Goal! Arsenal 1-0 Manchester United (Miedema, 18)
A great move, a simple move, as Bloodworth’s pass finds Miedema to slot home with a toe poke – a toe bung in Mancunian terms. Class showed there.
17 min: Some pushing n’ shoving ahead of the corner. Sigsworth – from Greenwood’s kick – climbs high to head wide.
16 min: Another United attack, this time Greenwood buzzing onwards. Great energy from the visitors against the title favourites. Then Sigsworth forces Mitchell into conceding a corner.
14 min: Close for United. Jess Sigsworth makes another run down the right flanks and fires in a shot just wide of the post.
13 min: More good hustling from United forces Molly Green into an error but Arsenal then manage to go forward so that Miedema can force a save from Chamberlain.
11 min: Good work in United’s midfield, composed stuff, finds Sigsworth in a decent position on the flank, and another foul by Arsenal in a dangerous area. Greenwood takes the kick, no, Katie Zelem takes, with some venom, and Sigsworth rather got in the way of that.
9 min: A poor goal kick, too low, from United keeper Chamberlain actually results in a United attack but Van Veenendaal, the Gunners keeper, is alert to it.
7 min: United not overawed, it seems. Lauren James and Martha Harris working hard down the flank. James, the 17-year-old, looking to show up her old club.
5 min: United pressing up the pitch with Greenwood leading the charge, and Arsenal unable to settle. A foul on Sigsworth sets up a dead-ball chance. It’s taken short to Turner, before Arsenal clear.
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2 min: A cagey start from the kick-off, though Arsenal have settled into a possession game. Greenwood, United’s captain, is playing in midfield, and concedes an early foul.
Kick-off
The sound from the Hertfordshire faithful is one of those songs that uses Earth, Wind and Fire’s September, while the Barmy Army’s “Manchester La La La” can be heard loud and clear. And a bit of “Red Army”, too.
There may be a good reason behind this – perhaps they don’t trust their followers to behave themselves – but seems odd that neither Arsenal nor Manchester United’s official accounts are tweeting about this match.
Gunnersaurus is there, anyway.
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Coaches Joe Montemurro and Casey Stoney have been talking. “We’re taking it in our stride, we respect each team we play against,” said Arsenal coach Montemurro.
Stoney is fired up but realistic. “It’s our biggest test, it’s a test we want, Arsenal are up there as one of the best teams in Europe. We know it’s a one-off game and we will try and have a go. They have the league’s top goalscorer. Will we dominate the way we have been? We know we won’t.”
Word on Katie Zelem, Manchester United’s midfielder, who headed back to England after a spell at Juventus: I used to watch her father, Alan Zelem, play in goal for Macclesfield Town in the late-1980s. He was, as they say, a decent shot-stopper and a town hero, but my recollection is of him being quite small for a goalkeeper, not exactly great at goal-kicks and his rather high-pitched voice. A few of us at school used to attempt Alan Zelem impressions.
Here are the teams
Manchester United: Chamberlain, Harris, A. Turner, M. Turner, Smith, Greenwood (c), Zelem, Green, James, Galton, Sigsworth
Subs: Ramsey, Roberts, Palmer, Devlin, Toone, Arnot, Hanson
Arsenal: van Veenendaal; Arnth, Williamson, Quinn, Mitchell; Bloodworth, Little, Van de Donk; Mead, Miedema, McCabe
Subs: Peyraud-Magnin, Veje, Kuyken, Grant, Filis, Hazard
Preamble
The final of this season’s competition will either be a Manchester derby, or a rerun of last year’s final, when Arsenal won the trophy for the fifth time when beating City. Only City, twice winners, and Arsenal have ever actually won this trophy, so a United win tonight presents the chance of a novelty.
Manchester United may be the nascent moneybags team, but Arsenal, should they win their game in hand on leaders City, have the WSL within their grasp and have to be overriding favourites. United, even though they have a couple of games in hand on the rest of the chasers, are fourth in the Championship though they have lost just once season in the league and just once in the round-robin stages of this competition. Arsenal have a perfect record in in the ‘Conti Cup’, including a 9-0 walloping of Lewes.
But how about the red-hot atmosphere that awaits Arsenal from away fans? “Casey’s at the wheel,” sing United’s Barmy Army, appropriating the Stone Roses song used for both José Mourinho and now Ole Gunnar Solskjær, for Casey Stoney, coaching against the club she served for two years.
And how about these anthems, as taken from United’s official website?
- ‘Ooh ah, Martha Harris, ooh ah, a little bit more; Ooh ah, Martha Harris, you’re the one we’re singing for.’
- ‘Woooahhh, we got Leah Galton; woooahhh, super Leah Galton; woooahhh, she never gives the ball awayyy.’
- ‘Gonna score, she’s gonna score, Jess Sigsworth’s gonna score; how she scores them I don’t know, with her head or with her toe; all I know is Siggy’s gonna score.’
- ‘She’s our Scots girl at the back, turns defence into attack; down the left or down the right, Kirsty Smith is dynamite.’
- ‘Kirsty Kirsty Kirstyyyyy, Kirsty Hanson of MUFC; with a jink and a trick, she is skilful and quick; and she’s Hanson of MUFC.’
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