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

[Durhamfootman]

big season ahead in the women's championship when the new one starts. Renamed (again) as the WSL2 there are 3 promotion slots up for grabs as the WSL expands from 12 to 14 teams. Top 2 will be promoted as of right and 3rd place will go into a play off with the bottom WSL side. After that, the top side will be promoted and the second placed side will go into a play off with the second bottom team in the WSL.

London City have invested heavily in their squad for the new WSL campaign... Danielle vd Donk and Nikita Parris among them... and they are trying to bring in Beth Mead from Arsenal too, so I don't expect them to go straight back down.

Newcastle will presumably be targeting one of those promotion berths. 12 of last year's squad have been moved on and 5 new faces brought in, with Jordan Nobbs adding some WSL experience. As has become the norm for teams involving Newcastle, the squad is painfully thin. 19 players for the new campaign, but perhaps they might bring some more in yet

Durham have refreshed their squad a little as have Sunderland

[Durhamfootman]

Newcastle have signed USA international Morgan Gautrat on a season long loan from Orlando Pride. Not a name I'm familiar with, but she boasts 80 odd international appearances for the States and 2 world cups, so she sounds like exactly the sort of player that Newcastle need

[Durhamfootman]

I'm wrong, Gautrat has signed on loan until the end of December. She has retired from the US league, so I have no idea what she plans to do in the new year

[Durhamfootman]

Newcastle sign Finland international striker Oona Sevenius

They left it late, but they now finally have a full complement of 25 players in their squad (assuming they follow the same rules as the men) after releasing 12 players at the end of last season

[Durhamfootman]

London City have broken the world transfer record by signing Grace Geyoro from PSG for £1.4million. This is new signing number 16 this window, including a number of full internationals, for a club who are clearly not content with survival in the WSL. It will be interesting to see how they get on. First match away to Arsenal tomorrow.... ouch!

Newcastle, who were promoted into the old championship at the same time as London City, have managed a final signing of the summer with the season long loan from Chelsea of Dutch U20 goalkeeper Femke Liefting. This is the year for Newcastle, it has to be, it's the best opportunity for promotion into the WSL that they'll get for a very long time. Progress has stalled since the departure of Amanda Stavely and they need to push on again. 3 teams can go up..... big season!

[Durhamfootman]

Newcastle sign Finland international striker Oona Sevenius

They left it late, but they now finally have a full complement of 25 players in their squad (assuming they follow the same rules as the men) after releasing 12 players at the end of last season

I was wrong about that, as it happens

and since the loan signing of Liefting, they have also signed defender Jorja Fox, also on loan, also from Chelsea.... and they have announced the permanent signing of goalkeeper Anna Tamminen from Hammarby who was in the Finland squad this summer and have given her the no.1 shirt.

they now have a full complement of 25 players

[Durhamfootman]

Arsenal beat London City 4-1. Whilst Arsenal were by some margin the better team and controlled much of the game, 4-1 is probably not really a fair reflection of the game. LCL gave them a scare in the first quarter of the game

In the championship.... sorry, WSL2.... Sunderland gave Sheff Utd a 4-0 spanking as did Southampton over Ipswich today

[Gingerfinch]

Arsenal were in total control in that 2nd half. Chelsea started off with a win but City, well Shaw, had 2-3 good chances.

[Durhamfootman]

I suppose, with all the new signings for LCL, it'll take a bit of time to turn them into a settled team

Opening wins for Sunderland, Durham and Newcastle. With opposition like Sheff U, Portsmouth and Notts Forest, I'd expect them all to win. Newcastle are in a similar situation to LCL, in that they have a load of new players and how well they do will depend upon how quickly they gel together. It was an unfamiliar line up and an unfamiliar formation, so even though they didn't batter newly promoted Forest they way I thought they should, I guess the 3pts is the only thing that matters for the moment

[Durhamfootman]

lots of draws in WSL2 today

Newcastle had to settle for a point at home to bargain basement Sheff Utd, which suggests that there is still a fair bit of work to do to get the team to gel.

Sunderland took a point at home to high flying Birmingham

Durham lost 2-1 away to Charlton

[Durhamfootman]

LCL got another kicking, this time a 5-1 thumping by Man Utd. A tough couple of matches for them to begin their WSL life after the 4-1 loss to Arsenal last weekend. They find themselves rooted to the bottom of table. Takes time to build a team. The only way is up

[Gingerfinch]

I get the feeling that the top of the league is going to be a lot tighter than in some previous seasons!

[Durhamfootman]

which is good, otherwise you might as well watch scottish football

[Gingerfinch]

which is good, otherwise you might as well watch scottish football

Oh yeah, 100%

[Durhamfootman]

I watched the highlights of the Newcastle game and it was pretty poor, really. A number of chances were squandered. The equaliser when it came involved 3 of last year's players, 2 of whom came on as subs. Sheff Utd had 2 chances, a speculative looping shot from distance which the keeper couldn't deal with because she was off her line and then a cross that floated onto the top of the crossbar, with the keeper off her line again and thanking her lucky stars. The keeper Claudia Moan came in from Sunderland a year ago and was an improvement on the long standing keeper of before. She is a bit of a liability though, prone to errors, so I'm not surprised that Newcastle brought in a couple of keepers in the summer. I imagine they aren't ready yet, but once they're fit and in the side, I think Moan loses her place, but we'll see.

The American loanee Gautrat didn't make the match day squad and nor did Jordan Nobbs, so again I imagine the summer signings are still building their match fitness. That's the trouble with making a plethora of signings