to make you doubt reality. And listen, I know I should be talking about Laia Codina signing for AWFC but can we just talk about the craziness that is the news that the mother of Rubiales has chained herself to a church door and declared a hunger strike. I’m not equipped to dissect the mother/son dynamic which my unprofessional opinion states that it is based on absolute madness. The gaslighting is there for us all to see, clear as day and we cannot let the speed of news cycles allow us to take our eyes off.
There is an apparent 15 year suspension on the cards? Vilda also suspended and expected to be fired at any moment…The punishment cannot come soon enough and it can’t be strong enough. This has to be a massive statement and the perfect opportunity to show the world what a unified women’s football community can achieve, with a just cause being the goal.
Every single day crazier things are bubbling up and I just heard on the radio that there might be some issues for Rubiales with Australian police, since this abuse was done in Australian soil. So let’s think about this…
During the past World Cup (men’s edition) we all heard the threats that if a player in Saudi Arabia were to be open/active about being pro LGBTQ+ or would defy the rules set by FIFA that they would safe serious consequences including jail. Journalists were arrested, threatened and more. Wether we like it or not, those are the laws in that country and our feelings about those laws aren’t relevant. The other side of the token is when sexual abuse takes place in a country where sexual abuse is seen as a horrible thing, and that country is Australia, among others of course.
I hope the full weight of the law brings him down. There is not getting out of this and I’m here of everything. Even for the hunger strike, sorry not sorry.
d ❤
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Paradox of tolerance in women’s football
You don’t have to be a private investigator or a genius to know exactly what my political stance is. To me, more than it being about politics, living in the USA, it’s a matter of right and wrong and of course both sides would say they are convinced they are on the right side of history. But if there is one thing that I have learned in the past few years living in such a polarized society is that tolerance has to have a ceiling. We can’t just live life being tolerant of anyone and everyone just because of free speech. We don’t have to and we shouldn’t, and you guessed it: this applies to Rubiales as well. Follow along…
About a decade ago I became familiar with the paradox of tolerance. Instead of giving you my version of it, what I can tell you this is and I’m quoting this from google: Philosopher Karl Popper described the paradox of tolerance as the seemingly counterintuitive idea that “in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.” Essentially, if a so-called tolerant society permits the existence of intolerant philosophies, it is no longer tolerant.
For the record, I don’t know anything about Mr. Popper and I am in no way endorsing any of his ideas or other philosophies. Just letting you know! I just know of him because of this paradox.
So, to kinda explain it in footballing terms. If we keep saying that homophobia should be kicked out of the game, there will be many homophobes that believe that since we claim to deserve tolerance, we need to respect their anti homosexuality and their hatred against the LGBTQ+ community. They feel they should be tolerated just as we are asking them to tolerate our cause. However, if these bigots take complete control and they were to have it their way, they would need their hatred and homophobic views to be respected and tolerated and not shunned, and then they flip it around and will without a doubt persecute their opposition hence exercising intolerance.
We have seen it already. All the strides and progress and then the Saudis host the World Cup and no man protests or does anything to defy this (which I’m not judging because they could have gotten jailed or killed there) but the power the Saudis have means there’s not tolerance for homosexuality. And that rippled into FIFA not allowing women during the world cup to wear things they wanted to wear for their causes.
But here’s the point as it relates to Jenni Hermoso:
We cannot tolerate or excuse the kind of behavior that Rubiales put on display. We cannot normalize the massive level of gaslighting that he is carrying out. We cannot tolerate it. If we do, and if we let this continue to be the norm, the toxic masculinity club will continue to rule and feel more and more empowered because there won’t be consequences to their actions. Then, they will actively limit and minimize the progress women have been making for 100 years.
They want women quiet.
They want women obedient.
They will tell you that its respect that they want but in reality what they want is for them to be submissive.
This is the MO of an abuser.
This will should be very enlightening, I hope. We know that FIFA has gotten involved but I don’t think there has been any comment from UEFA. Or at least that’s what Ian Wright tweeted about and I haven’t seen anything to the contrary. I still am hopeful that there will be massive waves and the tsunami that will drown Rubiales will set a precedent for women in this sport we love so much, women whom we love even more.
Hope you all have an amazing week and thanks for your energy, your time and your interest in this blog which is focusing on this whole situation until he quits and or the Arsenal Women start their season fully.
d ❤
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NOthing is gonna change until we change
Last night was one of those surreal nights here in LA. I got to finally, after yeeeeeaaaaars of wanting to, see Dogstar play live. That band is mostly known for having Keanu Reeves as their bassist, but its a totally awesome, legit band, whose singer/guitar player is a friend of mine. Our schedules never lined up and also the band was on a 20 + year hiatus so it’s hard to see them play in general. But anyway, they were absolutely incredible and it was well worth the wait.
If that wasn’t surreal enough I got to spend time with a great friend of mine who I used to tour with and is one of the best guitar players to ever do it, and nights like there are always so special and I never take them for granted. And I was reminiscing on some of our times together on the road and I realized that there was a song of his that I only got to play live a couple of times, and that song is called “Change” which you can listen to here
Anyway, in the song there’s a line that is very simple and very powerful: NOTHING IS GONNA CHANGE UNTIL YOU CHANGE. By you I mean me and I mean us. I mean the patriarchy, I mean Rubiales, I mean misogyny. And of course this is a fight has been going on forever and I’m afraid it is perpetual, but every so often we as a society are given these moments where we use them as a global conscience trigger and we get on the same page and strive for changes.
If you have a set position on this rubialesgate disgrace, and you never tweet about it, then change and do it. I’m not judging you or anyone for doing or not doing anything, but if you want change, if you want things to change you have to be that change, and yes, every little bit helps, and it might be a tiny ripple in the infinite ocean of injustice but you owe it to yourself to be proactive, to step out of your comfort zone and do things for the greater good.
And to be clear, I’m not implying than I’m doing more than you or than anyone, my point is that it’s never enough. The more football clubs talk about Jenni the better, the more national teams speak out the better, etc etc etc. It’s never enough.
So, stay the course and keep fighting.
d ❤
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Collective Empathy at the highest levels
Rubiealesgate… I know this is a massive problem, one in which the governing bodies or a huge show of force are the only ways for a change to happen. So how would this niche blog be of help? Am I THAT delusional to think that I could actually have an impact and realistically help? The answer is both yes and no. No, I don’t think I have the numbers, the visibility, the track record or reputation to actually make ripples directly on the issue. But the responsibility I feel I have to each and every one of my 10 readers 😭 is as big as anything I’ve ever done in the public eye, especially with this situation. Even if I turn one set of eyes into the issue, then I did my “job.”
If you have been keeping up with this blog you’ll be familiar with my plead for more empathy. This applies to myself, to fans, to the world of football, to men, to people as a whole. This is something that we couldn’t and cannot get enough of and as one of my favorite songwriters (Gary Cherone from Extreme) ever put it: “We need more feet to walk in one another’s shoes.” Something worth thinking about. BTW this is from the song “Stop The World” from the album 3 Sides To Every Story.
You don’t need me to tell you this, unless you’ve been living under a rock but a huge portion of the footballing community has come together in support of Jenni and it will continue to do so because this isn’t about her. It’s about every woman in the game, and adjacent to it as well. And if this wasn’t all horrific enough, the Spanish Federation has decided to take legal action against Jenni. Can you believe it? Yes you can and you should.
It’s getting uglies by the minute but this is when we cannot get tired of fighting. We can’t get tired of talking about it. We can’t quit. We can’t stop.
Jenni needs us, every woman needs us.
d ❤
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NEvermind doors… the floodgates are open
It’s impossible to not address this whole situation and to be totally honest with you guys, I don’t feel I have the correct tools at the moment to tackle this topic. But there is one thing I know for sure: what is about to come from this blatant abuse of power is something that these fragile, narcissistic men are not prepared for. The entire women’s football community is coming together to dismantle this misogynistic mafia.The behavior shown by these monsters is predictable and disgusting. So many women have been triggered by these actions and add to him not resigning, a show of support by all these other disgusting men that applaud him and celebrate his hubris and total lack of awareness, empathy and kindness.
I have a very strong feeling that we are entering the “find out” part of the “f*ck around” era. I honestly just keep coming back to that.. that we have no idea about the magnitude about whats about to unfold. And I’m here for it. Right when they thought they got away with it… they messed up, in the biggest way possible, and it’s our duty as football fans, as a community to help Jenni and every single woman in the game by expressing our thoughts and rejecting this man in every way possible.
People are only going to join in more quantities and they will be louder and louder. There’s no going back. Infantino wanted women to know the doors were open… just wait, you pathetic little man… just wait.
This is all I got today. Enjoy your weekend.
d ❤
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How many #1’s are too many?
Women can be incredible goalkeepers and this World Cup showed the world not just how important keepers are but a clear evolution within that position in recent times. You’re read me talk about this before and the importance of height as well, but keepers like the French used during the PK’s proves that argument wrong too. And I love it.
If you not only follow the women’s squad but also the men’s team, you know this, but in case you only follow the girls there might be some transfer news that you aren’t aware of and that is that Arsenal just signed David Raya, an outstanding keeper who was Brentford’s #1. Almost every pundit, expert, analyst, etc are saying that there’s no way that he was bought to sit on the bench which means that Aaron Ramsdale aka our current #1 will be replaced, and it’s only a matter of time.
Some of these people bring up the very valid point that virtually no clubs ever have 2 super incredible keepers and there’s a clear #1 always. Sure, that can be historically accurate but I have no problem at all with there being elite competition for every single position up and down the pitch. We all know keepers are crazy and built differently, to put in nicely and I’m very well aware of this because I’m a keeper myself.
Anyone that has had any interest in this position at all knows that the “keepers union” is a thing and there’s a special bond among them. Great, deep, challenging stuff. They make each other play better and every #1 owes a lot to the second choice keeper. They live in a virtual island and share so much, which I always find so tough mentally when I think about being in either one of those player’s boots.
Now at AWFC we clearly have Manu and to me she is MILES ahead of any other keeper we have had in recent times. She has gotten so much better since I started supporting this team and I think she will only get better, specially this season since she had plenty of time to recover, train and live her life as she deserves, and I think she got married too.
I do think that we need more competition and technically we always need a 3rd keeper, which we don’t at the moment. If Manu gets injured and Sabrina starts and gets a red card for example, then who plays in goal? an academy player? Viv is injured!
I am very curious to know what Jonas will do, the profile of keeper, and more importantly to me, their height like I said. Only a matter of time.
d ❤
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Lineups for next year?!
I’m only doing this because I’m clearly desperate for the season to start and I cannot wait to see what Jonas does.
Since the dutch and the lionesses used a 3-5-2 I’m gonna go with that, just for fun.
So… here is how I would line them up…
Another option, more of a 4-3-3 would be
Clearly, there’s no way for me to know what he will choose but these two are setups that I would feel very confident starting the season with, while we wait for Beth to be healthy. If I were to include her, it would look like this:
If you were Jonas, what would you do?
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A very subjective look into AWFC 