London City Lionesses, Aitana Bonmatí and Canada's injury issues - your women's football roundup
One day later than usual, but here is the latest edition of this women’s football newsletter!!
As always, there is the usual selection of talking points and on-pitch stories from the last week to go through, bringing you up to date on things that might have escaped your attention, as well as links to other articles and a podcast episode to dip into, so lots to sift through and hopefully keep you entertained for a period of time.
3 key talking points….
London City Lionesses keep the Championship title race open
Whilst the FA Cup understandably took centre stage in the English game, with some tasty encounters to enjoy, there was also a huge clash taking place at the top of the Championship at the weekend, with second-placed London City Lionesses hosting current leaders Bristol City at Princes Park.
Both sides needed the win, with Bristol hoping to open up a nine-point lead at the top and London City trying to stay within arm’s length of their promotion rivals. In the end, it was the former who succumbed to the pressure, with them not turning up to the game and allowing the home side to waltz off with two goals and three precious points. Bristol looked far from their best throughout the 90 minutes and allowed London City to control large periods of the game, and the 2-0 scoreline at the end did not flatter the hosts.
Bristol head coach Lauren Smith will have been all too aware of London City’s threat beforehand and the danger of underestimating them, but it seemed like her players didn’t heed any warnings that she gave them, and, if they ever needed a wake-up call that the season is not done yet and promotion is nowhere near mathematically secured, then this was it.
For London City, who would have no doubt been disappointed to see Bristol overtake them in the league standings in recent weeks, the win will give them a huge boost in confidence and will reassure them that the second tier title is still very much within their reach.
The fact that the gap between the two is now just three points, with both having played the same number of games, means that it will be a really interesting end to the campaign now, with neither side able to afford any more slip-ups.
Aitana Bonmati continues to save Barcelona on the field
Any team who has faced Barcelona in the last few years will be all too aware of how dangerous they are to play against and how they don’t often need an invitation to take their opponents to the cleaners, with the quality that they have all over the pitch meaning that, if one player doesn’t get them, another will.
However, this season, it has not been quite as easy for them. Yes, they are ultimately walking to another Liga F title, but the performances along the way have not been filled with as much confidence as we are used to seeing from them. It has been the same story in the Champions League too, with them making it into the knockout rounds but not making life entirely easy for themselves, with their loss to Bayern Munich taking a lot of people by surprise.
Injuries have been a major factor in their season, to be fair to them, with Alexia Putellas missing the entire season and influential Norway winger Caroline Graham Hansen out for a number of months, but they are normally able to make changes as needed and not disrupt the overall rhythm of the team. This season, that has not always been the case.
As a result, when they have started slowly and have needed digging out of initial trouble, they have had to rely on some of their key players to step up their own performances and take the rest of the team by the scruff of the neck.
One player who continually does that, especially in recent matches, is Aitana Bonmatí, with her passing capabilities and spatial awareness becoming even more significant as each game goes by, and her ability to make passes and identify gaps have really helped Barcelona to break teams down and get on the front foot in a number of games.
It is no exaggeration to say that, without her on the pitch, some of Barcelona’s most recent wins might not have been wins, and that is why she has been so important for them of late and will be throughout the remainder of the campaign.
Canada’s injury problems ahead of the World Cup
With the World Cup only a matter of months away, every one of the 32 teams involved is really ramping up their preparations for the trip to Australia and New Zealand, with squad lists being prepared and tactics being finalised.
However, one country who are having to overcome a number of obstacles on their route to the finals are Canada, with them experiencing a player walkout in a dispute with Canada Soccer before the recent SheBelieves Cup, due to funding cuts and lack of pay equality, before then seeing key player Janine Beckie pick up an ACL injury in the last week which will keep her out of action for the entire NWSL season and the World Cup.
As a result, questions have been asked about how to replace the Portland Thorns forward, and there are a number of ways that they could do so, with changes in tactics and shape and bringing in a player currently on the fringes all possibilities to consider, and they have been explored in my recent article for Total Football Analysis here:
Janine Beckie: How Canada could tactically replace her at the World Cup
It will be interesting to see how head coach Bev Priestman goes about finding a way to play without Beckie in the side (and Nichelle Prince, for that matter), and it really is a case of watch this space when it comes to their tournament build-up.
Read all about it….
How Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh are benefitting from their Barcelona moves - Barcelona secured the signings of England duo Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh in the summer, and this article by Emily Salley for BBC Sport looks at how they are getting on and why they feel the moves have helped them to develop as players and as people.
Positives for Arsenal despite defeat to Bayern Munich - Arsenal may have lost to Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, but Art de Roché explains on The Athletic why there was a lot to like about their performance on the night.
Erin Cuthbert’s importance for Chelsea - another article on The Athletic worth looking at is Charlotte Harpur’s on Erin Cuthbert, looking at her outrageous assist on Wednesday night for Guro Reiten’s goal, her versatility around the pitch and quotes from her teammates on what she brings to the team.
Lend me yours ears….
The most exciting WSL season ever? - it’s not often that BBC 5 Live puts together a show centred around the women’s game, but they did on Tuesday night and the podcast form of the show is well worth a listen.
That’s all for now - back next week!!
Excellent article as always, David.