The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - NWSL glory for Orlando and USA head to Wembley – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Megan Swanick, and Tom Garry to round up the NWSL season games and look forward to the big Wembley friendly

This is The Guardian. free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Hello, I'm Faye Carruthers, and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. We're heading stateside for an NWSL special to wrap up the season as Orlando Pride won the championship and Marta dropped the F-bomb on live TV. We'll round up the WSL and Champions League action as well as the FA Cup results from the weekend

and we'll look ahead to England USA at Wembley. All that, plus we'll take your questions. And that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. What a panel we have today. Sorry if I sound slightly off mic as well, by the way. Recording in different circumstances today and a Monday mic as well, by the way, recording in different circumstances today and a Monday afternoon as well. So we might be a bit giddy pants because that's usually what happens on a Monday, Susie Rack.

Always on a Monday. And, you know, I've been hobnobbing with Emma Hayes and family and friends. So that's put me high on life. Hey, when you say hobnobbing, do you mean hobnobbing? Well, there was food, there was drink. It was great. Oh, I couldn't make it. I'm really gutted, actually. I've been recording all day today. And when you get invited to something with Emma Hayes, you don't turn it down.

So I feel like I've got massive FOMO now. Tom Gary, have you got FOMO? Well, I'd love a hobnob if anyone's got any going. I've got FOMO for that. And I'm more of a custard cream guy myself, but definitely got FOMO for missing out on the chance to chat to Emma Hayes. But I'm going to chat to some England players today instead. So looking forward to that. Excellent. Well, Megan Swanick now gets to see her on her home turf.

How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? We're really well, thank you. Really well. It's been a while since we spoke to you. Not been that busy for you, has it? You know, new USA manager, few playoffs going on. Just a few things, just a few things happening. Well, listen, that is where we're going to start today, actually, because with the Cup competitions taking centre stage in England this weekend. We're going to take our focus over to the other side of the pond

for the conclusion of the 2024 NWSL season. We'll reflect on the season as a whole as well. So just to keep you up to date, on Sunday morning, Orlando Pride were crowned NWSL champions for the first time in their history at the CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. It finished Orlando Pride 1, Washington Spirit 0, thanks to a solo goal from Zambian forward Barbara Banda in the 37th minute. It was a victory that saw Orlando Pride lift the trophy, having also won the regular season NWSL Shield. So under Seb Hines, the first black head coach in the league

and the newly named NWSL Coach of the Year, Pride had been very impressive throughout the year, including a 23-game unbeaten run. What were the key reasons for their success this season, Susie? I think a big part of it is going back to basics and building a little bit from the bottom up. You know, they've been a bit of the... I'm trying to think of a nice way of saying like the whipping boys of the of the league to a certain extent for quite a long time um but I can't think of a nice way of putting

it yeah they've been sort of yeah the brunt of a lot of jokes like not necessarily you know kind of taken very seriously as a team that is going to be competing for titles and it's sort of taken a very back to basics approach to sort of build them up to this point I mean bringing in Hayley Carter who I know really really well as general manager who was assistant for the Afghanistan women's national team which is how I know her was I think a really shrewd move if you're talking about someone who understands like building culture and what kind of culture it takes to create winners and to make players happy and to make players feel safe in an environment then she's she's like the person you want leading that change um and then you've obviously got like you know seb hines

been there for a very very long time being an assistant being a being a player for Orlando understands the the club very well stepped up into the role eventually was given it permanently and has done an exceptional job and then you bring in a striker like Barbara Banda for this season who like you know obviously a phenomenal centre forward and I think like it's just a number of ingredients coming together and then I also think you know like it's been a team stacked with like huge superstars Alex Morgan Marta and stuff for so long that um I think managers have maybe struggled to get the best out of those players and balance their you know sort of their demands of what they think is is the best way to do things I think you know it's maybe taken sort of a few humbling seasons for everyone to get on the same page in that sense too and the right the right people around around the players. You mentioned

Marta there special scenes on the pitch at half time she finally got her hands on the NWSL title first NWSL championship of her career 38 years old she is now and her mother was watching on in the stands, which was just lovely. The first time she'd ever seen her daughter play in the league. She was really emotional. I effing waited eight years, is what she said,

referring to her time in Orlando. It was really magical to watch, Tom, wasn't it? What's next for her though? Oh, it was magical. I mean, surely everybody in the world of women's football outside of Washington was just thrilled to see Marta win. And I think it was so sweet that it was the first time her mum had ever been to America and saw her play in the US as well. It just felt so fitting. Her eighth season in the end of her sale with the same club, you know, and to be rewarded like that is great for her. She's still got it as well, hasn't she? You asked what's next for her.

I mean, hey, she's committed to playing for two more years. We don't know where yet. I will keep what I'm, you know, surely Orlando now, despite her age, will be very, very, very keen to keep her. She said repeatedly, you know know she's gone on record a few times saying she won't play at the world cup in brazil i'm inclined to believe her but i'm also expecting this kind of flurry of like people to put pressure on her to give it a go for sentimental reasons and just because what an amazing moment that would be for her to play at home world cup i suspect the reality is she will be true to her word and she will you know be a mentor for some of the younger brazil players but

but not play um so but no hey she's still got it now so why you know who's to say she won't still have it at 40 i think um she's been a complete icon and it's also so nice now to see younger fans i think really starting to appreciate marta ia. I think maybe if you were someone who's fallen in love with the women's game over the kind of the last decade or even the last five, six years, you probably never really saw her right when she was just this unbelievable, unstoppable player, when she was maybe more like early 20s, late teens, and particularly some of her Olympic performances in the, you know, almost two decades ago. A lot of fans who might not have been alive to see that are now still watching her

so that's really nice and i think everyone can agree that it was just a wonderful moment to see yeah it was um let's talk about uh the season as a whole megan barbara banda has been fantastic for for orlando 13 goals she scored in the regular season, four in the postseason, which is a new NWSL record. Assisted the winning goal as well after beating Esme Morgan. Only Kansas City current's Temua Chawinga scored more. She got 21. What kind of impact have both those players had on the league this season?

Both of them were just absolutely immense. And part of a broader story, I think, of this season in NWSL, where league-wide a lot of different clubs really made a point to go out and attract and bring in and pay the money to get the world's top talent in NWSL. And you saw that pay dividends for a number of clubs, including these two, Kansas City Current, who not only did Temua Chewinga break the single player, single season goals record,

breaking Sam Kerr's record from 2019, but she also played a big part in Kansas City setting the team goals record. They scored 57 goals this year, which is more than any other team in NWSL history. So they were just absolutely fun to watch as they sold out every game in their new home stadium. And the scoring rivalry between her and Barbara Branda was really exciting to watch week in and week out. You know, Branda tore into the league

after she debuted in April. Eventually teams really started descending on her and she became a player that could really dish it out to her teammates. Marta stepping up with nine goals of her own throughout the season. But yeah, these additions to the. She's really shone between the sticks and set a new single season record for clean sheets as well. Obviously rewarded with her first England call up in July, which seems very well deserved. Yeah. And I mean, like really quite an incredible story and sort of a story how easy it is for talent to be lost. Right. As well. Like, you know, you think she's bounced around various clubs in england you know a few appearances here a few appearances there everton durham donnie bell was arsenal west ham but never picking up more than sort of like two dozen like kind of starts and things or appearances then a brief spelling board though

and then she's picked up by pride and she goes on to win a championship like I just think that's a message about not giving up um which is like quite special really um and like just really well deserved you know she's only 29 like she's a goalkeeper she's got her best years ahead of her if anything but yeah like it just needs someone to recognize the talent in you for for you to sort of go for it and um yeah like great that she's been called up for england because you know it's pretty rare that that players that haven't come through the pathway at england level end up getting called into the senior side so that's like quite a nice um reward for that work as well which i think is is significant and should give hope to for that work as well, which I think is significant

and should give hope to some other players as well who don't necessarily make it through those ranks that it is possible to still find your way back in. And we need more competition between the sticks at England level as well. So that's great. Yeah, without a doubt. Washington Spirit finished second in the regular season

and they put up a decent fight on Sunday, dominated possession, created the chances, but actually only registered five attempts on target. Jonathan Heralde is obviously arriving in the summer, Tom. What impact do you think he's had and do you think they're going to improve next year? I think it's a huge impact. And I know a lot of people were wondering whether, you know,

how much of the success he had with Barcelona was because he was with Barcelona and the wonderful players that they had. And, you know, was it just that they won things because of the squad and the investment, you know, and how much of it was maybe was down to Heraldes. And actually now I suppose people will look at what he's done over at Washington and actually realise that he's been a very, very good coach. And I think that if you're appreciating, of course,

there's been off-field investment and it's not just the manager, of course, but if you look at things in the simplicity of finishing 11th a couple of years ago, eighth last year, and now parachuting up all the way to second. I think that's mightily impressive. And I think that realistically, I mean, it wouldn't be a stretch to see them winning it next year, would it? With that kind of rapid rate of change. So I think they'll be right in the mix.

Some exciting young players playing good football. You know, the quality of the football was very enjoyable from my point of view. And I think if you're Halaoud, you'd be gutted right now. Of course you are. exciting young players, playing good football. The quality of the football was very enjoyable from my point of view. And I think if you're Haldaldas, you'd be gutted right now. Of course you are. But when they take a moment to step back and look back at the campaign,

I would imagine that generally Washington Spirit will be very proud of it when they've had a chance to, when the raw emotion of losing so narrowly has disappeared. It does feel as if the top four kind of set themselves apart this year, Megan, which isn't what we saw last season. It was really tight last season, just 13 points separating the teams

from top to bottom, but just five points separated Orlando in first from Kansas City in fourth. From there, though, a 16-point gap between them and North Carolina Courage in in fifth what's the reason for that why such a big disparity this time around it's it's very interesting I think there's a number of things at play one of them definitely being kind of what I touched on before where clubs are really making a point to spend the money first of all to bring in big names like

Temwa Chawinga who went to Kansas City Current, who ended up in that fourth place position, which, as you said, was still 16 points above the fifth place, North Carolina. Barbara Banda bringing her in. And Orlando has said that they were in part inspired or pushed on to spend that money by Bay FC, spending the money on Rachel Kundonanji bringing her to NWSL. So part is the money bringing people, big names, incredible talent to the US. But outside of just the money is attracting talent with the facilities and the culture and the overall team dynamic that's going to make these teams the place where players want to be. You know, Kansas City Current did that with their training facility, their first women's specific soccer stadium in NWSL.

Gotham really put a lot of effort into that as well as free agency opened up player options. A lot of them ended up moving to places like Gotham. And then also with Washington Spirit, you have Michelle Kang, who's absolutely kind of the front runner in putting her money where her mouth is and investing in the game. They have an interesting spine of talent that's been consistent since the 2021 championship that they won, but they've added a lot of exciting rookies and they've also gone out and signed exciting international talent like Lacey Santos. So it's a mix of the money, the facilities, and the culture

of bringing and making their clubs the place that players want to play. A couple of new teams in the league this season, Susie, Utah Royals and Bay FC. The Royals finished 11th. Bay secured a seventh spot finish and ended up losing to Washington Spirit in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. But how do you reckon they'll both assess their seasons? So I think when you're a new team your expectations can't be ridiculously high right you're sort of setting the the bar in place in the first place like I think BFC will be incredibly

happy to have made the playoffs Utah Royals had have had a bit of an up and down season a really strong start and then it dipped a little bit but like I mean you're still finishing above you know year-old Angel City, Seattle Rain, Houston Dash you know teams that have been long established in the league so for sort of first season under the belts I don't think that's that's too much to be sniffed at you know I think every team is going to want to sort of sweep in and and you know kind of compete from the off but I mean as the Orlando project shows right like it's not a linear process these things can take a lot of time and a lot of work to get the ingredients right um and there's still a long way to go with both of those organizations you know they're so in their infancy so um you know I think obviously BFC will

be the happier of those two but relatively speaking you know they haven't you know performed too badly in their first season in the in the league. Talk to me about the drama going on at San Diego, Tom, if you will. Bit of a shock, wasn't it, in July when they had to part ways with head coach Casey Stoney. Then they announced last month five former employees have filed a lawsuit accusing the club of discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination on the field as well. They didn't get any better.

American legend Landon Donovan took over on an interim basis and guided them to a 10th place finish. But what have you made of the whole situation? I saw that former Luton boss Paul Buckle was in interim charge. Is that right? Well, certainly, just going back to your first part of the question, I think if you look at the on-pitch results, it would suggest to me that the decision to remove Casey Stoney,

if you look at it purely in a footballing point of view, it's clearly backfired, right? Because compared to the success that she was bringing last season to what we've seen this season, It's a team that's going backwards. So as a football club and as GM or director of football, etc., if you remove the coach, you really need results to kick on and improve, right, to justify your decision. So it doesn't look great from that point of view,

but clearly there's a very complicated situation going on there. Obviously, Donovan's been in interim charge. I did a few names, Link, but to be honest with you, unless I'm mistaken, it's been relatively quiet in terms of really strong, really strong rumours.

Megan will maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels as though the process has been quite confidential so far. We've not seen many really strong rumours. So for the time being, I certainly am in the dark as to who's going to be next through the door. And I think what that team needs now is just, I think,

maybe a fresh start, like a really, almost like a clean slate, you know, use the pre-season just to start again, start fresh. Still plenty of potential there, but it's a season they're going to want to forget as quickly as possible. And clearly still in the background off the pitch, loads of things still to iron out, loads of questions still to answer. And those things aren't going to go away.

But on the pitch, I think a fresh, a clean slate now is what they need. And yeah, I wish I could answer your question with a bit more of a scoop, Faye, but we are, we are in the dark at the moment.

Okay. Maybe Megan can add a little bit of light on that. And while you're there, Megan, add a little bit of light on this as well, because Houston Dash have had a tough year, finished rock bottom for the first time in their history. Head coach Fran Alonso just disappeared after 14 games, firstly for illness that then became a leave of absence until he and the club eventually parted ways last month.

What's going on there as well? You know, I think I echo a lot of what Tom said about San Diego to touch on that story. I don't have scoops either. But what I would say is that they still have so much talent in that team that it feels like with the right personnel that knows how to deploy them and maybe reshape or reinvigorate the culture. It's not all lost, I think, with what they've got in San Diego. They've also got the facilities and things like that that can support a dynamic team again.

Houston, I mean, I'm even more in the dark on what happened with Fran Alonso than the next manager of the San Diego Wave. It really is one of the next manager of the San Diego Wave. It really is one of the biggest mysteries of the season. It was a major point of frustration for the players. I know that they didn't know what was happening either. And as the season goes on, they're racking up losses. Not only do they not have their manager with them on the sideline, they don't know what the deal is. And I think that that was a major source

of why they ended up bottom of the league this year. So it really is an unfortunate story in the league with all these success stories of, you know, successful new managers, top names coming in, teams really doing what they need to do to look after players. You have a situation in Houston where I think the players were really disadvantaged by the situation with their coach throughout the year. What's going on at Angel City as well? I feel like every single question I'm asking here is, what's going on? It feels like there's a lot of drama going on in the NWSL at the moment, but Angel City have been charged with violating multiple salary cap violations in the 2023 season. A $200,000 fine came their way an immediate deduction of three points

and the suspension of president and CEO Julie Ehrman and general manager Angela Hucliz Mangano I mean it was a statement from the league Susie but you know don't break the rules which I absolutely am here for but how's that going to impact them as they prepare for the 2025 season yeah it's interesting isn't it because i think that um like it clearly was more complicated than than that suggested in the like angel city then put out a statement saying that um child child care payments shouldn't count against salary cap um and that that was currently the league's rules um and that they had asked for consideration of that to be taken into account

um when they were making the sanctions and then the nwsl came back and said yes that's the case but that's only part of the reason for the sanctions but we've not really had like the full reasons for them so like clearly i mean rules are rules you shouldn't break rules but like there's clearly some loopholes there that need to be closed where you know the idea that child care payments count against the salary cap i think is is frankly a little bit absurd particularly when you've got teams who will benefit from that and teams that will be impacted by that those that have parents on the team and you don't want to have a situation where teams are thinking oh i shouldn't have players who are parents because

that that's gonna impact the salary that i can pay overall so i think there's there's clearly like problems there but don't break the rules like the rules there exist don't break them and clearly like you know they end up still saying that that was just a part of it how will it impact them um probably not hugely to be honest like i mean obviously the points and the the money is annoying but they've got enough um behind them um they've got you know kind of like lots of personnel there to be able to kind of make up the the gap of like julie and stuff being suspended and um the fine is not going to have a huge impact given the amount they've got at their disposal at the moment so yeah like i think it's

a statement more more than it is you know necessarily something that's going to have huge impact but like clearly there are some sort of holes that need looking at in the salary cap rules and yeah like i personally think a salary cap overall is a good thing um you know i don't want to see the women's game go the same way as the men's in sort of these rocking salaries that like alienate everyone from ordinary people uh everyone in the game who's playing the game from ordinary life but at the same time like you've got to be able to help with child care costs and things like that as and when without feeling like you are going to be discriminated against financially so yeah like i think there's there's a lot to dig into there and i'm not totally sure what the

answer is and i don't know what the other rules that are broken are. So, you know, hard to say. Okay. There is so much going on. It feels a little bit like that as well. And there's also going to be no NWSL draft for the first time in the offseason as well, which we heard back in August with the new collective bargaining agreement giving players more control over their careers, which can only be a good thing. But where you get a pro, you often get a con. Can you weigh it up for me, Tom? Sure. I'm a huge fan of the fact that the players now have consent over any trades. I think that

full consent, I think that's much more in line with the rest of certainly the European football model. And I think that's a real boost for players. Clearly, also, the increase in the minimum salaries is a big, big win for the players, you know, to be going up to a minimum of 48,500 as of the coming year and then to be as high as 82,000 by 2030, I believe. You know, those minimum salaries are going to make a big difference to, a material difference to players' lives. And I think bringing, you know, brings everybody up

to a much, much fairer standard. And I think that will also have an impact in Europe and around the rest of the world, because players will be able to demand or certainly, you know, negotiate better deals around the rest of the world on the basis that the NWSL clubs, you know, to their credit are paying these much better salaries. i generally i think i am slightly in favor of there not being a draft although i think if you're asking about pros and cons i think if there's a con

probably it's probably two i think it'd be interesting to see you know how much of a decrease in kind of big coverage and promotion and a big exposure there is around the start of the you know because what the draft was such a big media moment right and it brought so much attention and brought so much excitement to the league so that's one maybe one downside it might not be as much of a big hurrah around you know spreading the brand and I suppose the second thing is if although I wasn't a massive fan of the draft model I think what one thing the draft did do is bring a lot of attention and a lot of appreciation and analysis of young players and and you know put the spotlight on young talents and maybe maybe we might not see that quite as much but those are minor I think compared to the much better news that the players have got more control over where they are traded

to and the improvements in conditions and salaries are all quite positive. So I think overwhelmingly I'm leaning towards the pros. Yeah, I think that hopefully answers the question a little bit better than some of my previous answers today. No, you were spot on. But I'm leaving the most difficult question to last for Megan, because I want to know what you're hoping to see happen over the next few months to make the NWSL an even better product in 2025. Well, I think one thing I'm going to have an eye on, I think this year has been so exciting for a number of reasons.

A lot of records were broken. Attendance continues to climb. Investment continues to climb. The broadcast deal was a success. But NWSL has always been really, I think, unique in the global game and interesting because of the parity. And any team could beat anyone on any given day. And I did really enjoy those four top teams being so dominant this year, especially the Orlando Pride, because they hadn't been good until this year. They finished bottom

three every year but 2017 until they won it this season. But I'm hoping that next season or in the three months before next season, we see those teams like San Diego with their issues we touched on, Angel City, Utah, Houston Dash. I'm hoping that they are able to attract the talent, bring in the management, and kind of rethink so that we see the competitiveness next season that has always been distinct in NWSL. So I think that they, on the investment front, on the attendance front, on, I don't know if this is going to sound wrong, but treating kind of the league as a business product and an entertainment product.

I think that they're really focusing on that and bringing more attention to the league and all of those things are going well. But the next few months, I'm hoping that those teams that did finish in the bottom bring in the talent and bring in the personnel that are going to make sure the league

is still parity driven and competitive next season. Well, it's going to be expanded, isn't it? And, you know, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman announced that they'd narrowed the expansion list to three finalists so one of cleveland denver and cincinnati which is a bid backed by wmba sensation caitlin clark are going to be joining boston and entering the league in

2026 so we'll wait to see which way that goes. And I'm wondering whether if it is an entertainment league, whether we can perhaps predict the way it might end up going. Right, that's it for part one. In part two, we're going to look ahead to the upcoming international break, including a showpiece encounter at Wembley and the teams vying for the final spots at next year's European Championships. losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. So the final international break of 2024 is upon us.

And with it, the much anticipated meeting between England and the USA at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. Susie, this encounter has really whetted the appetite since it was first announced, hasn't it? Serena Wiegmann against Emma Hayes, 80,000 tickets sold. How excited are you about Saturday night? What are you expecting? I'm very excited. I don't really know what to expect because obviously both teams have a few players missing. Mixed form for England since the Nations League.

So it's going to be really interesting to see how they perform against the olympic champions right um and then obviously they've got injuries of their injuries of their own or resting players of their own that that are going to make it um i think a more equal contest and perhaps it would be had everyone been fit it's great seeing like arguably the two best managers in women's football go up against each other who have both won major trophies in their various workplaces and yeah like are you know kind of brilliant advocates for women's football women's coaching and like her holistic approach to management as well so yeah like i it couldn't be much more exciting um like when you see Emma Hayes,

I was at this media thing with her earlier today, and, you know, she's just absolutely bouncing to be back in London, to be, you know, training with the team at Tottenham. They're having Thanksgiving dinner there together as a team, like showing them the sights of North London, you know, has her family around and her friends around and things too.

So, like, there's a real feel-good vibe around the US camp coming over to Emma's home and going out to Wembley. She said she's going to hum the English national anthem and also hum the US national anthem just because it's what she's always done. There's just a really feel-good vibe around the game and I think it's going to be really competitive and really high quality. I say I think that, I really hope it delivers that because often when you hype up a game like the Arsenal Women's Champions League game or Chelsea Manchester United game the

other day, like they were boring. Yeah. And they end up being really dull. So yeah, hopefully, hopefully this one isn't that. Well, it's going to be interesting, isn't it? Because England are without several key players. Lauren Hemp, we knew, obviously out with a knee injury. No Ella Toon, no Lauren James, Lucy Parker, Niamh Charles as well. But there have been first-time call-ups for Laura Blink-Hilder-Brown and Ruby Mason. Gabby George is returning as well for the first time since November 2022. Serena Wiegmann did face some criticism in the last window, Tom. What do you make of the Lionesses' current form and what

are the priorities for Serena Wiegmann at the moment, do you think? I think the key thing is they need to try and refine their mojo before we get round to the Euros, right? And there's no better way to do that than at home to the united states they're going to have another you know huge test against spain at wembley in february so you know another another enormous opportunity to impress there as well well it's no great big disaster for england you know there's still european champions in the world cup finalists and you know they've still got the potential to go and have a great european championship but to answer your question they need they need to really shore up the defence. They need to stop giving away

soft, silly goals. And I think we want to see them just looking a little bit more slick and cohesive going forward. You should remember as well, as you've been alluding to there, they're missing so many important players. And so I suppose

I'm now looking forward to seeing how they perform without Lauren Hemp, Lauren James, where's who's going to provide that spark who's going to bring the creativity I think quite a bit of the criticism that came Serena Wiegmann's way particularly with around the Germany game was that she didn't appear to be picking players based on their current club form she appeared to be picking them based on what they'd done in an England shirt previously which is a perfectly legitimate route to go down you know these are people who are legends for their country whether that be Williamson or Bright or Ellertoon you know they've done wonderful things for English football so you know they're not certainly bad players overnight but I think

there was a quite a lot of people who would have felt that Alex Greenwood or May Letizia or Grace Clinton for example would in better club form and yet England made and named an unchained side between the game in July against Sweden and the game against Germany last month so that I think if you then win the game you get thrown with praise right but if you lose people are going to be asking what would have been different if you maybe had changed the team a little bit. That said, the team's going to have to tweak a little bit now, isn't it, because of those injuries and I think that it's a really good opportunity for people to step up and

try and put the Germany game behind them and really show what they're made of now. Yeah, absolutely. New faces for the USA as well, Megan. Emma Hayes continuing to call up newbies. Manchester United's Fallon Tullis-Joyce and Utah Royals' Ali Centner are in for the first time.

They're going to be without the triple espresso with Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson and Trinity Rodman all rested. Is that a blow, would you say? Or does it provide the perfect chance for new faces to gain experience? And where do you think this game is going to be won and lost? It's a bit of both in terms of whether that's a blow. You know, the three of them combined for 10 goals in the Summer Olympics were a massive component to the success in winning that gold medal.

And I think certainly a lot of fans, because that combination, that specific combination of players working together in the starting lineup was kind of relatively new we'd only seen it so many times before Emma Hayes came in and because of a mix of injury and everything else really saw them be the front three solidified this summer so I think certainly a lot of fans missed the opportunity to see them together especially against England and then the Netherlands a few days later. It would have been so much fun, I think, for fans to see them deployed like that. But absolutely, I think that Emma Hayes has been very clear that this camp and the overall mission of the team in this moment, in this space for them is twofold. It's testing themselves against

top teams, but it's also about developing the roster. Because whereas England is building toward next summer, the U.S. kind of has some time. They're building towards the 2027 World Cup. That is the long-term focus of what Emma Hayes is now doing. So she's all about building the roster. And when you look at this team, 10 of the 24 players she named have two or less caps. That is kind of an astounding statistic. I think 14 have fewer than 20 caps. So this is a lot of new names

that she's going to be testing against the biggest teams in the game. Yeah. Look, it's an important week elsewhere for the home nations. They're all looking to book their spot in next summer's European Championships. Wales host the Republic of Ireland in the first leg in Cardiff on Friday.

Scotland entertain Finland and then Northern Ireland face Norway. We are going to be doing a deeper dive ahead of the second legs next week. So don't think we've forgotten about you. We have not. We've also not forgotten about the only Barclays WSL league game of the weekend. Chelsea continued their 100% winning record to go five points clear at the top of the table after a 1-0 win over Manchester United. Just the first half penalty from Guru Wrighton. What did you make of the game, Tom?

Aside from Mallard hitting the woodwork in the last minute of the game, I'd almost wondered if Man United had turned up to this party. It was a very watchable and good football game, but it was very one-sided in that it was Chelsea who were doing most of the attacking and most of the endeavour to score goals. I think while it was only 1-0, it wouldn't have been an unfair reflection of the game if Chelsea had won by three or four goals. So on the one hand, we're sort of full of admiration for the job that Sonny Van Pastoor continues to do at Chelsea with this 100% winning start. And on the other side, I was hoping for a little bit more from Manchester United.

I could understand why they were maybe a little bit more cautious after the 6-0 at the end of last season. And if we're looking at that in isolation, then they've improved defensively significantly compared to the Old Trafford meeting. But in terms of this game in isolation, I really wanted to see a little bit more bravery for them and more endeavour to try and get a positive result. So, but Chelsea, I mean, wow, just very looking a little bit invincible at the moment. So not sure who's going to stop them right now. Yeah, Chelsea had been in rampant form at Stamford Bridge earlier on in the week as well. In fact, all three English teams secured progression to the quarterfinals of the Women's Champions League with two games to spare. That feels a bit different to what we've said in previous seasons. So Chelsea beat Celtic 3-0, Manchester City earned a 2-1 win away to Hammondby and Arsenal left it late but they did

beat Juventus at the Emirates. How impressive is it Susie for all three of them to advance to the knockout stages? It looks like it's been pretty easy which is definitely not what we've been saying the last few years. But we should have been right like if anything they've been underachieving for the like quality of the league in Europe so like this feels like hopefully like a massive step forward and it's really really great to see and could also be really beneficial as well because when the format changes next year there's the possibility of having three teams qualify automatically for the tournament and not have to go through qualifiers and that depends on the coefficient and at at the moment, England are outside that.

But with three teams in the tournament this year, I think that the final country that gets three teams automatically is quite tight there, and England are in the running for that. So there's a lot of positives to be taken from just getting three out of the group stage and hopefully progressing further into the tournament from that point of view as well, which is great as well as, you know,

lots of work to do, lots of games to cover. Exactly, which we love this time of year, don't we? Loads of games going on as well domestically in terms of the cup competition. Second round of the Adobe Women's FA Cup took place this weekend. I mean, to be fair, the weather, Hurricane Bert took out a handful of the 29 fixtures,

but there was plenty of drama to be had. A headline act as Ipswich Town beat fellow FA Women's National League Southern Premier side Hashtag United on penalties to get through to the next round. Fifth tier, Chester-le-Street Town knocked out FA Women's National League side Durham Sestria, also on spot kicks. Fourth tier, Brentford beat London Seawood 1-0 thanks to a goal from Nicky Woods while Fulham came from behind to beat Royston Town 4-3.

Now the draw for the third round took place on Monday afternoon with the introduction of the championship team. Some of the highlights include Liverpool Feds hosting Sheffield United, Mancunian Unity travelling to Rugby Borough, London City entertained Gwalior United, and Charlton Athletic face Lewis. The ties are all going to take place on the 8th of December.

But the draw itself, Tom, was a little bit chaotic, I think it's fair to say. You've just written a piece on it for The Guardian. What went on? Yeah, for anybody who was trying to tune in to watch the draw live on Instagram, on the official account of the Women's FA Cup, it all started fairly smoothly, but essentially the broadcast froze

when we got to the southern section of the draw. And if you were in the southern section of the draw, you didn't get to watch your number pulled out of the hat live. And a lot of people, fans, clubs, Bristol Rovers, for example, sort of making note of that on social media, sort of saying, it'd be nice to find out who we were playing. Those kind of comments were fairly widespread. I think, actually, I should read out for you.

We do have a statement from the FA about this, who have said, we apologise for the technical difficulties with a live stream for the Adobe Women's FA Cup third round draw. Despite repeated testing of the internet connection in advance, there was disruption to the live stream in the latter half of the draw. The full video and audio of the draw were made available on the Adobe Women's FA Cup social channels. That's from an FA spokesperson. And I think certainly, you know,

from the conversations I've had, lots of efforts were made to test that in advance and it obviously just went wrong during the draw. But I think if you're a fan of one of those clubs who are so excited to be in the third round, you know, you're looking forward to watching this draw. And I think as a competition more generally, we should really be maybe just striving for higher standards

of the quality of the live broadcast of the draw. I don't necessarily have a problem with it being on Instagram at all. I think that's quite forward thinking. I think that's quite modern to try and engage younger fans. So I take my hat off to that. I don't have a problem with that. But in terms of making sure that these broadcasts have a really solid stream of signal and production, that it is seen live smoothly, I think that really needs to happen going forward because it just makes, you know, if this was any

draw for the men's FA Cup and that sort of thing had happened, I think the world would have been up in arms. So hopefully that won't happen again. Yeah, absolutely. Well said. I concur, Tom, completely. Right. I just want to take you back a little bit, absolutely. Well said. I concur, Tom, completely. Right, I just want to take you back a little bit, actually. Do you remember back in the summer, the infamous DroneGate scandal that surrounded the Canada national team? It was actually announced two weeks ago that Bev Priestman would be leaving her role as head coach of the women's national team after an independent investigation she was banned by fifa from all football activity for a year as a result of what happened um in paris it was during

the olympics by the way in case you don't don't remember it and we've actually had an email in from sue parks who says hello love the actually she says hi sorry i'm putting words in your mouth sue unbelievable hi love the podcast thank you for the great analysis and chatter you're very welcome thanks for telling us as a relative newcomer to women's football thanks to the amazing world cup in australia i was wondering if clubs or countries looking for a coach would be interested in bev priestman even though she has a one-year ban. Cheers, Sue. Thanks for that, Sue.

Brilliant. I'd kind of forgotten about that all, to be honest, what a hoo-ha it was. What's the latest on the situation, Megan? What do you think is going to happen next? And are we going to see Bev Priestman back in a dugout anytime soon? I do think that she's a quality manager and she actually posted a statement,

her first public statement since being not just suspended, but formally removed from her role with Canada Soccer. And she posted a statement to her Instagram, a heartfelt message saying it would take time to process what had happened, but that she hoped this was a moment that would inspire change. I think that for Canada soccer, what came out in the investigations is that unfortunately, this turned out to be not a one-off situation where they were caught spying on New Zealand, the football ferns in France. The men and the women had a years-long track record of doing this. And so I think the first thing that happens for both the men's and women's soccer teams in Canada is, you know, figuring out why and how this happened, and then reassembling a system that doesn't allow this to continue. There's certainly been some interesting statements made over the course of the investigations, some accusations that apparently everybody does this, which I think Emma Hayes was asked about over the summer, and she said,

I've never done it so I don't know what that's supposed to kind of imply but in terms of Bev Priestman specifically I do hope that she lands on her feet I think she's a quality manager I think it'll take time and a bit of a pause away from the game for that to happen though. Yeah agreed I find it quite difficult actually that that the managers get penalised for it when actually it's the Federation and they're openly saying that it's something that they do. I find that, you know, surely you can't go against what your employer then asks you to do. But anyway, it seems to have all been sorted out and, you know, met Bev Priestman on various occasions. And she is a fantastic coach. I hope she finds a job again soon.

Thank you for that, Megan. Just one other piece of news to bring you as well. Congratulations to DR Congo's T.P. Mazembe, who beat Moroccan outfit AS Pharr 1-0 to win the African Women's Champions League for the first time in their history. Right, it's been an absolute delight. Megan, it's lovely to have you back on again.

Thank you for updating us on everything stateside. See you soon. Yeah, thanks for having me. Tom, Gary, see you soon. Bye. Susie Rack, I hear you have a present for me. I'm very excited. I do, and I don't know when I'm going to see you.

I know. Let's not discuss it because I'm not sure if I'm going to get back to Wembley from the city ground on Saturday I think I might come for the second half but I'm going to miss the first half so I might see you at Wembley it's been a pleasure as always though thank you for being your brilliant self thank you

as well as always keep having your say send in your questions via x or email us at womensfootballweeklyattheguardian.com. And as ever, a reminder to sign up for our bi-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 Silas Gray. Music composition was by Laura Iredale.

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