Kansas City Current, Madelen Janogy and the Republic of Ireland's squad options - your women's football roundup
Wherever you have been looking over the last week in the women’s game, there has been action and stories being written in every corner of the globe, with some huge results being recorded as teams scrap for every last point that they can get their hands on.
As always, this newsletter will bring you the best of those stories to keep you up to date with all of the latest from the on-field action, as well as looking at what everyone else has been saying and providing a podcast episode that is well worth spending some time listening to.
3 key talking points….
Kansas City Current starting to click into gear
To anyone who has watched the NWSL this season, it has been abundantly clear that Kansas City Current have not had a season to remember thus far, with them taking longer than some might have hoped to gel their new signings in and losing head coach Matt Potter not long after the season had gotten underway for what appear to be off-the-field issues.
However, despite some early teething problems, there have been elements of their performances that have shown how they are at last starting to find their rhythm, and the weekend’s win against Orlando Pride was perhaps the point at which everything finally fell into place, with players knowing their roles and everyone contributing to what was undeniably their best display of the campaign so far.
There were a few who deserve individual mentions, such as Kate Del Fava, who was excellent at right-back, and Michelle Cooper, whose stock continues to grow and who looked at home on the right wing, creating space for Kristen Hamilton and Cece Kizer to continuously link up ahead of her. Debinha also looked confident and controlled the game, whilst Vanessa DiBernardo was perhaps the understated player of the match for her ability to bring the whole team together.
“She used her ability to see these kinds of spaces and the movement from the forwards to make those assist passes,” Sjöblom said of DiBernardo.
With Morgan Gautrat in the Current’s lineup, DiBernardo can typically play a more advanced attacking role. And that’s where she’s been most successful throughout her career.
“It can allow me to go higher up the field, which I would say is more of my comfort zone,” DiBernardo said. “I think we’ve found success playing together, and we’re just growing as a team. I think our offense is kind of clicking a little bit more these past couple of weeks.”
Daniel Sperry, with thoughts from interim Kansas City Current head coach Caroline Sjöblom and Vanessa DiBernardo, writing in the Kansas City Star.
Orlando have not been in bad form this season, with Adriana a forward in form and Marta playing really well of late, so this was never going to be an easy encounter for Kansas to navigate. However, they managed it outstandingly and were no match for the Pride, and they look ready for the fight ahead as they try to bridge the gap that has been building between them and the play-off positions.
Madelen Janogy could be Sweden’s missing link
When looking back at Sweden’s performances during Euro 2022, what really helped them to stay on the front foot was the ability of Kosovare Asllani to drop back when needed and to play in a creative 10 role rather than as a forward.
At the upcoming World Cup, it is highly likely that Peter Gerhardsson’s side will once again look to use someone in this role in order to progress the ball through the thirds, but recent injury problems mean that Asllani may not be as available as the coaching staff would have hoped for.
With that in mind, an alternative is likely to be required, and one strong candidate could be Madelen Janogy, who has demonstrated when on the field this year for both Hammarby and Sweden that she is versatile and can perform in a number of roles when needed, and there is little doubt that she would be able to step into Asllani’s shoes should she be asked to in a few weeks’ time.
https://twitter.com/mamdwwy/status/1619343888145346561
For Hammarby, she has been one of their key anchor points as they have tried to challenge for a place in next season’s Champions League qualifying rounds, but she can also act as the main attacking outlet and has the quality needed to bring teammates into play or to shoot at goal herself, and her recent performance against Örebro was a strong indication of what she can do when asked to play higher up the pitch.
https://twitter.com/Foetbal247TBG/status/1673324665450758146
All in all, should Asllani be deemed as too big a risk to use in the tournament, Janogy would have no problem stepping up and operating between the lines in a similar fashion, and she could be a player to watch if Sweden do manage to advance into the tournament’s latter stages.
The Republic of Ireland’s wide range of options
Another team preparing to make the trip to Australia and New Zealand is the Republic of Ireland, and, for Vera Pauw’s side, it will be their first appearance at the showpiece event.
However, pre-tournament nerves do not seem to have hit them, and instead they are visibly working on getting every detail right on the field so that they can hit the ground running once the action gets underway. During their recent friendly win against Zambia (who will also be at the World Cup), it was clear that they were looking to develop different patterns of play and systems for them to fall back on if needed, with them trying a few things out and seeing what they had in the wider areas of the squad in case their star names were unavailable.
Pauw had already said that Katie McCabe, Áine O’Gorman and Denise O’Sullivan were among those who would not be featuring against Zambia for that reason, and she instead opted to name forward Heather Payne and midfielder Izzy Atkinson as wing-backs and give minutes to left-back Claire O’Riordan, who started in a back three, and it was a game that she saw as an opportunity for those who were less certain of their places to show what they would bring if included in the final squad.
https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1672628147865673730
It wasn’t a perfect performance by any stretch, with the fact that neither wing-back is a defender by trade leading to the Zambians catching them out on a number of occasions with the speed of their own attacks, but there was undoubtedly enough in there to suggest that fans needn’t worry should the unthinkable happen and an injury be incurred by one of their star names.
Read all about it….
Wrexham’s Champions League dreams - it has been hard to ignore the rise of Wrexham’s women’s team in the last year, and Aled Williams has written an interesting article on the BBC Sport website that looks at where they hope to get to and includes comments from those inside the club at this very exciting time for them.
Jelena Čanković’s journey from Belgrade to London - in a very engaging and far-reaching interview with Flo Lloyd-Hughes for The Athletic, Chelsea midfielder Jelena Čanković has opened up about how she started out and her career progression up until the current day. This one is not to be missed.
How Emily Fox can play a key role for the USWNT - also on The Athletic, Steph Yang has written an article looking at the impact that North Carolina Courage full-back Emily Fox can have on her nation’s attacking and defensive play as the World Cup progresses.
Lend me your ears….
Women’s World Cup Group C Preview - the latest episode of The Far Post, an Australian podcast focusing on the women’s game, contains a very interesting chat with reporter and journalist Alex Ibaceta on the issue at Spain both on and off the pitch, which is well worth listening to.
That’s all for now - back next week!!