by Andrew Crawshaw
As Tony pointed out in his article yesterday the much-delayed Women’s FA Cup resumes today with the four Quarter Final matches.
- Arsenal v Spurs – Saturday 17:15
- Everton v Chelsea – Sunday 13:00
- Brighton v Birmingham – Sunday 14:00
- Leicester v Man City – Sunday 14:00
Here is a reminder of our squad which has one addition to that I previewed earlier with a brief note about their current status…
Goalkeepers
| Squad No | Nationality | ||
| 1 | Manuela Zinsberger | Austria | Has started all of our matches this season |
| 18 | Lydia Williams | Australia | Has been injured but now back in training. not likely to feature in this game though |
| 24 | Fran Stenson | Home Grown | Been on the bench in all games so far, possibly due a start |
Defenders
| Squad No | Nationality | ||
| 5 | Jen Beattie | Scotland | Has been injured but back in training. This match may be too soon for more than a place on the bench |
| 6 | Leah Williamson | Home Grown | Withdrawn from England training camp these last 10 days but that was said to be a precaution. In training and I would expect her to start |
| 12 | Steph Catley | Australia | Likely to start |
| 20 | Leonie Maier | Germany | Played in Germany’s Euro qualification matches during the international break |
| 22 | Viktoria Schnaderbeck | Austria | Played in Austria’s Euro qualification matches during the international break |
| Lotte Wubben-Moy | Home Grown | Was called up to the England training camp for the first time. Returns to Arsenal after three years on a sporting scholarship in the USA. |
Midfielders
| Squad No | Nationality | ||
| 5 | Danielle Van de Donk | Netherlands | Played in the Netherlands Euro qualifier against Russia |
| 6 | Jordan Nobbs | Home Grown | Fit and likely to feature |
| 10 | Kim Little | Scotland | Fit and likely to feature |
| 13 | Lia Walti | Switzerland | Played in the Euro qualifiers in central defence |
| 14 | Jill Roord | Netherlands | Our top scorer so far this season with a hat trick in each of our two games. Scored the only goal in the Netherlands win over Belgium but was subbed midway in the second half with what the BBC described as a ‘minor knee knock’. Faces a fitness test. |
| 16 | Noelle Maritz | Switzerland | Played at right-back against Belgium |
| 21 | Malin Gut | Switzerland | Scored the opener against Belgium |
Forwards
| Squad No | Nationality | ||
| 9 | Beth Mead | Home Grown | Scored a belter against West Ham |
| 11 | Vivianne Miedema | Netherlands | Despite four goals in our two matches this season, Viv hasn’t really looked at her best. When on song she is probably the best striker in the World at the moment. |
| 12 | Katie McCabe | Republic of Ireland | Captained her country against Germany last Saturday |
| 17 | Lisa Evans | Scotland | Fit and available |
| 19 | Caitlin Foord | Australia | Scored against West Ham |
Our two domestic games this season have led to 6 – 1 and 9 – 1 wins against Reading and West Ham. Our scorers have been and assists provided by (more goals than assists with solo efforts)…
| Player | Goals against | Assists | ||
| Reading | West Ham | Reading | West Ham | |
| 6 | 9 | 4 | 6 | |
| Kim Little | 1 | 1 | ||
| Jill Roord | 3 | 3 | ||
| Viovianne Miedema | 2 | 2 | ||
| Leah Williamson | 1 | 1 | ||
| Kim Little | 1 | |||
| Jordan Nobbs | 1 | 1 | ||
| Beth Mead | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Caitlin Foord | 1 | |||
| McCabe | 2 | |||
| Lisa Evans | 1 | |||
| Caitlin Foord | 2 | 2 | ||
To date, the homegrown player rule hasn’t been of any relevance to squad composition in the Women’s game but from next season the squad rules are being aligned with the `men’s game. The 25 senior player squad limit will only be able to have a maximum of 17 non-homegrown players. At the moment this won’t be a problem as our small 21 player squad only has 16 non-homegrown players. It is, however, something that we will have to become more aware of going forward.
My predictions for our lineup against Tottenham
Stenson
Catley, Leah Williamson, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Leonie Maier
Walti, Little, Nobbs
Van de Donk, Miedema, Mead
Subs
Zinsberger, Schnaderbeck, Maritz, Gut, Roord, Evans, McCabe
What of our opposition?
Tottenham haven’t had the greatest of starts to the season with one draw (1-1 against West Ham) and a loss (0-1 against Everton) so far. However, they have signed a notable reinforcement in the shape of US World Cup winner and captain Alex Morgan. The 31 year-old striker has 107 goals for the USA in 169 games and they will be hoping that she can dramatically improve the number of goals they score. We will undoubtedly see Alex at some point if not from the start of the game. Definitely the danger player on their team.
Spurs have, without question improved dramatically over the past three years, gaining promotion last year into the top flight of Women’s football and we won’t see a repeat of the 10 – 0 scoreline that happened not so long ago in a cup game. But it will be a major upset if we don’t win the match reasonably comfortably.
Possible Semi-final Opponents
Leicester City are one of a group of clubs leading The Championship with four points from their two games, a two-all draw with Sheffield United and a three-nil win at home to Blackburn.
Manchester City have had an unusually poor start to their season, an underwhelming two-nil win against newly promoted Aston Villa followed by a goalless draw against Brighton (despite them dominating the game)
It is almost inconceivable for Man City to fail to win this match by some distance given the gap in standard between the two leagues, so I fully expect we will have to travel to Manchester for the game on Thursday evening. That match has a 19:15 kick-off time and will also be on BBC2.
Confirmed Team
, Maritz, Schnaderbeck, Williamson, McCabe, Little, Van de Donk, Nobbs, Evans, Miedema, Foord.
Subs: Stenson, Wubben-Moy, Mace, Maier, Gut, Mead
AFC clearly the better side but the static nature of their play is mak8ng the Spuds look a lot better than they are. Perhaps our ladies are as in awe of the US player on the bench as the BBC most clearly are………
72 minutes in and first Nobbs and then Lisa Evans make it two nil. The first a glorious lob following a misplaced Spurs clearance , the second from a wonderful Miedema through ball.
Referee is Lucy Oliver, as myopic as Michael.. completely failed to punish Spurs for their constant niggling fouls..
No debut for Morgan, hopefully the commentators will now shut up about her.
Lisa Evans just made it three with a DVD through ball for Lisa Evans
17 year old Ruby Mace comes on for her Arsenal Debut for the last couple of minutes.
No the commentators haven’t shut up about Morgan but it really doesn’t matter as Evans gets het hat trick good cross from Mead.
That’s it a four nil win, Nobbs and an Evans hat trick against a cynical and fouling Spurs side.
Well at four nil down with few, if any, shots on target, it was true to form that the BBC were completely bigging up our opposition without barely a good word to say for Arsenal. At least the commentary was consistent with that of the men’s game…………..
Mikey
I know. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Spurs were a very poor second best to us, especially in the 2nd half, yet as you say they were constantly bigged up for everything they did.
At the end, despite letting in 4 goals they were praising their defence, and despite us scoring 4, all they did was try to undermine us, mainly on the basis that we didn’t manage another 9 or 10.
It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so depressingly predictable.
We were poor in the first half, and yet Sp*rs failed to create any notable chances. I don’t know what Joe said at half-time, but Arsenal’s quality improved immediately after the restart. After 60 minutes it was only a matter of time.
The tinies just ran out of energy. BBC commentators were myopic as usual. Sp*rs were nowhere near as good as the commentary team thought, and got what was coming.
After the game there was a camera shot of Alex Morgan discussing something on an iPod screen with a Sp*rs member of staff. It was probably a travel-booking website.