Chelsea Women Thread

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

11 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

The club's website already lists 38 members of the women's first team squad. Jean-Francois would be number 39, and Lucy Bronze makes 40. The size of our squad is what got us out of trouble last season when the injury crisis hit, but 40 is beyond unwieldy. We have to expect some departures and some loans before the season proper begins.

Edited July 6 by OhForAGreavsie

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[KEVINAA 97]

 

Chelsea sign Lucy Bronze from Barcelona

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

Bronze is a terrible signing. Long over the hill. Old, slow, no positional discipline. Single-handedly lost England the WC final when she went on an utterly braindead infield run into the crowd in the middle of the park, vacated her position, predictably lost the ball, pathetically failed to recover as Spain walked down her wide open side to score easily. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

31 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Bronze is a terrible signing. Long over the hill. Old, slow, no positional discipline. Single-handedly lost England the WC final when she went on an utterly braindead infield run into the crowd in the middle of the park, vacated her position, predictably lost the ball, pathetically failed to recover as Spain walked down her wide open side to score easily. 

I have to say that I'm not excited about this deal. If she had joined after leaving Lyon that would have been a different story, but now I find that I'm hoping this will work out, rather than expecting it to. 

On the world Cup final; it was one of those slow motion car crashes wasn't it. You could see, as Lucy carried the ball further and further, that she was running into greater and greater danger. You could also see the gaping gap in the right back area that would be  exploited instantly if there was a turnover. Where we differ a little, and I may have to watch the replay to confirm that I still see it the same way I did at the time, is that I do not entirely, or even primarily, blame Bronze. I was screaming at the telly for someone to give her an angle for a pass and, if I am remembering it correctly, you could tell from our right back's body language that she was asking for the same. 

Anyway, that's history, and Lucy is now a Blue. I bought my Kingsmeadow season ticket and Stamford Bridge package yesterday, so now I'm crossing my fingers about this move.

Edited July 17 by OhForAGreavsie

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

CFCW started their preseason last night with a 3-1 win against American champions NY/NJ Gotham in New Jersey. We started strongly and ended the game reasonably, but there was a disjointed spell either side of halftime. 

Johanna Rytting Kaneryd scored twice and Aggie Beever-Jones netted the other. The result was great but the performance is a little more difficult to judge. On the one hand we played against a strong team which is in the middle of their season, but on the other, half of their strongest XI, were not even in the match day squad.

Positives: a win is a win, 22 players got minutes, there were moments when the new manager's style could be seen taking shape, ABJ was very sharp, new signings Kaptein and Bernabe looked comfortable and a competitive preseason fixture has to have been helpful. 

Negatives: we could barely complete a pass either side of halftime, our difficulties defending set pieces carried over from late last season, Lauren James was poor (though I think this may prove a blessing in disguise), Lucy Bronze was awful. Things can only get better for her.

Very Bad: Erin Cuthbert picked up a worrying knee injury and left the stadium on crutches. 

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/video/rytting-kaneryds-post-match-reaction

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/video/bompastors-post-match-reaction

Edited August 20 by OhForAGreavsie

[KEVINAA 97]

Club friendly CFCW vs feyenoord [playing right now]

CFCW 2 - 0 FEYENOORD after 7 minutes

https://www.flashscore.com/match/K8ahCmNO/#/match-summary/match-summary

CFCW LINEUP.

 

Edited September 7 by KEVINAA

[KEVINAA 97]

9 - 0 to CFCW and a hat trick.

 

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

Was nice to be back at Kingsmeadow but a little difficult to gauge Feyenoord's strength and therefore to decide how well our preparation is going.

There was an interesting moment midway through the first half when one of their players was sent off for a bookable challenge followed, we guessed, by a second card for dissent Sonia Bompastor then had a lengthy conversation with the ref after which Feyenoord were allowed to make a substitution. It would make sense for Sonia to want her team to continue their preseason build up against a full strength opponent, but I don't think the ref is allowed to do what she did. I hope she isn't going to be reprimanded because she made a sensible decision I think.

Sandy Baltimore scored our opener but had a fairly quiet game otherwise. At least she did until the Dutch side made a flurry of substitutions, when she had some brighter spells.

Random thoughts:

Mille Bright's clever header was pick of the goals for me.

Maika Hamano was quite sharp after coming on and looks to have put on some muscle since the end of last season.

Aggie Beaver-Jones looked closer to readiness than Mayra Ramirez.

Wieke Kaptien had good game and looked fully ready to compete for minutes.

Bernabe and Mpome had too few touches to offer a chance to assess them.

[Vesper 28,804]

2 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Sonia Bompastor

Happy with her so far?

Massive shoes to fill.

[Vesper 28,804]

Bompastor reflects on a perfect start at Kingsmeadow

Chelsea Women head coach Sonia Bompastor was delighted to see her team share the goals around and entertain the home supporters in a 9-0 victory over Feyenoord.

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/bompastor-reflects-on-a-perfect-start-at-kingsmeadow

Bompastor couldn't have asked for much more in her first Chelsea match at Kingsmeadow, as her side raced into an early lead and never looked back, triumphing 9-0 at the final whistle.

Her joy was clear in a light-hearted start to her post-match analysis, when it was pointed out to her the Blues got one more goal than in previous head coach Emma Hayes' last home game, an 8-0 win over Brentford.

‘That’s not a competition, but I am going to text her to make sure she knows about the result! I am sure she will be happy for me and for the team especially,’ laughed Bompastor.

It was the Blues' performance which put the biggest smile on her face, though, especially the fact that a total of seven players got their name on the score sheet, as Sandy Baltimore, Mayra Ramirez, Sjoeke Nusken, Wieke Kaptein, Millie Bright and Maika Hamano all found the net, in addition to a hat-trick from Aggie Beever-Jones.

‘It was the same in my previous experience. I really like when the team is performing together, it’s not about only one or two players. So I always makes sure the team performs, and when the team is performing it’s more helpful for the players individually to perform as well.

'We have a framework and I’m really demanding on the framework, as well as for individuals to perform. Everyone has to make sure they work for the team. That’s the best thing to do to make sure the players feel confident enough and perform themselves.'

Bompastor was happy to give the supporters something to smile about in her first home game as head coach...

'It felt really good to be in that environment. It’s a really nice stadium to have the fans close to the pitch, especially when you win and you score a lot of goals.

'That’s our first game at home with the fans in the stadium and we needed to make sure we played the way we want to play, but make sure they enjoyed it as well. That is what it is about, trying to perform as hard as we can and making sure the fans really enjoy it.

'I just want them to say at the end of the game they want to come back for the next one.'

She also discussed the possibility of Ramirez and Beever-Jones featuring together as a striker partnership in the future...

'Everything is possible and both have so much talent, so to audition them together is something possible.

'As a manager I like to have different organisations in my team and at the moment maybe we have been working only with one organisation. We just brought in new players and with a new coach, so they need to get used to what I’m demanding in one organisation, but for sure during the season maybe we’ll switch.

'We will have many options, playing with a back four, back five, back three. A 4-4-2 with two strikers is something I really like but I just feel like at the moment it’s too soon to start to teach them about all these organisations.'

Sonia finished by providing an update on the two players who went off injured today and those who have been absent since earlier in pre-season...

'I think Niamh [Charles] dislocated her shoulder, so she will need to pass some tests to see how it goes, at the moment it’s too soon to give more information. Sophie [Ingle] it was her knee, she got kicked in the beginning of the second half, so we will have to see after some tests as well, but I hope it’s not too bad.

'Erin [Cuthbert] is supposed to start adaptive training on Monday and if everything goes well the plan is for her to get some minutes in a training game next Saturday.

'Cat’s [Macario] kind of the same, she’s already started some adaptive training sessions with the team, she’s supposed to progress this week and the plan is also for her to get some minutes next Saturday.

'Oriane [Jean-Francois], before she joined the club she had two seasons without playing a lot because she had injuries. So we are at the moment trying to build something with her with consistency and the plan is for her maybe to get some minutes in the beginning of the season. But we still need to work one or two more weeks with her.'

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

It's more or less 121 years since the Wright brothers first-powered flight. Since then mankind has made such enormous progress that, nowadays, we can even fly helicopters on Mars. Achieving good sound in a football managers press conference is proving a bit more challenging however. Maybe in another 120 years? Here is Sonia doing her best after yesterday's game. A few interesting sections of this did not make it into the comments @vesper posted above.

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

On 07/09/2024 at 17:57, Vesper said:

Happy with her so far?

Massive shoes to fill.

Delighted though this is mainly based on expectation still.

I've been supporting this club for 58 years and, barring Super Frank 1, I've never known a managerial appointment that was so emotionally acceptable to the supporters. Every CFC fan I've communicated with, if they have an opinion on Sonia at all, have a very, very positive one. The squad speak enthusiastically about Sonia personally, and about her training sessions too. Even allowing for the, 'what else would they say in public' factor, they seem genuinely excited by the new manager.

When news broke of Emma's departure the first name which came to mind was Casey Stoney but I immediately dismissed it on the ground that she had only just relocated her family to San Diego so it seemed unlikely that she'd drag them all back again so soon. Once the rumour started to break that Sonia was in the frame however, I was fully on board. Now there is another rumour that Stoney actually applied for the job, but the club had already decided to approach Bompastor.

Edited September 9 by OhForAGreavsie

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

Sam Kerr on her rehab progress, Sonia Bompastor, CFCW targets for the season ahead, and more.

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

Pitch side highlights of CFCW's preseason friendly victory of Feyenoord last Saturday.