A stunning Arsenal weekend for the Women, U23s and U18s

by Andrew Crawshaw

For our Women, U23s and U18s it has been an excellent weekend – unlike our Men’s first team.

Women’s FA Cup semi final – Everton v Arsenal Sunday 15 April.  This match was played at the Marine Travel Stadium, home to non-league Marine FC.  The ground is in Crosby, Liverpool and, for once, was exactly where the sat-nav said it was.  A grass pitch, in decent condition but less level than we are used to now that Borehamwood has been upgraded to Desso.

A stand at one end full of the home supporters and a covered side on the opposite side to the dug-outs with a mixture of Everton and Arsenal supporters.

The Everton end
TV tower at Marine FC

Television cameras were present as the match was being shown by the BBC on the Red Button.  In total there were 1,457 spectators present (mostly for Everton).

The Arsenal Team was:-

Arsenal Team

Back Row – Sari Van Veenendaal (GK), Louise Quinn, Beth Mead, Dominique Janssen, Leah Williamson, Emma Mitchell

Front Row – Heather O’Reilly, Kim Little (C) , Jordan Nobbs, Lisa Evans and Danielle Carter

On the bench, pictured with our medical and coaching staff were :-

Arsenal Bench and Coaching Staff

Anna Moorhouse (GK), Katy McCabe , Vivianne Miedema, Danielle Van de Donk and Ava Kuyken

Everton started with Kirstie Levell, Faye Bryson, Georgia Brougham, Gabrielle George, Siri Worm, Angharad James, Olivia Chance, Jodie Brett, Chloe Kelly, Courtney Sweetman-Kirk and Danielle Turner.  On their Bench Lizzie Durak, Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah, Taylor Hinds, Megan Finigan and Mollie Green.

The match started with both teams testing out the other, neither creating any clear cut chances, both defences being able to nullify the other’s attack but with the majority of the play in the Everton half.

In Min 25 Arsenal at last put together a real skilful attack down the right hand side, Dominique Janssen played the ball out of defence to Lisa Evans who passed to Heather O’Reilly on the wing.  She beat her marker got to the byeline and put in a great low cross into the Everton area where Danielle Carter was presented with an easy opportunity to slot the ball home from the edge of the six yard area.  One nil to the Arsenal and on balance no more than we deserved.

We dominated the remainder of the first half but good defending from Everton meant that we were unable to create more than half chances and the half ended with just the solitary goal.

The second half started with both teams showing attacking intentions, We needed an excellent tackle by Quinn to deny Chloe Kelly a clear run at our goal.  In the 67th Minute the referee Abigail Marriott decided that a tackle by Dominique Janssen was both a foul and inside the penalty area and awarded Everton a penalty.  I was at the opposite end of the ground at pitch level but it looked to me that any challenge was made outside the area.    Video replays are inconclusive, it was a foul and was on or very close to the 18 yard markings.  1,400 Everton supporters in the stand at that end of the ground disagreed with me and ex Gunner Chloe Kelly made no mistake from the spot sending Sari the wrong way.

Despite intense pressure from Arsenal the game looked destined to go into extra time until we were awarded a corner on the left hand side in the second minute of time added on.  Jordan Nobbs put in a beautiful inswinger which was met by a thumping header by Louise Quinn giving the Everton keeper no chance.

No way back from there for Everton.  A tight match but the right result on the balance of play.

Brief highlights are available on Arsenal.com

We now go to Wembley on 5th May where we will play Chelsea who beat Manchester City by two goals to nil in the other semi-final.

The next Ladies Matches are Wednesday Evening 19:30 at Meadow park against Reading and Saturday away at Yeovil.  We need wins in both matches to keep up pressure on both Chelsea and Man City who are currently first and second in the league and occupying the two European places for next year.

The Under 23s

Our U23s went to the top of their League with a 1- 0 win at the Emirates on Friday evening against Swansea.  Charlie Gilmour scored the only goal two minutes into the second half. Post-Match Report U-23s: Arsenal 1-0 Swansea: How it happened

This result put pressure on Leicester who very surprisingly lost their game against Sunderland on Sunday by 4 – 1.

With one game to go for all teams, we have 39 points, Liverpool are second with 37 and Leicester are third with 34.

Our final game is on Friday Evening at the London Stadium when we take on West Ham.  Win that game and we win the league no matter what happens elsewhere.

Club
Pl
W
D
L
F A GD
Pts
1 Arsenal 21 12 3 6 45 31 14 39
2 Liverpool 21 12 1 8 38 26 12 37
3 Leicester City 21 10 6 5 33 19 14 36
4 Swansea City 21 10 4 7 39 31 8 34
5 West Ham United 21 9 4 8 29 29 0 31
6 Chelsea 21 8 5 8 33 30 3 29
7 Everton 21 9 2 10 30 34 -4 29
8 Manchester City 21 7 6 8 36 31 5 27
9 Tottenham Hotspur 21 7 5 9 38 43 -5 26
10 Derby County 21 7 3 11 31 41 -10 24
11 Sunderland 21 6 4 11 19 38 -19 22
12 Manchester United 21 4 7 10 20 38 -18 19
 The Under 18s

On Monday evening our U18s played the second leg of their FA Youth Cup semi-final against Blackpool.  The tie was even at two all following the away leg but this was at the Emirates and our youngsters made absolutely no mistake with a thumping 5 – 0 win.

Video Watch the goals from our FA Youth Cup semi-final Check out all the best bits from our under-18s’ superb 5-0 victory over Blackpool on Monday night

We started well and it was a surprise that we failed to score in the first 15 minutes bur three in five minutes gave Blackpool no chance.  Falorin Balogun got the first in Min 18 with a header, quickly followed by Danny Ballard with another header, this time from an Amaechi corner. Robbie Burton got a third from 25 yards in Min 23.

The goal of the match then came in Min 33; Emile Smith Rowe got the ball half way in our half and set off on a run passing five Blackpool players before being brought down in the penalty area.  He got up, dusted himself down and finished the move from the penalty spot.

Whilst the second half didn’t quite live up to the heights of the first there was still drama, Amaechi had a shot well saved by Thordson in the Blackpoool goal and the Blackpool midfielder Jack Newton twice had to resort to pulling our attackers to the ground on both occasions getting deserved yellow cards.

Matthew Smith, on as a substitute, completed the scoring in stoppage time after a shot by Bukayo Sako was only parried by Thordson.

A two legged final against League winners Chelsea now awaits,  The first leg is at Stamford Bridge on April 27th followed by the second leg at the Emirates on April 30th.

If only our Men’s first team was doing as well!

COYG

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5 Replies to “A stunning Arsenal weekend for the Women, U23s and U18s”

  1. Here’s the lineup for the Ladies game at Meadow Park (vs Reading?)

    Twit:
    > Here today’s team news: Van Veenendaal, Evans, Williamson, Quinn, Mitchell, Janssen, Nobbs, Little (c), Van de Donk, Carter, Miedema. Subs: Moorhouse, O’Reilly, Kuyken, McCabe, Mead, Cooke, Ngunga

    COYWG!

  2. Some entries from the twit feed.

    Twit:
    _9 GOAL for ARSENAL!! And it’s …

    26 GOAL for Arsenal!! …

    And it is half time.

    COYWG!

  3. Some entries from the twit feed.

    Twit:
    Second half twits.

    Twit:

    50 Goal for Reading. …

    63 GOAL for ARSENAL!! …

    Congratulations to the Women’s team!

  4. OT: Canadian U12 Womens Football Team being sancioned

    Today in the news I am reading from the CBC, I see that a U12 team from Ottawa that travelled to England, and met with Chelsea and Tottenham (it sounds like mostly Chelsea) is being sanctioned for doing this.

    Of course there is more to the story. But, I’ve no way to give you an URL at the moment. The CBC decided to “improve” their website, and so I’ve fallen back to a text only browser.

    They apparently knew they needed permission, and applied for it. The raised money. Still no answer on permission. Did other stuff. Still no answer on permission. Started booking things. Still no answer on permission. Finished all the booking. Still no answer on permission. One month before they leave, they here permission won’t be given, and they travel anyways as everything has been paid for.

  5. I gather Arsenal Women’s team had some helpers for their game versus Reading. Today, Arsenal.com has a report on those helpers.

    https://www.arsenal.com/news/junior-members-take-over-meadow-park-0

    I thought the report at the end was especially good.

    As how I view Arsenal.com does not allow for pictures or video, I have no idea what any of that content was like. I suspect the artwork by the 4 year old might be priceless.

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