AWFC vs West Ham match report
Our Arsenal Women continued their current good run of form with a 2-0 win over West Ham Women last night, in what was another good challenge and great performance from our women. Interim manager Renee Slegers, who is clearly liked by the players. She picked up her second win out of two after what was a solid output by our women. Here’s a rundown of everything that happened.
Arsenal started the game looking confident and dynamic, spreading play and having a lot of the ball through the midfield. Alessia Russo came inches away from going in front in the first 20 minutes but saw her shot go just wide. Arsenal coming away with the best chances of the first half and were unlucky not to be in front, but West Ham’s keeper Kinga Szemik was looking in good form, managing to keep the Arsenal’s attackers at bay for the first 45 minutes of the game.
The second half started, and Arsenal came out with what looked like a lot more urgency, Russo coming ridiculously close again in the 60th minute but again, went just wide. Slegers looked to her bench and made a fair few changes to try switch things up and bring a bit more energy into the game and it didn’t take long for it to pay off when 10 minutes later Stina Blackstenius was brought down inside the box and the ref pointed straight to the spot.
Mariona Caldentey stepped up to the spot and calmly walked up to the ball before sending the keeper the wrong way and slotting the ball into the bottom left corner of the net to put the Gunner women 1-0 in front after 70 minutes. A well taken penalty and another goal to add to our new girl’s ever growing tally of contributions this season.
West Ham came close to equalising with only 5 minutes of normal time remaining but Daphne Van Domslaar managed to make a great save, and only minute later the ball was down the other end after some great passing play from Katie McCabe and Stina Blackstenius created a chance for McCabe to put a through ball into the run of Blackstenius to cross the ball from the wing into the box for a waiting Rosa Kafaji who hit the ball first time into the back of the West Ham net to seal the win and take home 3 important points.
We face Manchester United next in what is always a big game in our season and will be another big challenge after they have managed to start the season off in good form. Hopefully we can take confidence from this win into that game and come home with another 3 points.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
I THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD TO BRING 4 PLAYERS ON AGAIN AT THE SAME TIME AGAINST UNITED, BUT TO INCLUDE RUSSO AND BLACKSTENIUS IN THOSE 4, SO THEY PLAY TOGETHER … ALSO TO CUT OUT THE SHORT CORNERS AND SHORT PASSES AROUND OUR PENALTY AREA. ALSO JUST HAVE 1 PLAYER TAKE FREE KICKS, INSTEAD OF 2 HOVERING OVER THE BALL. MY PREFERENCE WOULD BE FOR MEAD TO TAKE ALL OF THOSE BUT MCCABE OFTEN PUSHES HERSELF FORWARDS FOR THEM …DON T GET ME WRONG ON THAT, MC CABE IS VERY GOOD…. BUT MEAD CAN BE TOTAL MAGIC