A very subjective look into AWFC

by Demian Arriaga

PODCAST

  • What if???

    I was thinking about what the consequences of not winning tomorrow would be. Now, this seems like a terribly dark and negative outlook but it’s actually not. I am posing the question because it could be a positive thing as it relates to a very simple fact: it is what it is, and we gotta deal with it.

    So what do I mean by that? Well it’s very much a reality thing. In life good things and bad things happen and we just gotta keep going. We gotta learn, we gotta expand, we gotta grow, we gotta adapt and we have to adopt a new behavior or set of habits so that things either change, or we learn from them etc.

    My mom always says that “sometimes you win, other times you learn” and I absolutely agree with this. So, as it applies to Arsenal Women tomorrow, of course I’d love for them to win and I’m hoping that happens, and actually I’m positive they will win, BUT what will we do as a club if the current manager lets us down again? Whatever happens, because of him or missed chances or whatever, we just simply have to keep going and adapt, grow, learn, etc because that is what winners do and we have a squad full of them and they will never, ever willfully let us down.

    Two seasons in a row without CL is unthinkable, truly unthinkable but also not the worst thing ever nor would it be unacceptable to a degree, but to not get this squad, with world class players, World Cup winners, Euro Winners, Champion’s League winners, etc etc etc, would be into the next stage would have to be the final nail in the coffin for the current manager. That, is just the least he should be able to achieve.

    If you have read up until this point and get a vibe of me writing a lot but not saying anything, you’re not far off. I know this all sounds repetitive and redundant and repetitive (lol). But sometimes I read things on blogs that make me feel that some people live life in a way that I cannot comprehend, which is filled with entitlement and judgment and that’s not something I strive for yet I’m constantly saying how the current manager has to go and that I would line them up differently, etc.

    And to that point, just to make it all very, very clear: not for ONE second do I actually think that I know more about football that he does. I have never thought that about any manager ever, and he is not an exception. I just have strong thoughts and opinions just like you or anyone that is a fan of the sport.

    Tomorrow will be interesting for me because I can only watch the first half and I’m gonna be checking my FotMob at like crazy but I know I shouldn’t are actually won’t be able to because I’ll be driving, but if all goes well, the girls will be up 3-0 by halftime and I can at least assume it’ll be all smooth sailing and we’ll all be able to breathe a sigh of relief before the anxiety of Man City at home aka Viv’s return.

    d ❤

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  • Diamond Lia

    Today’s post is gonna be super short or at least this first draft because I have to leave in literally minutes and I have no idea if I will have time to write later today, but there was something that happened at the match yesterday that I feel is worth talking about even if its for a couple of paragraphs.

    You know I’m a fan of Lia Walti because I know you’re also a fan of hers and being a fan of hers is one of the easiest and most logical things to be basically ever. We have missed her so very much and I don’t think anyone comes close to her. So even when the midfield was dominating Rangers, when she came on, for those last 20 min or so, she was incredible.

    She looked and felt immense and maybe this is just me missing her a lot but we just look more organized, more poised and also much more elegant. She is fluid and tough and elegant and reliable. She’s a diamond. Beyond hoping she stays healthy and comes back to full fitness, my wish for her is that we reward her worth for the club with the right players, system and tactics around her. She’s world class and she’s too good, like most of our squad, to finish 4th, 3rd or basically anything less than a trophy.

    In addition, her playing alongside Kim is obviously super key and very, very crucial but we saw once again what an asset Katie is specially farther up the pitch AND more central, so again, I’m gonna keep banging on the midfield trio of Lia, Kim and Katie. I’ll die on that hill.

    Gotta run… more on this tomorrow AND some news about the Highbury Squad.

    d ❤

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  • Rosenborg Next

    It was so, so good watching the girls play a competitive match. Thankfully, like I expected and wished for it was a convincing win. Keeping in mind that the opposition were who they were, this felt like still a friendly or an exhibition match but regardless of that, the result was great.

    Among the things that I love about football is how it proves to us all, at different times, that we are completely wrong and today was literally a perfect example because as you know, not only am I not a fan of the current manager, but I am definitely not a fan of what I perceive to be an obsession with Foord, who in my opinion had a terrible season and should be benched asap.

    She scores 4 goals, all really well taken. Absolutely balled today. Against Rangers but still, some of those goals were incredible so, good for her and I’m very very very happy for any of our squad players when we win and when any of them score. Having a 4 goal match is incredible however you slice it if you ask me.

    I know this is gonna sound absurd but Foord was not my player of the match. Caldentey was unreal. What a proper footballer she is. You know that, I know that, but this is the first time of many that we see her start and ball from the first minute. Total pleasure watching her play and I’m so glad she is a player we brought it.

    My suggestion would be to not get overly confident. Sorry but this is “just” Rangers and the upcoming season opener is gonna be such a massive contest and a much, much more competitive match. Even Rosenborg is gonna be a tougher opposition, in theory, but who the hell knows? This is good. Every time they win is good. Whenever they smile and celebrate is good. I’m not downplaying anything. All the opposite. I’m so proud of them. Saturday is gonna be super interesting and I cannot wait to see what the girls do and how but as with this match I gotta say I’m extremely confident. After all, we have Kim Little in our squad and that will always provide me with a LOT of confidence against any and all.

    Another thing I’ll say about today is the overall solid look of the defense. The shape, the passing, the whole thing. I thought Leah was excellent and even though they weren’t truly challenged, there’s something to be said about doing things right across the pitch to mitigate than challenge but I thought all 4 players were outstanding.

    A win, numerous goals scored, no injuries… what more can we want?!

    d ❤

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  • That’s it.

    I’m done. I’m quite literally at a breaking point when I cannot handle a single day without Arsenal Women playing an actual competitive match. My anxiety has been going through the roof and watching the girls play is when I feel a sense of peace and relaxation even if the score is nuts or the match is frustrating.

    My guess is most of you have done planks when working out. I hate them. I hate them very, very much. Planks, however, are one of the most important exercises as it relates to force of will, to mind over matter, to determination, to patience and it relates to breaking a plain that is on another freaking dimension.

    If you’ve done a plank you’ll know that at one point you just cannot hold it any longer. It’s brutal, you’re all red, you’re shaking and then you just basically collapse and hit the ground and wish you were falling into a shallow grave and not a yoga mat.

    That’s exactly how I feel. I’m done. I cannot take another day, which is in this case equivalent to a second more. This is it. I’m spent. My energy is zapped, my curiosity is at the highest and I’m just ready for the season to start.

    Loved, absolutely LOVED hearing Leah speak about coming back to the CL and I hadn’t realized that her last match was the one vs Bayern Munich. Holy shit. That feels like so long ago, obviously because it is but goodness me, imagine how long it feels for HER.

    Again, this is why I believe truly that football and female footballers especially can teach us so much about life and empathy and vulnerability. Makes me wanna NOT quit this blog and stay optimistic and working towards the bigger picture.

    No predictions other than what is needed and that is a convincing victory. There’s just no excuse, no matter the opposition. It could be Barcelona and I would say the same thing. We are the Arsenal and the women architects that built this club did it precisely via and because of the Champions League.

    Maybe some players won’t play for the current manager, but they will for sure play for pride, for themselves, their teammates and the previous players at one of the most important clubs in women’s football history.

    d ❤

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  • Two for me, one for you

    When I tell you that I didn’t have even 5 minutes today to write a blog I literally mean that. Literally literally, not literally figuratively. I was absolutely swamped for very good reasons and it’s not until now aka 10:59pm that I have some time to write something about something related to Arsenal Women.

    If all goes well, I will be restarting That Arsenal Women Podcast and you will most likely see me pretty much inactive here. Not positive yet but if what needs to happen happens, then yes, you’ll see me here less and less, but I don’t see the pod going away. It’s funny because I’ve said the total opposite before, meaning that I’ll quit the pod and stay posting every day but lately I’ve felt like the end of a cycle is here.

    What is also here is the girls’s first competitive match of the season. In what are two sleeps for me, one for you if you’re in Europe, etc… bottom line is that they play Wednesday and it’s still Monday for me.

    Because I know nothing about Rangers, literally nothing as far as the women’s team is concerned, I don’t really know what to think. Normally, I would check out some of our opponents’ squad, their results, etc but FotMob doesn’t even show a single piece of information about Rangers so I’m back to square one.

    I’m extremely excited because the match is at 11:30am my time which is such a gift because waking up at 4:30am during the week isn’t as forgiving. I’m also excited because the season starts my friends. Read that again… THE SEASON STARTS.

    We’ve been waiting for this for what feels like forever and I have to tell you, since I’ve been a proper fan this has been the absolute longest and most stressful off season and I’m sorry if you’re over this topic but everything revolves around Viv. I’m personally not over it and I will never be over it.The same way I’m not over DvD or Jill Roord or Beattie or Jordan Nobbs.

    My point is that because I have so many strong feelings about the whole situation and about the current manager, none of them being positive in the big scheme of things, this period has felt extremely slow, boring, uncertain and frustrating.

    There’s a lot of changes going on and not all of them are positive from what I can see, from what I hear and from what I read. Regarding the last thing I have to tell you that one of the main reasons I quit twitter for a while is because of how terribly toxic the fan base has become, so entitled, so belittling, so contradicting and I’m sorry if this sounds arrogant but I’m so over it and I love myself way too much to spend my time and energy there.

    I don’t miss the hypocrisy, I don’t miss the people who haven’t kicked a football since they were 11 years of age saying the most uninformed things about players that they don’t know, on and off the pitch. It’s just wild that some people truly believe they know what’s going on when they really don’t.

    Anyway, I went dark real quick so I’m just gonna go to bed.

    xo

    d ❤

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  • More of the same please

    What a wild day. I’m finally getting a moment to write this blog today and it’s 4pm my time here in California. I have had a truly long day and I was in a car for about 5 hours and I had no chance to write or post or even check anything remotely close to Arsenal Women. But even though it seems I’m delaying writing something, I have decided to open my laptop and try my best to put something “on paper” here for you.

    I was torn regarding the quality of the opposition aka Southampton. On one hand I felt it was irresponsible to play against an opponent considerably lower in experience, level, etc because it doesn’t offer anywhere near as a real situation as they’ll face with Rangers. Or so you’d think… I don’t actually know… I truly have no clue whatsoever how good/bad Rangers are and they might be just as good as Southampton.

    On the other hand maybe a “soft” opposition is exactly what the girls needed in the sense that going into a clutch match, a CL qualifier no less, after a convincing win, a nice scoreline and maybe new tactics employed, can be a very beneficial thing. Again, I don’t know and I’m not positive as to what I would rather do.

    If the two scenarios would be an easy opponent or a more complex one, neither one guarantees the most important thing in my opinion and that is the health of the players and by that I mean if they get injured or not. It’s worth reminding folks that fixture congestion is a problem not only because of the amount of matches in a short span of time, but also in a macro sense. The shear number of matches is also a problem, not only when they occur.

    The 3-0 was great and I think we all needed that and that’s not saying much because we all want them to win all the time, against any and all opposition. I’m no different, I also want that to happen and now we just have to wait and see what the current manager has in mind as it relates to the CL match.

    The one thing/choice that concerns me is Foord. I just don’t know how he can keep picking her over and over and I believe she’s started the last 2 matches and if this means that she will play vs Rangers I so much rather her be on the bench and have Katie or Mariona there instead.

    I’m basically passing out and have to take a nap right now but I’ll try to get back to writing these earlier in the day.

    d ❤

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  • Lineup Fiasco

    I’m doing everything I can to not mention how the game wasn’t streamed and how I wish I would’ve watched the girls win, specially the last friendly before the campaign starts, but clearly I can’t help myself, adding to 15000 comments about it on instagram. But I was ready to watch it at 5:30am when I should have been.

    This weekend I have a very cool gig about 5 hours from LA at a place called Mammoth Lakes, which is an absolutely gorgeous spot, with a ski resort, mountains, trails, and anything you might want and need if you are into the outdoors and things like that. I personally am not, in case you were wondering and I have no intention on hiking and seeing a bear, which according to my friend that comes here about 15 times a year, he says there is one bear within 500 yards of you at all time.

    Anyway, we drove up and got here around 5:30, the gig started at 10pm, and it consisted of two sets of about 1 hour and 20 min each and this music is non stop, high intensity jazz/funk/fusion/improv extravaganza. All this to say that I only got to bed at 2am and after the adrenaline wore down and I finally was able to sleep it was about 3:30am aka 2 hours before the girls played, BUT I woke up at 4am to watch the men play.

    I usually have no issue waking up early because I go to be early the night before but today was wild and I am actually glad the match wasn’t streamed in a way… not really, but kinda.

    But friends, there is something that bothers me a lot, it’s a massive issue I have with the club and with football clubs in general when they do this and it’s when the give ups the lineup vertically without any field positions even suggested. Like WTF. You know the lineup, you know TV coverage would have it and by protocol the right people get the info, so why share it in such an annoying way?

    I can’t stand it.

    I don’t want to decipher who is playing where. And I get that there’s flexibility and things are fluid but there has to be some general idea given I think.

    In case you don’t follow me or more likely I’m just not explaining myself correctly… when the lineup came out they listed, in vertical order: Manu, Fox, Williamson (great so far) but then Caldentey and Little… Well, Mariona is not playing centrally in defense with Leah and Kim sure as fuck is not our left back.

    Just follow a logical order.

    Please. I beg you.

    d ❤

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  • Again… McCabe as CDM!

    I cannot believe the disrespect that I have seen towards Katie. And no, thankfully I’m not talking about only abuse at the moment, but what I am talking about is how I have not seen a single lineup prediction with her in it.

    The first thing I will say is that this is mostly a judgment on my end as it relates to blogs I have seen and searched for as I am no longer on twitter which by the way, it has been such an incredible decision and I honestly recommend everyone to just move on from that hell space.

    But back to ignoring Katie. Like, what? How do you not have her on your team? even if it seems forced and she’s out of position, there has to be room for her and as a matter of fact, if she’s fully fit, as far as I’m concerned it has to be her + 10.

    She’s better, more efficient, tenacious and more experienced than KCC, Manuum, etc and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that she could absolutely kill it alongside Kim. I would bet my house and all my musical instruments that she is the right choice for that.

    Tactically and all that, if we just on paper focus on a 4-3-3 formation, the potential of Lia with Kim and Katie at either side would be unreal, with Caldentey and Beth on each wing and our 9 can be anyone basically.

    If there is one thing I would do if a genie came into my possession and granted one footballing wish it would be that.

    I get that people have reservations but if you have ever seen her play in person with Ireland, you see her freedom, her work rate and her vision and it is second to none. Beyond this, if she is left on the bench we’re gonna lose her and she’s gonna go to Lyon id season and win the Champions League.

    d ❤

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  • Replacing a legend

    A couple of hours ago, I got off the phone with a fellow musician friend of mine who was telling an amazing piece of news about potentially replacing basically a household name musician in a household name band. Obviously the news was incredibly beautiful and I’m very proud of them and the more we talked, the more confident I felt about it all.

    During the conversation we touched up on the elephant in the room that we both perceived, which is the fact that they are considerably different than the legend they are replacing, and when I say different I meant DIFFERENT. Although they are excited about the potential life changing situation, they are at peace with the fact that they are different altogether and that trying to replace a legend is almost pointless.

    Of course this made me think about football and out AWFC squad. I personally feel we have many legends. Kim, Katie, Leah and Beth will be considered legends in my book, and so will Steph Catley as a matter of fact. They are irreplaceable players, just like Viv is, just like Jen and Jordan are.

    This doesn’t mean that there won’t be anyone close to them or better, what I’m getting at is the ideal of having to “replace” someone as a “like for like” acquisition. Aka a forward for a forward, etc. I have a hard time with all of this as a whole specially because of the pressure that it can be put on a player, whether they care about it or not, because that pressure is something that WE as fans carry, as pressure is something the players are used to and a lot of them thrive because of it.

    Imagine being asked to be the next Kim Little. Well, good luck. You’re not going to be the next Kim. Nobody is. However, I do feel that sometimes it gets blurry as many people just want to will a player that they like into the level of a literal legend. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but if you’re looking for Pelova or KCC to be as good as Kim Little, I don’t think it’s fair to anyone as they need to be, as Simone Biles says: the first one of THEM.

    But just as an exercise I started thinking about what it would be like if someone called me to replace a world renowned drummer or percussionist. This got me thinking and my anxiety, in a good way, loved that situation and it’s also something that I visualize often but that’s a topic for another day.

    I got on the treadmill and continued these thoughts while The Overlap was playing on my YouTube on the TV. Roy Keane and Gary Neville were chatting about Bruce Springsteen and I immediately thought how insane it would be for me to follow their current percussionist. I would be absolutely petrified, but only if they were looking for another version of Ivan. The first version of me? bring it. But having to sing, be a showman, aside from all the incredible attributes he possesses, would be a bridge to far in my humble opinion.

    So at some point we need to trust. Players have to trust the board and of course, they would also have to trust the current manager… I don’t know how anyone would but again, yet another topic for another day.

    Caldentey cannot be expected to just be what Viv was because we have seen how Viv, because of the current manager and his lack of aptitude, even VIV HERSELF couldn’t be her, again and to make it clear, conditioned by how the current manager behaved and carried out his vision.

    I do have to say that if were to bet as to who the next “legend” for arsenal women will be I would say Daphne. I believe that she is going to elevate us to higher levels very, very soon.

    d ❤

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  • I was wrong, again

    Soooooo I had written in such a confident manner that the match vs Chelsea in DC was the very last match before the girls take on Rangers but I was totally wrong. I should’ve done the research but I just assumed that there couldn’t possibly be another match in between, but as the title says: I WAS WRONG.

    But, what’s new?

    Another thing that is not new, is me forgetting to mention something important and few things are more important to this team than Lia Walti and her health. If you have read this blog chances are that you have heard me make the comparison to a barometer. To me, for the millionth time, Lia is the one that reflects how the season goes and how the team play. If she plays well, the team plays well. If she has a great season, we have a great season. She is HER.

    The fact that she was out for so damn long is never not shocking to me. We are just so much better with her, when she’s playing well of course, but even when she isn’t at her best, she oozes so much class and consistency that it just cannot ever imagine this team without her.

    There’s absolutely no way anyone can convince me that we could win the WSL without Lia as a consistent player, and I mean that in every sense of the word. Having her back is obviously massive news and I hope, like you, that she can stay fit for as long as humanly possible.

    The next and last friendly will be vs Southampton if I’m not mistaken and I would expect whoever starts will also start against rangers for that massive UWCL qualifier in a few days. I’m getting very anxious about it but I’m confident we can beat them, but to be honest, I don’t feel the same way about the City match. That is a topic we’ll discuss another day for sure and this is not just about Viv and their players but us and the current manager.

    Frankly, I’m scared. Not gonna lie.

    d ❤

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