#Crystal Palace wfc

[pernillecfcw]

A double chelsea win for the second week in a row 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[newbie-woso]

Okay 5am bed time part 2. Thanks for the absolute clobbering Chelsea and the best goal from Bronzey.. I’m biased but still

[cookies-sports]

Matches from Week of 16th September (1/2)

Below the cut, longish rambles on some matches I watched:

Aston Villa vs Chelsea

Arsenal vs Manchester City

Crystal Palace vs Tottenham Hotspur

More rambling in a second post to keep this one from getting super long :)

Aston Villa 0 - 1 Chelsea

First games of the season are always a bit odd. This game definitely felt a bit odd.

Chelsea seemed to have some challenges getting into a flow and Villa were a step up from last year. Bits of both of that contributed to the end result and it wouldn't exactly have gone against the run of play if Villa had grabbed an equaliser.

There's perhaps also an unconscious element of expecting Chelsea to do really well because of their track record, but it's not as if they're running away with the WSL every season. It's good for the WSL if more matches are hard fought. Chelsea have to learn to find their rhythm again under a new coach and with new team members, which will take a bit of time.

A couple of shots went just wide from Chelsea and D'Angelo had a pretty solid game. Also, Villa's defense did an admirable job of keeping Ramirez out of too many danger areas or getting the run on them. Which is not an easy task at all.

(Also, take note some other teams/defenders, they did this without fouling, yanking constantly on her arms or her shirt, or other similar tactics.)

However, Villa did have to commit two players (on a few occasions three) to Ramirez many times and this stretched them. Rytting-Kaneryd's goal was excellent and took advantage of a lapse in their stretched defense.

A mixture of good saves from Hampton and difficulties being clinical in the box meant that while Villa had chances, they never finished them. There's a part of me that wonders if that equaliser might have happened if Gabi Nunes was ready and available for this match. Villa had about 8 (?) corners and a fair number of crosses, and just couldn't get the ball in the net. On one occasion, Hampton was completely beaten and the ball was put over the top.

Now, obviously new signings don't always manage to replicate what they do for other clubs, but Nunes has decent aerial play and also good at clinching those goals when the ball is clattering around the 6 and 18 yard boxes. There's a few of her goals here that show what I mean: Gabi Nunes YouTube clips. If this is the style of play Villa are doing going forward, they could be very interesting this season.

Anyway, Chelsea had the fortitude to hold on even when struggling and it was a decent opener for the WSL because it really felt at times like it could end any way. Would have been a hilarious start to the season if D'Angelo had equalised at the end there, though...can you imagine?

Arsenal 2-2 Manchester City

I meant, after Miedema left Arsenal for Man City, this being their opening match seems a bit too coincidental to not have been by design, right? Make sure there was a big, potentially chaotic game to start of the season? I don't know... maybe it really was coincidental.

It was as chaotic as match-ups between the top teams often are and kind of a nervy affair at times. Manchester City started out shaky, conceded early, then grabbed a goal back just before half-time from...Miedema.

Second half got even more all over the place. Park put a beautiful shot right in the top corner of the Arsenal goal, Foord had a goal ruled offside when she was actually onside, then Mead scored off of a deflection from the upright shortly after a tackle from McCabe ended up with Kelly on the floor and Little tripping over her and landing on top of her. Two City players got yellow cards for complaining about that, and five were carded in total throughout the game.

Manchester City did not seem to cope well with Arsenal's long balls over the top and then when they had the ball in defense, they were too indecisive and slow playing out from the back. It also looked like Bunny Shaw was sitting pretty far back in the midfield which was unusual and didn't seem to give her the space to get out and on the attack easily. On the other hand, Arsenal failed to take some decent chances that they got and made errors closing down in defense. So both teams just looked that bit...not quite their usual play. Kind of like Chelsea, but more on edge.

I've seen a lot of criticism of Zinsberger and Yamashita online. Now, I will go to bat for goalkeepers a lot. I think they often get unfair criticism and frequently people don't think about what the game looks like from their perspective. It's kind of well known at this point that Zinsberger gets a lot of criticism that is undeserved; not to say she always plays well, but it has become almost a reflex to blame Zinsberger when she isn't the one shouldering the main fault for a goal. Yamashita is also already getting a lot of criticism and being written off, on top of the dismissal I've seen of her from some people who apparently have never watched her play in goal for Japan.

The four goals were all tricky in different ways. Maanum hit the first ball hard (she was making sure that thing went into the net!) and even if Yamashita had gone the right way (she had to make a split second reaction, likely influenced unconsciously by where players were in the box and where the ball was most likely to be hit) I don't know if she would have got a hand to it. The second Arsenal goal, Kafaji hit it near post, Yamashita threw herself that way to cover the angle, but the ball hit the upright and bounced to Mead. Not a lot she could do there.

The first Manchester City goal deflected off of a defender's head and having already set herself up to go the original direction of the shot, Zinsberger couldn't reposition in time for the deflection. Then Jess Park's goal was right, right up in the top corner, dinking in from the bar. It's easy to go "if such and such was positioned better, they'd get there", but if you were positioned better to stop one type of goal, you'd likely open yourself up to conceding a different type of goal. It's decisions made in seconds or split seconds and sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Both Zinsberger and Yamashita had great saves during the game, but too many people dismiss those with "the striker should have scored" or "the ball was right at her" without thinking that the goalkeeper also played a role in putting the striker off or making those positioning decisions constantly throughout the approach to close angles or make it more likely that the striker would aim it close to or at them. Goalkeepers do a lot more than gets appreciated sometimes.

I'm sure both Manchester City and Arsenal fans have many feelings about that game, but as a fan of no team, it was certainly an interesting watch.

Crystal Palace 0 - 4 Tottenham Hotspurs

Going back for just about as long as both the WSL and the Championship (and their previous renditions) have existed, there have been warnings and discussions about how the changes in the top division are not being replicated further down... Unfortunately, I suspect Crystal Palace are going to have as rough a time in the WSL as their predecessors did.

Tottenham took a bit of time to find their flow, they went in at half-time with just the one goal from Hayley Raso, but in the second half they came out and just outperformed Crystal Palace across the pitch. Neville was fantastic, Spence was brilliant, and they controlled the game for most of the second half.

Crystal Palace struggled so much more in the second half. There were also some things which will get them pinged by referees; repeatedly running in front of Becky Spencer and physically preventing her from releasing goal-kicks quickly, pulling on Tottenham player's shirts hard when they were running for goal or in the box...

As ridiculous as it might sound with the scoreline, Shae Yanez in goal for Crystal Palace was probably their best player, her keeping it to 4 was respectable considering it could have been much, much higher...

Three young Lionesses got minutes for Crystal Palace: Lexi Potter started and had a decent enough game considering the outcome, Brooke Aspin came on in the 64th minute and Poppy Pritchard came on at 82 minutes. Unfortunately, in the 94th minute, Brooke Aspin lost her composure completely, reacted poorly to a call by the referee and received two yellow cards within seconds of each other. Not a good start for her.

I rewatched the incident, but with the quality of the footage on YouTube I cannot for the life of me see the original foul. The commentator says she pulled the Tottenham player down, but her hands don't look like they're near her shirt? I thought maybe she clipped her trailing leg as she moved inside to cut off her run towards goal, but I cannot see the contact with the poor film quality. So, I don't know whether the two yellow cards came from the foul, then Brooke Aspin shouting at the referee and kicking the ball away, or whether both were for her reaction. First she stopped and yelled at the referee, not sure what was said, then booted the ball in frustration and I think it hit the Tottenham player who was on the floor. I don't think there's anywhere we can see referee reports/write-ups for the WSL, is there? It would really help to understand some of the decisions.

Either way, a bad day for Brooke Aspin. Probably not the start to the season she would have wanted. A serious "learn from this moment" event.

[alotofpockets]

Fantasy WLS

Hiya! Is anyone playing Fantasy WSL this season? The new season launched in the app today, and I've got my team ready! I made a league, if anyone wants to join, the code is: KQYIH6Z

For those who don't have Fantasy WSL yet: Play online: https://www.fantasywsl.net/ Download the app: https://playfantasywsl.komi.io/

[theitaliansalad]

at the top of the list of places I wouldn't even go with a gun tonight there is the Crystal Palace's dressing room.

[therapeutic007]

Messi Collection

Check Now !

[cantseemtohide]

Was out on a cold night watching my team Crystal Palace WFC get humiliated 5 nil at home by London City Lionesses 😢 Silver lining is they could have scored a lot more than 5 😁 2nd silver lining was I ate a lot of chips!

And here is a very unexciting and blurry photo of one of the rare occasions that Palace were anywhere near the other teams goal 👍

[jarrodsbowen]

crystal palace wfc i have high expectations for u......

[theroleofimagination]

2021/22 Conti Cup Group Stage

Matchday 1

🕖 All times BST

Wednesday 13th October

19:00

Liverpool vs Aston Villa 📺 YouTube/Facebook/LFCTV

London City Lionesses vs West Ham

Manchester City vs Everton 📺 City+

19:30

Reading vs Bristol City

Birmingham City vs Brighton & Hove Albion 📺 Facebook

Lewes vs Crystal Palace 📺 YouTube

Tottenham Hotspur vs Charlton Athletic 📺 FA Player

19:45

Coventry United vs Watford 🎧 Radio Plus Coventry

Thursday 14th October

19:00

Durham vs Manchester United 📺 MUTV

19:30

Sheffield United vs Sunderland

Chelsea & Arsenal will enter the competition in the quarter finals due to their involvement in the UWCL Group Stages

[footballbro]

Martha Thomas is on comms I love it

[pernillecfcw]

The opening weekend 🤩⚽️

[gaywoso]

[02/25/2020]

[lostonwaterfront]

Reading is streaming their game on youtube with commentary from Tash Harding! 

[that-soccer-guru]

Ok so I have many emotions about this game. First I’m frustrated then disappointed then mad and then relieved. We put out a SHIT performance, but full credit to villa y’all rly said park the bus, they literally chased the balled and threw themselves at arsenal, also the amount of cramp injuries yall had??? Ig good job on not getting relegated. I’m so disappointed with arsenal, how are we gonna survive uwcl if we play like that??, plz save us @ new manager. Joe, this game sums u up, no tactics, weak performance and when ur original plan doesn’t work out u insist on keeping it instead of adapting to the game. Finally I’m relieved bc this is his last game. Well I def didn’t have an 0-0 draw to villa in my bingo card but we still qualify for uwcl. Well, at least I get my Sunday sleep-ins back. I’ll be back next week for the fa cup game against crystal palace normally -arsenal wfc anon

I mean I suppose qualifying for the uwcl is good, but whatever coach comes in has to fix this team before we get there or it's gonna be a massacre, at least if they keep playing the way they're playing right now. YAY for Sunday sleep ins though!

Props to Aston Villa on a great performance, whatever the opposite of props is for Arsenal. It's time to get it the fuck together.

[alotofpockets]

WSL DISCORD SERVER

With the WSL season fast approaching, I wanted to share my friend's WSL server. It's still relatively new, but should be a lot of fun, especially when the season starts! Wanna be a part of a community server full of woso lovers and chat about the upcoming wsl matches? You can join here!

[footiecentral]

Arsenal favourites to land Brazilian teenage striker https://footiecentral.com/arsenal-favourites-to-land-brazilian-teenage-striker/ Arsenal have emerged as favourites to sign 17-year old Brazilian striker Gabriel Martinelli, with the likes of Crystal Palace and Watford also said to be interested. Currently plying his trade in the Brazilian 4th division with Ithuano, he has had previous experience in England. He had two...