The domestic women’s game is on hold for just under a fortnight now with the last international break of the season, before the Gunners face either Portsmouth or Gillingham in the FA Cup 4th Round at Meadow Park on 18th April. Most of the games are friendlies, with the exception of the Swiss players, who have a crucial two legged playoff match to qualify for Euro 2021 (to be played next summer in England).
Jen Beattie and Lisa Evans are injured anyway, but Kim Little will get some time off as Scotland don’t have a fixture. Steph Catley (Australia) and Viki Schnaderbeck (knee) will continue the final stages of their rehabilitation in London. Anna Patten isn’t an England international (yet) and will also have time off.
Here is a rundown of where the Arsenal players will be during the international fixtures. Kickoff times are all UK times.
Thursday, 8th April
Republic of Ireland (Katie McCabe) v Denmark at 1830 in Dublin
Friday, 9th April
Czech Republic v Switzerland (Lia Wälti, Malin Gut and Noelle Maritz) at 1530 in Chomutov
Spain v Netherlands (Danielle van de Donk, Vivianne Miedema and Jill Roord) at 1800 in Marbella
France v England (Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Jordan Nobbs and Lotte Wubben-Moy) at 2010 in Caen
Saturday, 10th April
Germany (Leonie Maier) v Australia (Lydia Williams and Caitlin Foord) at 1505 in Wiesbaden
Sunday, 11th April
Belgium v Republic of Ireland (Katie McCabe) at 1830 in Brussels
Tuesday, 13th April
Germany (Leonie Maier) v Norway at 1500 in Wiesbaden
Netherlands (Danielle van de Donk, Vivianne Miedema and Jill Roord) v Australia (Lydia Williams and Caitlin Foord) at 1730 in Nijmegen
Switzerland (Lia Wälti, Malin Gut and Noelle Maritz) v Czech Republic at 1900 in Thun
England (Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Jordan Nobbs and Lotte Wubben-Moy) v Canada at 1915 in Stoke-on-Trent
Austria (Manuela Zinsberger) v Finland at 1930 in Ritzing
In the FA Cup 3rd Round, Portsmouth play Gillingham at 1400 on Sunday, 11th April, with the winner travelling to Meadow Park to play Arsenal in the 4th Round a week later.
Nice round up Tim but I still don’t get the point of international friendlies at a crucial point of the season. Ok it’s not so critical for us this year because Chelsea and City have been in a different league but the numpties in charge of the fixtures weren’t to know that at the time. What if several of the Chelsea or Man City players get injured playing in these pointless international games? It could be that the destination of the WSL title is determined by who gets their players back from international “duty” in a fit state rather than… Read more »
I’d say a team like Oz wouldn’t say they’re pointless having not played in 13 months with the Olympics on the immediate horizon. National FA’s lost a lot of cash during the pandemic and many are close to bankruptcy. But it’s different in the women’s game anyway where players are largely paid to play for their countries and players really, really love doing it (especially at the moment when they are otherwise unable to go home). Internationals are also one of the biggest overall drivers of interest and income in women’s football.
I would argue that for our English players, these 2 friendlies maybe the most important games of the season. Because getting to the Olympics squad is difficult, specially because Arsenal have been less than they should have been. We might not like it, but as Tim said, international tournaments are where the fame and recognition is.
Indeed, it’s also worth saying that the break is there chiefly to determine the playoffs for the Euros, which have already been delayed. International football has taken far more hits than the club game during covid, it’s not unreasonable at all for teams who have qualified or who have Olympics coming up to get some games on.
Perhaps it’s just me that considers team sports to be against the ethos of the Olympics then! 🙂
TBH I never watch the international matches, neither men nor women, as they rarely live up to the the hype or appear to reach the excellence that the pooled talent should produce.
Busy times
Tim, do you see any stats regarding who is voting on your blogs? The continual down votes for anything related to the women’s team is getting tiresome. I don’t mind for contentious opinions but every contribution on this thread has a down vote and there is nothing that you, Eeleen or Lee jun Fan have said that deserves to be down voted. I know certain people have commented in the past about being disinterested in women’s football, and that is their prerogative, but then why do they feel the need to comment or apply down votes right across the board?… Read more »
We don’t get anything on the up / down voters, no. But tbh, they don’t mean a great deal unless lots and lots of people down vote and then we have the option to hide the post (which we don’t have to). If experience has taught me anything here it’s that the trolls get bored soon enough when they see the coverage isn’t going anywhere and the trolling carries no impact.
congrats to Mccabe and Beatie for making transfer lab wsl best league X1
McCabe got same points as Bronze so not so ‘laughable’ to say Katie is best fullback in world.
Maybe if mccabe and beattie played for tier 1 international teams they would get more recognition
finally , always thought Arsenal got the wrong Aussie keeper as mckenzie arnold comes out top
https://shekicks.net/transferlab-the-analytics-fc-player-scouting-tool-set-to-bring-about-a-data-revolution-in-womens-football/