New Women's football thread (inc World Cup) 2023-26

[Durhamfootman]

To sum up England's defensive travails, there was a moment in the first half when Germany attacked from their own goal line. Within a couple of passes they were in the England half looking to play a through ball, so their striker made a dummy run and Bright, Williamson and Carter all followed her. The pass went out wide right to Gwynne without a single England player within 20 yards of her, who ran unhindered into the box and lashed it past Hampton for her second goal of the game.

It just looked as though the England defenders had never played together before today.

In the midfield, Germany won all the 50 50 balls, all the midfield duels. It was only their abject mistakes at the back that let England into the game

Both sides missed glorious chances; Germany hit the bar twice; England hit the post twice; three goals were ruled out for offside, two for England and one for Germany. Realistically that 4-3 scoreline could easily have been 10-7

[Durhamfootman]

A changed team, but unchanged problems. England comfortably lead 2-0 at half time, but SA have been through on goal 5 times without having any quality to capitalise on them. One was a through ball and a whippet (which England have no answer for atm), the other four times all came from England giving the ball away in dangerous areas under no real pressure

Hampton out, Earps back in
Greenwood in for Bright
Morgan at left back, even though she isn't a left back
Le Tiss at right back, even though she isn't a right back
Stanway dropped back to defensive mid
Kelly and Mead out wide
Clinton and Park in the middle of the .... well, park
Naz up front

Park doesn't look strong enough to me, although I suspect she may be very young. She got muscled off the ball when she came on against Germany and she's been muscled off the ball in this. Clinton looks strong and hungry and deserved her goal (Wiliamson got the first after good work from Naz), Naz looks the part, but when she was put through on goal, her instinct was to try and feed it to Mead, when she could have perhaps chipped the keeper

SA are pretty agricultural in their approach to the game. They seem to like a toe poke into the Achilles tendons of the England players after the ball has already gone, which must really hurt.

At least it's good to see a better shape to the England back four when they are out of possession, but still those defensive frailties remain for all to see. SA have never scored against England, but how they failed to end that with the second gift England gave them is almost impossible to fathom. England continue to pass short or behind when going forward, so decent offensive opportunities keep being missed as players have to check their runs

Work to do

[Durhamfootman]

SA have never scored against England, but how they failed to end that with the second gift England gave them is almost impossible to fathom.

well they have now and it came from a short back pass that a whippet latched onto and slotted past Earps

There's only so many times you can gift goal scoring chances to even quite modest teams before they punish you

fortunately Mrs DF has 2 things that have just started recording on the telly and it's kicked me off ITV4. Perhaps it's just as well. If this was the game against the USA, England would be 5-2 down right now

[Durhamfootman]

A good day for the northern teams. Newcastle went to table topping Birmingham and walked away with a 2-0 win. Durham came from behind, away to Blackburn and walked away with a 3-1 win. Sunderland went 2-1 down at home to Bristol City, but rallied and secured a 4-3 win after scoring 3 goals in about 4 minutes shortly after the restart

[Durhamfootman]

After a terrific result against high flying Birmingham, Newcastle came to a bump away to Bristol City, losing 2-0. These are the teams that Newcastle have to catch up to...... teams with recent WSL experience.

London City Lionesses, the other Championship team that have had a serious cash injection fell flat on their faces against Birmingham today

Durham drew 1-1 away to Southampton. Sunderland beat Blackburn 2-1 at home

[Durhamfootman]

Newcastle did well to snatch a draw against Southampton today at SJP. After conceding an early goal, they equalised in the 9th minute of stoppage time. Unusual that they played at SJP for this fixture. I just assumed they'd work it out so that they played Sunderland in their annual SJP fixture.

Sunderland win a 4th game on the bounce to move into 5th in the table, scoring late on against Sheff Utd

Durham beat an Asllani-free London City Lionesses 3-2 and are currently 2nd in the table on the same points as leaders Birmingham who sat this round out

[Durhamfootman]

Ouch!

Newcastle got a 1-6 thumping off Liverpool in the league cup

I said when they were drawn against all WSL opposition that this comp would give them an idea of where they are in relation to the WSL. It serves to confirm the gulf in class between the top 2 divisions. Newcastle brought in several players during the summer with one eye on a promotion push and they are going to need a few more. After back to back promotions this is a reality check

[Durhamfootman]

I watched the game last night.

USA dominated for large chunks of the game and were probably just a few final balls away from winning 3 or 4 nil, but England stuck to their defensive duties pretty well, and the USA didn't have things all their own way either. There were periods when England pushed the USA back to do some defending of their own, but without coming as close as the USA did at the other end

What I was pleased to see was that England didn't get themselves suckered into being dragged forward and then cut in two by one long pass. The defenders got themselves back pretty quickly and rarely looked as though they were running in treacle.

Park and Naz both got starts and both will be better for the experience. I still think Park is too small and easily pushed off the ball by defenders, but for 10 mins in the second half she found herself on the ball a lot and was able to show why Sarina is picking her. Russo held the ball up quite well in that period and there were some nice pieces of control from her. England still gave the ball away in poor areas a few times, but not disastrously as they did in the Germany game and were able to recover. Earps made a few good saves and was the busiest of the keepers by far. Mead was busy all night and tracked back well when needed... which was often.

I don't think I'd realised until last night just how quick Lavelle is

0-0 the scoreline and probably the right scoreline on balance. I thought England would get over-run but they coped reasonably well.... a bit harum scarum at times, but they snuffed most things out

[Gingerfinch]

The dropping of Bright was the only real plus from last night. England were pretty negative in the first half and invited pressure. A bit better in the 2nd half, although I wasn't paying much attention.

[Durhamfootman]

I didn't realise that Bright had been dropped. I think I just assumed that she was injured

[Gingerfinch]

She was warming up to come on in the 2nd half. I think it's time to move on from her tbh. cannot run and distribution is poor. That said, Williamson hasn't been great of late

[Durhamfootman]

Williamson looked sharper last night than she did a few weeks ago. I guess she's been getting back to full match fitness after her long lay off. I thought her anticipation was pretty good last night and she seemed to be reading the game better. I think playing right CB suits her more as well. Carter was left CB with Greenwood at LB, but they are pretty interchangeable really. Bronze put a shift in because she bombs forward much more than Greenwood, but she was also getting back much more quickly than she has been of late.

Switzerland next up

[Durhamfootman]

I watched the Switzerland match this morning. Not sure quite what to make of that game, tbh

Very much a second XI with Bright providing the only real experience as part of a back 3, which probably suits her these days. First half England dominated, pushed the Swiss further and further back, scored the early goal and then settled into quite an attack minded rhythm. Then Park, who'd had a decent game playing up front with Beever-Jones, was taken off at half time and replaced with Russo, presumably to finish the game off. Sadly, though, England lost all their intensity in the second half and never really regained it, whilst the Swiss brought on two more attack minded players and by the last quarter, they were the ones in charge of the game with England forced into making substitutions to hold on to the 1-0 lead.

I thought Clinton was terrific in the first half, but disappeared in the second. Gabby George (a new name on me) who was happy pushing forward all the time was replaced by Mead who didn't try to get forward at all. Bronze, Walsh and Stanway all had to come on to make sure that England didn't, well not get overwhelmed as such, but didn't get mugged late on, because for the last 15 mins it looked as though they might. Fortunately Switzerland were poor in front of goal and England got away with it. Hampton made a couple of decent saves, but like Roebuck before her, goes a bit Keystone Cops at times when defenders pass the ball back to her and at one point came rushing out for a long ball, which she didn't get to and was lucky that Turner's toe got there ahead of the attacker. Doesn't inspire confidence, really, so I don't think Earps has much to worry about next year

However, all that being said, it was good to see so many new faces start the game and by and large they did pretty well, certainly in the first half and probably should have had a bigger lead going into half time.

[Durhamfootman]

Newcastle into the 4th round of the FA cup after beating Middlesbrough 2-0

Durham beat Birmingham 1-0

Sunderland beat Huddersfield 4-0

Chester le Street Town go down 1-2 to Stoke

[Gingerfinch]

The Chelsea - Brighton game was entertaining, mainly down to errors. Brighton, I think, had more shots on goal but bad finishing and some decent saves, sparred Chelsea's blushes.