The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Canadian Super League latest and FA Cup drama – Women’s Football Weekly podcast

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Jamie Spangher and Har Johal to discuss the FA Cup and Canada’s new professional league

This is The Guardian. Hello, I'm Faker Rothers and welcome to The Guardian Women's Football Weekly. We have our FA Cup finalists. Chelsea secured their place with a dramatic win over Liverpool and defending champions Manchester United knocked out rival City to set up a Wembley showdown. We'll wrap up some of the FA Women's National League stories and head to Canada to find out more about the new Northern Super League. All of that plus we'll take your questions and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. That's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Ah, well, we have a mini panel today.

We're doing things slightly differently today on the Guardian Women's Football Weekly, but Susie Ratt, good morning. Good morning. How are you? That's way more cheerful than I feel inside at this time of the morning. Well, I know. It's, I hear you. I hear you. Neither of us are are morning people. I wonder if Jamie Spanger is a morning person. Hello. Hey, Faye. I'm not too bad.

Not the biggest morning person in the world. But yeah, you know what? I'm feeling good. I'm ready. I'm excited to talk about some football. Okay. We'll just get ourselves giddy pants like we normally are for evening records instead, shall we? By the way, we're just get ourselves giddy pants like we normally are for evening records instead, shall we? By the way, we're going to speak to Canadian journalist Har Jo Howe later in the pod. But first of all, we're going to focus on the Adobe Women's FA Cup. Domestic football returned this weekend, a fortnight away it's had because of the international break. But the last stretch of the season with trophies at stake two semi-finals to find out who's heading to Wembley on Sunday the 18th of May to fight for the

FA Cup and Chelsea were the first to book their spot. They're chasing down a sixth FA Cup trophy and they beat Liverpool in dramatic fashion at King's Meadow on Saturday keeping their hopes of a quadruple alive. I can't believe we're still using the Q word, that's quite amazing. It finished Chelsea 2 Liverpool 1. They love a bit of added time drama Chelsea don't they? Olivia Smith had put Liverpool into a shock lead but Chelsea responded. Erin Cuthbert levelled the score with the final kick of the first half before a 94th minute header from a player who's had quite a week, Agui Beaver-Jones which ended up breaking Liverpool hearts. Sisi, we've talked about the mentality of this Chelsea

team so many times and Sonia Bampastor talked about how she told her side to just stay patient, stick to their principles and there we go, paid off again, didn't it? Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, the mentality has been the piece that has followed through from Emma Hayes' tenure, right? Like it's something that they've had for a long time. It's so ingrained into the club and the players and the staff, like they't They don't switch off. They don't give up. I remember speaking to Meg Arapino around like maybe it's rather 2019 World Cup It must have been and she said she just never ever believed that they would lose ever and I feel like Chelsea have a similar mentality in that no matter how

Many they could be losing by they will never believe they're losing the game but they will always believe they're going to come back into it in some way. And it feels like they've got that kind of mentality that the heads never really bow. I don't know how you create that and how you build that. I bet that's something that a lot of managers kind of look at and are very, very jealous of. But yeah, they've got this just incredible way of maintaining their focus, not panicking and sticking to the game plan. It'd be interesting to see, you know, kind of how it works when they're not necessarily playing particularly well against a team like Barcelona, obviously, coming up, or like some of the more tricky games towards the end

of the season they've got, like those kind of things are going to be interesting because it's far easier to do that when you're not playing particularly well against a team like Liverpool than it is against, say, champions of Europe back to back. Yeah, it's not always translated into Europe, has it? That's for sure. They were under pressure Jamie if we if we take what Suzy said there you know they could have been 2-0 down because Liverpool had had the chances and it looked like they were playing their perfect game plan but its second half was was was different in the end. Yeah I think we need to give Liverpool their flowers for that opening 45

minutes because Chelsea didn't get a real shot off. They couldn't create chances, they couldn't get past Amber Whiteley's game plan. So I think as a Liverpool player and in a squad, you'd be proud of that effort because they really did hold it off. But then it comes down to squad depth, right? We've spoken about this so many times when Chelsea have that plethora of talent coming off the bench.

We know how good Sonia Bonpastori is at correcting at halftime. It's so hard to hold a team like that back. And I think football does come down to a bit of luck. Like you said, they could have been too new up. They hit the bar. So it's all about luck in the end. But I think Amber Whiteley and her squad can walk away from this game and they can say,

look, our heart's broken. It's very hard. There was a ticket to Wembley right there in front of them and it was closing in, but they can walk away and they can say, hey, that's a very good game. That we've seen what they've done under Amber Whiteley. They've beaten Arsenal, they've then gone

and beaten Man United 3-1 at Anfield and a narrow loss to Asim Villa, which they'll be absolutely kicking themselves about as well. However, this is a team that are showing real prospect and I think Olivia Smith, again, what a young star. She's absolutely propping up this team right now. They need to do their best to hold on to her in the summer. But I think Liverpool can pat themselves on the back

for that effort, because I thought they played very, very well to nullify Chelsea's threats. Yeah, what's she going to take from this game, Susie? And actually, mentioning Olivia Smith there, is she going to, in hindsight, which is a wonderful thing, of course, regret taking Olivia Smith off and moving to three at the back with two minutes

in injury time to go. It's a strong word, isn't it? Like regret. I think in an ideal world you would have her on the pitch for the entire game plus added time because she is a constant threat. She is, you know, when legs are tiring, the pace that is going to sort of help you out of trouble both in terms of like just giving you that little bit longer on the ball as well as providing a goal for it. That said, she's only just returned from injury herself. She's not played for three weeks. So like whether she could play on is the big question, right? Like she, who knows what her fitness was like going into the game. She probably wasn't ready for 90 minutes. They probably left her on,

I imagine, longer than they had planned to initially because, you know, when you're coming back after three weeks out, you're kind of going to not necessarily be able to play for 90. So, in that sense, in the context of, you know, kind of the balance of looking after her and maintaining the threat they have, it's the problem of a team that doesn't have much threat, right? Like they basically need more players and the club are backing them and I feel like every single pod we should be hammering the fact that the runaway Premier League champions are not backing their women's team to the extent of which that they could like maintain a challenge across 90 minutes in a game like that right? Like imagine if they had one or two other

forwards on the bench that were able to come on and impact that game instead of having the dilemma of whether you take off a three-week absent Olivia Smith because she has been absent for three weeks and may not be fit or keep your only sort of real threat on the pitch like that's that's the issue for me like that's Like what what I'd be at Abba Wiley is doing is showing What would be possible if they were properly back to her? That's what's going well I mean that that that's that's a key job to do though, isn't it? You know, highlight it, get the media talking about it,

get the fans in uproar about it. You know, this is the way that change happens. It's just painful that it has to happen this way. And no disrespect to Chelsea, I'm a complete neutral, as you know. They're the kind of teams I want to see at Wembley. Not that it's made any difference to Manchester United, by the way, who won it last year. But you know what I mean? That is the kind of thing that is going to get more eyeballs on

and start shaking the hierarchy up a little bit. Going back to the game, Jamie, before I go on a rant, the timing of Chelsea's goals are so important. Aaron Cuthbert's goal was actually their first shot on target in the match, deep in first half injury time, and obviously Liverpool go in with their heads down to the dressing room and Chelsea have their tails up. It just felt like it changed the half-time messaging completely. 100%, I think that's a main takeaway from this game is Erin Cuthbert in the recent weeks

has just come up clutch for Chelsea so many times. We obviously saw her against Man City at the Etihad. She gets that late winner. She's a player you want playing for you when you're in those hard and tough moments. And I think as soon as that happens, Liverpool don't have the mentality to turn that game around. And I don't think that's any fault to Amber Whiteley. I think it's going exactly back to what Susie said. The depth isn't there, right? Like they're not going to be able to look at a team like Chelsea, look at their bench and say, we can turn this around no matter what.

It takes a lot of mentality and miracle to be able to do that. And I think it also is a testament to how Chelsea's been winning games recently, because I think we always look at a team like Chelsea and we say, okay, that's what champions do. They win it late, they get in the late winner, but their results haven't been the most convincing. And I think it will be interesting to see how they play against Barcelona this weekend because it's a late win against Liverpool. They've just beaten Man City 2-1 as well.

Crystal Palace, they won 1-0 against. They drew against Brighton. They just beat Everton 2-1. This is all in recent months as well. So it seems like they're kind of scraping results and that's to no detriment of them because they're running away with the league right now and that's what champions do, right?

But I think it's gonna be a test to see if they can, you know, show that same mentality against a team with Barcelona who they've got players like, you know, Eva Payor, they've got Claudia Pina coming off the bench. Like that's a plethora of talent. So I think there's a little bit of vulnerability there to exploit in Chelsea because they've been really clinching late victories recently and I think Liverpool just weren't the team to be able to

capitalize on that. Before we move on to the the second game we've got to talk about Aggy Beaver-Jones Suzie what a week for her first Lionesses senior And you know, she's a Chelsea kid with a, scoring the goal to send her team to Wembley. It's her 11th goal in all competitions this season. Pretty good week for her, isn't it? Yeah, not bad. If Karl, if Karl, what is it, if Carlsberg did weeks, hope that's not an advert, I don't drink beer.

Other, other cold alcoholic beverages are available. Yeah. I hope that's not an advert, I don't drink beer. Other cold alcoholic beverages are available. Or wine. It was, she deserves it because she's such a hardworking player and she's really biding her time. You know, people have been calling her for her to get a chance in an England shirt for a while and you know she's kind of had very very few minutes and sort of almost been a little bit overlooked I would

say even when she's been in the squad I think people have sort of been a little bit confused by why she's been sort of left on the bench at times. So to see her come on and be so impactful in Bristol which also was a club that she liked at Bristol City. She was on loan at a while back. So like, you know, a personal affinity to the city and the club where England were playing as well. To see her come on and be so impactful and score her first goal for England after, you know, such a strong season for Chelsea, I think was really really really special And you could tell from her reaction as well. Also like quite lovely that she

Spent more time I think afterwards talking about how happy she was for Keira Walsh and she was for herself obviously like her having beaten Keira to a goal You know in terms of number of caps with it taking 83 for Keira to reach her first England goal. So yeah, that was quite sweet too. But yeah, like super talented and it's only going to do really, really well for Chelsea going into the back end of the season that she's sort of bringing with confidence and has that kind of wave to ride on. Yeah, without a doubt. By the way, Sonia Bon Bonpastor after this said that she thinks that her best position is eventually going to be a 10. So that's interesting. Barcelona away in the Champions League is

next. That'd be good wouldn't it? That'd be like the cherry or the sprinkles on top of an iced cake if she could score away at Barcelona in the Champions League as well. Right, so Chelsea secured their spot on Saturday. So then it was over to Manchester to find out who they'd be facing. City hosted United at the Joyce Stadium and it was Mark Skinner's side who kept their defence alive. A solid victory in the end over their close neighbours. It finished Manchester City nil, Manchester United 2 thanks to first half goals from Celine Bise and Grace Clinton. Felt like quite a mature performance actually this one, Susie. Their third successive FA Cup final, which is really impressive. What did you make of their performance?

Yeah, it was mature. It was mature, It was really composed and they just went to work. I think that was what was most stand out for me is they were really, really well organized, held their shape really well. And obviously they were playing such an incredibly depleted and injury hit man's city side that that's all they needed to do to a certain extent. I don't really think we saw them at their absolute fluid best because they didn't need to be, like they just needed to kind of, yeah, kind of stick to the game plan, follow the rules. It didn't have to be particularly kind of sparkling or special because City are just so kind of

beleaguered at the moment that it's almost a little bit easy to play them at this time and I think, you know, we've seen this fixture a lot of times and I've always thought that Man United have had a little bit of a struggle even when they've been on top with the mental side of this tie and I think that was like completely gone which I thought was quite interesting. Whether that sort of maintains, when I say maintains I mean sort of like this the gap that like is presented, it's not making sense here, but the gap that's presented sort by the history of the clubs obviously, City having a much longer and richer history relative to Man United and I think that's a little bit of a weight on their shoulder.

Now that's gone, it'll be interesting to see whether it returns when they're in better shape next season which you would assume that they will be. But yeah, it was a really interesting game and I thought they were. They looked really good. The fact that they've had so few injuries and have been able to stay so consistent across the season, like really shows, you know, the way they play is so intuitive now. It's really nice to see. We'll talk about City's injuries in a second, Jamie, but Susie mentioned how improved Manchester United are and you have to look at Celine Bizet actually for the impact that she's made since joining in the summer. She's kind of got to be considered surely one of the signings

of the season you'd think. What is it that she brings to this United team? Yeah, I think she's right up there with signings of the season, Faye. I think she's been incredible. She was great at Spurs last season. She was really instrumental in their FA Cup run as well and it was, I think it was four goals and assists in the league. And she's already surpassed that with so many, like four games to go in the WSL for Manchester United, she's just brought her game to a new level. I think the way that she's so fluid with the ball at her feet is so exciting to watch. It's so pleasing.

And she brings this kind of attacking dimension that maybe they haven't had through players like Leah Goulton or Rachel Williams, who were just more like very, very direct kind of wingers. And Celine, does that kind of brings this flair? But I think something that really goes overlooked in her game style is her defensive attributes, her ability to drop back and recover the ball in transition is so, so, so priceless to Manchester United.

The way that she comes back, she collects the ball when she loses it, or even she drops back and helps out Jade Riviere in the right channel, that has allowed Manchester United to be so much more fluid this season. I think that Celine doesn't get her flowers enough for how she does that because it allows Grace Clinton to push up into the higher role, allows Ella Toon to flude up, and then Mia Zauer doesn't have to play a defensive role. So I think she's the complete player. And the

fact that they got her for $60,000 is an absolute bargain. Manchester United's recruitment team will be patting themselves on the back and Spurs will be kicking themselves because that is a signing and I think she's just the complete forward. She's helping them in every area of the pitch, not just the final box. She deserved that goal. What a finish. The fact she's turned, she's put that into the side netting, good on her because she's

just so exciting and thrilling to watch, isn't she? You're going to have to go to the florist. You've given a couple people flowers today. Look, City did improve in the second half, Suzy, didn't they? They put United's goal under more pressure. But let's talk about that incredible double save from Falonchulis Joyce. She's had a brilliant impact this season as well and tough for her as well, emerging out of Mary Earp's shadow following her move. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, Mary Earp's was big shoes to fill, right?

But there were signs that Fallon and Talis-Joyce was capable of filling them before she even joined Man United. Like, she was really highly rated goalkeeper and, you know, there were sort of rumblings that they really had a talent on their hands and it was a sort of a matter of time before she either, you know, started to see some minutes ahead of Earp's or, you know, one of them would have to move. So it's, it's great to see her doing so well. She also just comes across so brilliantly. You know, she's like Marie biologist and you know, doing classes with kids on the ocean and things like that. And science, she's just really cool and then just supremely talented. It was interesting that she got her first

minutes for the US on his national team and Emma Hayes said she wanted to see a little bit more from her distribution wise and things like that. Mark Skinner said it afterwards and I tend to agree with him that she has the potential to be the world's best. I genuinely think she is that good and it's really exciting to see her doing so well there. Obviously they've got such a strong defensive record in the league and she's a very, very big part of that. I do hate it when managers put that kind of pressure on, but I get it. But she is. Yeah, I know, but-

I mean, it's fact. Sometimes they say it and you think, well, you're actually talking a load of bollocks, right? That's not actually true. But in this case, I don't think it is necessarily pressure on her to reach that height because it's so obvious that she is and I think there is a little bit of a gap there. Obviously, Mary Upps has been back-to-back goalkeeper of the year and stuff. She's not going to be around forever, will move past her peak at some point. Hannah Hampton of seemingly being favoured at England's level. So there's a gap opening up and not necessarily now, but a couple of years she will be filling that gap because she does have that quality.

Obviously Manchester City looking at the minute to try and close the gap on the top three and get themselves Champions League football, but they are really injury hit at the minute. They've got Everton on Sunday. Nick Cushing said my message this week is to go and perform for our fans. We need to strip it back to basics. We have to show more desire. This team is a winning team and we have to make sure that every person and process is focused around the direction of winning and at the moment we're in a position that we shouldn't be in. The caveat to that is you know lots of big injuries Viv Miedema, Jill Rourde added to their list of casualties over the international break, Mary Fowler

as well suffered a worrying looking knee problem in the first half of this game. Where does it leave their season, Jamie? They're out of the running for silverware on all fronts, seven points off the Champions League spots. It feels like they need a little bit of a rebuild this summer. Yeah, I think Manchester City right now, it is a really, really tough place to be in and it's hard because I actually sympathise with them. I really think they're in a hard spot. If I was looking at the run-in right now in the WSL and getting rid of those injuries, if they had a fully fit squad, Manchester United had a fully fit

squad, I'd say they can do it. They can easily close that gap. United have a really hard run-in. They've got Chelsea Arsenal. They're playing Man City. They've got West Ham, who are a rebuilt team around. Skinner's got them playing really high quality football. So I think in a perfect world, they'd be able to do it. But right now their squad is depleted. Like it is so depleted. And I think it comes in two brackets, right? It comes in the bracket of there's on luck, right?

Alana Kennedy leaves in the winter. They sign Rebecca Knaack from Rosengard. She's a proven center back. She does her hamstring, she's out. But then again, they've got this plethora of talent in the forward line and they go and sign Carolyn on really high wage when they probably don't need her. proven center back, she does her hamstring, she's out. But then again, they've got this plethora of talent in the forward line and they go and sign Carolyn on a really high wage when they probably don't need her.

Like she's an exceptional player, NWSL MVP, she's a very high quality player, anyone wants her, but you don't need her, you need defensive depth, you need someone to back up Yui Hasegawa, because God forbid if Hasegawa gets injured, I don't know who's gonna play in the six for City. So it's kind of like, are they masters of their own downfall right now? Is their recruitment in the right place? Because, you know, we saw what

they did two summers ago. They just brought in Jill Robb when they needed more reinforcement. They brought in Viviana Mitema, who's been very injury prone. We've seen that. She's missed a lot of football this season. So I think for Man City right now, I don't know if it's really considerable for them to be able to look at that top three and say, we can get Champions League. I think it's just as you said, Faye, they come into the summer, they say, all right, we've either got to hire a new physio because our list is far too long, or we need to look at reinforcing that back line, the defense. They don't have enough options. Alex Greenwood's gotten injured.

And I think Lya Alexandria has not been performing nearly as well as we thought she would without Alex Greenwood. I think Greenwood's clearly the glue. So right now for City, it's about assessing, okay, where's the problem? Because there is a problem. I think, I feel bad for Nick Cushing and I feel bad for the players because it feels like they've thrown him in this situation and said, all right, before the League Cup final, go fix everything, go win the League Cup final, then go play Chelsea three more additional times and see what you can do. And it feels like they were betting on a miracle. That was never going to happen with that squad

talent. And I just think they needed to act like they were doing something. So they've thrown their players and their manager in the deep end and I really do feel bad for them because I think Cushing, he coached a win in that cup final and ever since then he's had hardly anyone to play with. So it'll be interesting to see how this season pans out but they need to do some thorough work in the summer. Just finally, Suzie on the FA Cup looking ahead to Wembley, Mark Skinner said his side wanted revenge for their defeat to Chelsea in the 2023 FA Cup final. Are this team better equipped this time round? I mean, they've won it since then, I suppose, to deal with the occasion and the opposition. Well, definitely to deal with the occasion in that they know what it takes to win, like you say,

and they've been there, done it. It's their third year at Wembley, there's no like, they can't be overawed by that anymore to a certain extent, although Wembley is Wembley. Yeah, Chelsea are a difficult beast. I think they still burn with a lot of rage at themselves as much as anything for the way they won the FA Cup last season and then lost so dramatically to Chelsea in the league on the final day of the season at Old Trafford and then had to parade their FA Cup trophy around the pitch after their heavy defeat whilst Chelsea were celebrating their

title victory in the corner with the league trophy. I think all of the memory of that still very much haunts them, whether that sees them fold in despair or come out all guns blazing and really focus and organise, we'll see in the final but I do think they're in better shape. I think that it's, you know, compared to the team that played Chelsea a couple of seasons ago it's a, you know, a much stronger squad I would say, a much more balanced squad. There's a little bit of depth there, they've rotated a little bit more than they have in the past few seasons and then you add in that Chelsea will have had a busy season and could potentially still be in the Champions League at that stage as well, then it's getting complicated. Either Chelsea could be in a Champions League final or they could have like Champions League

heartbreak behind them and real disappointment. So yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see like how fine the margin is in that game. Yeah, without a doubt. Looking forward to it. 18th of May at Wembley, the showpiece. Chelsea against Manchester United. Right the FA Women's National League is drawing to a close there are a couple more champions decided on Sunday so Ipswich Town are FA Women's National League Southern Premier winners in all but name basically hashtag United would need a 37 goal swing on the final day which I don't think is gonna happen so. So it looks like the Traktor girls are going to be playing in the

Barclays Championship next season. Well done to them. We will confirm it properly next week. There's nothing worse than crowning a champion and then it not happening but I'm sure that's not going to happen. Loughborough Lightning secured the FA Women's National League Division 1 Midlands title with a game to spare. That's thanks to a 5-0 victory over Sutton-Colefield and Real Bedford were crowned champions of the Division 1 South East with an 11-1 win over London Seaward. Both are unbeaten in the league this campaign and both have secured promotion to the FA Women's National League Premier so well done to them and Ipswich Town I really hope I've not jinxed you, bearing in mind my previous

track record as Jamie knows very well as a Matildas fan. Jamie we have Har Jo How talking all things Canada and their new domestic league coming up. So we will let you go back to bed if you like. Lovely to see you. Lovely to see you guys. Might go get an extra 30 minutes of sleep, can't lie. Have a great day guys. Oh my god. So jealous. Enjoy that. See you later. Right, that's it for part one. In part two we'll talk to Harjohal as Canada's first ever professional league, the Northern Super League, gets underway.

Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. So it's the start of a new dawn in Canada this week as the hotly anticipated Northern Super League gets underway. Canada's first ever professional women's football league kicks off in BC Place on Wednesday evening. That's Thursday morning UK time. Vancouver Rise are going to be hosting Calgary Wild. I hope I've pronounced that right. We'll find out from Canadian journalist Ha Jo Howe from Vancouver who's with us this morning. Well, morning our time, nighttime your time Ha. It your time, Ha. It's getting confusing now. How you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for having me on. Yes.

Vancouver Rise FC are going to be taking on Calgary Wild FC on Wednesday night at BC Place. The first match in the Northern Super League, a long time coming, and there will be a women's professional soccer league in Canada finally and so there's a lot of anticipation, a crowd of 12,000 fans is expected and it's the first of two matches this week. Toronto and Montreal will play at BMO Field on Saturday so everyone's really excited. There's a big media event coming up as well. So it's finally happening. It's here and the buzz is off the charts. Oh, I can absolutely imagine.

What is this new league gonna do in terms of helping Canada develop on the international stage in Canadian football? It provides an opportunity for players in Canada to play at home. Previously they would have had to go abroad maybe play in England and Europe or the NWSL but now you have an opportunity after university you can play in Canada at one of the six teams that's going to be in the NSL so there's a lot

of opportunities and not just for Canadians as well. You have internationals from all over the world that are playing in this league that have an opportunity and it's going to be fantastic. It's a great league to get going in Canada and everyone's really excited. Hey Ha, talk to us about how this project came to life. It's the brainchild of former Canadian international Diane Matheson who seems to have really taken it upon herself to try and progress the women's game domestically since her retirement. Yeah, Matheson is the founder. She's the chief growth officer. So she's all over the league.

It was her, you know, idea. She initiated a lot. She kicked down a lot of doors when people are saying there's too much, it's not possible. Stadions, sponsorship, players, licensing. She's been involved at every step and this league does not get done, it does not get created if Diana Matheson is not spearheading everything and making sure every box is checked and everything is getting done. Now there's still lots of logistics, lots of happenings. I don't know that they have a trophy yet at the end of the season. So they're still kind of building the plane while they're flying it. But this is a great first step. It's great to have the inaugural season underway on Wednesday. Six teams, as I mentioned, they want to expand to eight teams by 2027. and Matheson would like the league to be one

of the top five leagues in the world. So there's lots of ambition and they're hoping to get up to a great start. I love that kind of ambition and you expect that from someone who's previously said that being a women's soccer player in Canada is like trying to cross Niagara Falls on a tight rope. being a women's soccer player in Canada is like trying to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. It's been difficult for sure but she's really respected isn't she in many quarters. How important is it to have someone like that as the figurehead at the heart of it? I think it's important because this is someone that knows what they're doing. They've played

in leagues as well, They've played at the highest level. They know what players need to succeed, what makes a successful environment. It's not just Diane Matheson. There's a lot of other former Canadian internationals that are involved in various parts of the league. Here in Vancouver, Christine Sinclair is part owner of the Vancouver Rise. Stephanie Labay is the sporting director. She's on mat leave, so not fully involved right now. And you have Aaron McLeod playing for Halifax, Desiree Scott playing in Ottawa. So it's a lot of Canadian names that fans may recognize as well. Six teams you said so who have we got here you mentioned some of them Vancouver Rise, Calgary Wild which I can now pronounce properly because

you corrected me, Montreal Roses, Ottawa Rapid, AFC Toronto and Halifax Tides. This is going to be and Halifax tides. This is going to be tougher but how are they all shaping up? You've mentioned some of the players associated with Canada but who do we need to be keeping an eye on particularly? Vancouver of course and I'm not just saying that because I'm from Vancouver. If you look at the rosters and the way these teams have been constructed, a lot of the teams maybe are going with the younger youth movement and getting players that it may be going to show growth and development. Here in Vancouver, there's lots of players that have experience that have played in top flight leagues. Quinn plays for Vancouver. Nikki Stanton played in Seattle. She is on the

team here. Jasmine Spencer also in WSL. Shannon Waller is the captain and she played for the Canadian Women's National Team. So there's lots of veterans on the Vancouver team and so people are kind of maybe seeing maybe they have the edge because they have a lot of experience, but you know you have to go and win the games. It's not just about getting the the roster with the most experience. Each team will play 25 games, four make the playoffs, semi-finals, and then the final two legs. There's a salary cap of 1.6 million Canadian dollars and what I find unique is there is a secondary salary cap the league has for housing and transport because we know the cost of living is going higher up everywhere and so that really helps with housing and making sure players can get the training and matches so that's a big

part of what the league is doing. Wow that's absolutely massive. We'll talk about the salary cap in a minute but I know Susie's got a question on investment and trying to make the league more sustainable. Yeah obviously investment is needed for a league to be sustainable. The Bank of Montreal was announced as a high-profile commercial partner a few days ago and then you add that to the broadcast deal with ESPN. How important is that interest and visibility and are we

seeing signs that other entities are interested as well? Yeah, the sponsorships are huge because as Matheson was talking the other day, they think there's going to be deficits for the first few years of the league. So getting Thoradash, BMO, having an airline sponsor, getting all these agencies involved, it's a huge plan because you need to be able to offset those losses. And so getting media rights deals in place as well, it's a big factor. And so I think Matheson has played an integral part with that. The salary cap that you mentioned, that means that there's limits aren't there to the number of foreign players that teams can sign. What are those limits first of all? And for our audience not based in Canada, can you explain how that helps in terms of the least competitiveness and sustainability?

And do you think it will mean, there's three questions in and sustainability and do you think it will mean there's three questions in this sorry do you think it will mean actually that it could take longer to establish because of that? I believe it's fine I will have to double check on international players but having you know limiting that so then there's more opportunities for Canadians it's huge and so I think well this is a league that provides an opportunity for all athletes, making sure Canadians have access to that and being able to play. I think it will help with sustainability and competitiveness because they want to have close competitive games. They don't want to have huge blowouts.

You don't really want to have maybe a Manchester City team where, you know, teams are just getting demolished every week. So they want to have close games, they want to be engaged and they want to have fans interested. The minimum salary is $50,000. So they have a bottom as well. So they're kind of, you know, putting initiatives in place and seeing what works in the first year. And then going forward, they're going to obviously tweak some things and add some sponsors, maybe some changes to the salary cut. We'll see how it goes. An interesting wrinkle is each team has a designated player and so their salary does not count against salary cap and here in Vancouver that player is Quinn. Right, designated player, like it. Okay. These things are really a success

overnight and need to be given time. You mentioned that they're not necessarily expecting to make money initially as well. What are your hopes about what the NSL can do for the women's game in Canada generally? Hopefully one day we have players playing in the league that are mainstays on the national team and they're contributing at the highest level with Casey Stoney in charge. It's more of an opportunity for players to play in Canada and not have to go abroad and so it starts with this league and giving them opportunities and seeing who can flourish and who can really excel and maybe keeping players at home in Canada and so they don't have to seek opportunities elsewhere. You mentioned Casey Stoney there, obviously been a big advocate for the Northern Super League, it'd be a worry as the

national team manager if she wasn't supporting it and she's actually already called up to NSL players, AFC's Emma Regan and Vancouver Rises Samantha Chang for her first camp and you know she'll be as you would expect a regular attendee at games. How key can that be for the league the link up between the domestic game and the international setup? Yeah it's integral because you want to have cohesion you want to have your national team coach working maybe a little bit of overseeing or seeing what's happening with the teams and Casey Stoney is going

to be here for the first match. Canada played Argentina here in Vancouver in Vancouver Island last week. So Emma Regan was playing for the national team. Samantha Chang, as you mentioned, was not on the roster. Quinn was part of the national team setup. So Casey Stoney is excited. We're going to see her evaluating players and she'll have an opportunity to go to games and see who's going to fit into my national team, who's going to gel and who's really excelling in the league. So it's a nice merge and we're going to see what happens and hopefully there's some bright spots there. How are things at the moment in terms of the national team? because it's been choppy waters lately.

You know, we've talked a lot on the pod whenever we mentioned Canada. We obviously mentioned Christine Sinclair, but of course we mentioned Spygate as well. We had the Canada Soccer versus player argument and then Spygate at the Olympics in 2024. And it all seemed a little bit stressful. Is women's football in Canada in a better place now, would you say? Yeah, it's in a much better place. Jessie Fleming was saying

that Stoney's really brought professionalism. She's brought a new look, a fresh pair of eyes on what's happening and a different voice and different tactics. And I think the players really needed that. The trust was broken with the spy cheating scandal. And so they really want to put this behind the team. And they've done that.

They're on a 23 match on beaten streak until they lost to Argentina last week. And so Casey Stoner has come in and brought a no nonsense approach. She doesn't take any crap from anyone. She says it like it is. And the players really appreciate that and so it's different but I think it was well needed and it's about time and I think the national team players are turning the page on what happened and you know it's not really something that's being talked about here in Canada right now.

That is good to hear. First game is kicking off on Wednesday, imagine you'll be at BC Place. How much are you looking forward to it as someone who's been involved in the game for such a long time? I'm excited to see what's going to happen and how the fans are going to be involved, what kind of ceremonies, who's going to score the first goal. It's just a lot of firsts and we're going to be excited to see that. I'm excited to see just overall the league and Toronto is going to have a game at BMO Field and so it's a lot of exciting moments for Canadian fans and having the game on TV

here in Canada. So it's something you guys have obviously taken for granted a little bit having your league in your backyard and so Canadians are just kind of getting on board to what the rest of the world's been doing for a while. Yeah, well listen we're really looking forward to seeing how it goes for you and watching for sure and brilliant you've got those broadcast rights, looking forward to the first game, I hope it's a competitive one as well

but I really appreciate your time, Har, especially because it's so late in Vancouver at the minute so whereas we're just starting our day enjoy enjoy heading to bed, not jealous at all. Thank you so much for having me on great to see all of you. Can we switch to Canada time now can we just go can we just go to bed? That'd be really good I'd love to do that I'd love to do that. Canadian journalist Hard Joe Howe from Vancouver we'll be keeping an eye on that for sure. Susie just a bit of breaking news that's come to us actually this morning. The England women's senior team assistant coach,

Ion Vuurink, is going to be leaving the Lionesses after Euro 2025 because he's been appointed Netherlands women's head coach, which is brilliant news for him. Big loss for the Lionesses and Serena Wiegman. Obviously, the FA have put out a statement saying he's completely focused on the Lionesses current Nations League campaign and that summer tournament in Switzerland. Of course, the Netherlands are also in England's group at the Euros. And he's been with the Lionesses since September 2021 when Serena Wiegman took over and brought him with her. They've worked together since 2017 as well.

How much of a miss will he be? What do you make of this news? Oh, he's a huge miss and it's going to be super interesting to see what Serena Wiegman and Ayaan Vjeric look like separate from each other. It's gonna be weird isn't it? Such a like dynamic duo. It's proper Batman and Robin stuff except with Robin like more like a second Batman like not a sort of inferior role in a way in that like you speak to the players around England and you talk about kind of the coaching and Serena and most of them will praise Serena and then in the same breath praise Ayan and his role and you know kind of his technical qualities in training and

things like that and his eye for the game. So yeah it's gonna be super interesting to see how they both work independently of each other. Obviously they were, when they started coaching both of them, they were coaching like opposing sides in the Dutch Women's Leagues. That's how they sort of met and got to know each other. So like they have, they have been on opposite, opposite dugouts before. But yeah, it's gonna be really interesting to see kind of what then happens for England. Obviously Serena is still signed on so like who comes in and in a way that's also quite an exciting thing because it gives an opportunity potentially, hopefully, to you know a

successor and a bit of succession planning in terms of like future England manager and also you know, a successor and a bit of succession planning in terms of like, featuring the manager and also, you know, hopefully I would like to see, you know, in an ideal world it go to sort of a young English female manager that's sort of rising through the ranks and working with the under-23s, something like that, you know, one of, or one of the ones doing really good things at club game or in the international game currently, that would be a nice touch. But who knows? Who knows what will happen? But yeah, weird, weird situation. Very. It's just going to be odd not seeing them, you know, whispering together on the bench or in the tunnel. But we wish him the very best of luck, very well deserved head coach role for Iron View Inc. Right Susie, it feels weird just saying goodbye to you.

Yeah I know, it's very quiet, feels very empty. Everybody's left us. I will see you very soon. See you soon. Take care. See you all soon as well. Keep having your say by sending in your questions via social media or emailing us at women'sfootballweekly at theguardian.com and as ever a reminder to sign up for our weekly women's football newsletter. All you need to do is search moving the goalposts. Sign up. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Hattie Moyer. Music composition was by Laura Iredale. Our executive producer is Sal Ahmad.