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Manchester United Women Win First Major Trophy with FA Cup 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏆

PLUS: NWSL Week 9, WSL Title race reaches final week

May 13, 2024

It’s May 13, 2024. Give us four minutes, we give you everything The Women’s Game.

Good afternoon, TWG readers! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend because I sure did! Mine was filled with farmer’s markets, family time, and Finn. I celebrated Mother’s Day with my family and squeezed in some of my favorite wholesome activities — there was even a bike ride AND a brewery in there. When I’m committed, I can be really productive.

In addition to all of the lovely family time to reflect on, this weekend was full of great soccer. Champions were crowned in the FA Cup Final and the NWSL was controversial and chaotic. It was amazing. You can read all the details below.

I have to tell you — our interview with Lily Yohannes last week on Friendlies was really sweet. I loved chatting with Lily — I tried to convince her to watch Titanic and she revealed that her international future is still up in the air. It’s available now wherever you get your podcasts and on Youtube, so make sure to give that a listen. 

We’ll have another episode of Good Vibes with Becky Sauerbrunn, recent Cascadia Rivalry Champion, for you all tomorrow so make sure to check that out as I’ll be asking all about that game. And then on Thursday, we are dropping a very special interview with Cat Macario, Chelsea and USWNT star, who is currently fighting for a WSL title and a spot on the Olympic roster. Set your alarms and charge your headphones because you are going to want to be ready for this!

I will leave you to the newsletter — but if you could take a moment and make sure you are subscribed to our podcast feed, I will love you even more than I already do. Just open your podcast app, search The Women’s Game, and hit Follow or Subscribe. This way, you’ll get alerts whenever we drop a new episode.

Thank you all so much for being here! I will talk to you tomorrow on our newest episode. 

Love,

Sam 

I. Manchester United Women win first major trophy in historic FA Cup contest 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏆

a. The 54th edition of England’s Women’s FA Cup was going to be a historic affair no matter the ending. Tottenham made their club debut at Wembley for their first-ever cup final, a major achievement despite the loss. Spurs fell 4-0 to Manchester United, who lifted their first major club trophy before a remarkable 76,082 fans.

b. Lifelong United fan and academy talent Ella Toone was inevitable at Wembley, and gave Manchester United the 1-0 lead in first-half stoppage time with a rocket from way out. The Red Devils then grew the gap in the second half, building their lead to four goals with contributions in the air from 36-year-old Leicester-born striker Rachel Williams, and a brace from Spanish winger Lucía García. 

With just one trophy remaining this season for English women’s football, Chelsea and Manchester City are neck and neck in the WSL title race. MORE BELOW.  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

II. NWSL Week 9: Portland win-streak soars to five; Lynn Williams equals league goal record 🇺🇲⚽

a. With a third of the NWSL season now behind us, the Portland Thorns turnaround continues its remarkable pace. In Saturday evening’s Battle of Cascadia, the three-time NWSL champions put four goals past regional rivals Seattle Reign, taking their win streak to five. This stunning link-up between Sophia Smith and 18-year-old Olivia Moultrie opened the scoring. Smith, the USA’s fearsome forward and NWSL’s reigning golden boot winner, put up one goal and three assists before the night was done. She now leads the NWSL goal and assist tally, with 8 goals and 6 assists this season.🌹

b. Record-setting Copper Queens duo Rachael Kundananji and Barbra Banda faced off in a much-anticipated Saturday night showdown between Orlando Pride and Bay FC, which ended 1-0 in Orlando’s favor. The pair of Zambian forwards set the record for the first (Kundananji) and second (Barbra) highest transfers in women’s football history when they signed for their respective clubs in NWSL. Though neither scored this weekend, their NWSL impact has been immediate, with Kundananji registering two goals and one assist in 6 games for Bay FC. After debuting April 19, Banda has tallied four goals and 2 assists in five games for Orlando, clocking the highest goals per 90 in the league.  🇿🇲

c. In midweek action, The Women’s Game’s very own Lynn Williams equaled the all-time NWSL goals record (marking goal count across all competitions including regular season, playoffs and cup competition) with a cool tap-in to capitalize on a rebound, marking her 78th league goal. Now level with Australian striker-extraordinaire Sam Kerr, we’re counting down the seconds until Lynn takes over the top-spot. 🗽

d. As calls to focus on player safety escalate amid ever-more-crowded schedules (and a long-running spate of injuries continue to haunt women’s sport) this weekend saw large swaths of the USWNT sidelined by injury with just months to go before the Olympics. Nowhere was this more apparent than Sunday’s 1-1 meeting between San Diego Wave and Gotham FC, as Naomi Girma, Alex Morgan, Abby Dahlkemper, Tierna Davidson, Kelley O’Hara and Midge Purce all missed out with various injuries. To make matters worse, 19-year-old USWNT sensation Jaedyn Shaw left the match injured in stoppage time. Elsewhere, US first-choice veteran goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher departed Chicago’s 3-1 victory over Utah Royals with an injury to the leg. 🇺🇲🤕

Also: Christen Press is running and shooting again in Angel City FC training. The 35-year-old NWSL and USA veteran has scored 64 goals in 155 appearances for the USWNT (including this one against England in the 2019 World Cup) but hasn’t appeared in a competitive match since June 12, 2022, when she tore her ACL. With a rugged road to return requiring multiple surgeries for the US star, it’s a remarkable delight to see her back shooting on a field again.  

🥤 Our friends at Olipop power everything we do here at The Women’s Game. You can use code TWG20 for 20% off your first order at drinkolipop.com/TWG20.

III. The 2024 WSL Title race reaches its culmination this week 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

a. With one game in hand and goal differential, for now, in their favor, Chelsea have a tough task ahead this week as they must beat both FA Cup finalists Tottenham and Manchester United (and keep their goal differential in favor) to take the one trophy still available before them this year.

b. With just one match to play, Manchester City sit atop the table but with Chelsea hot at their heels. To secure the league title, City would need to win their final game at Aston Villa, while building their goal differential (should Chelsea win both games), as they trail Chelsea by one goal as things stand.

More: Becky and Sam discuss Chelsea’s tall task on last week’s episode of Good Vibes FC. (Listen to the full episode here).  

IV. News and Notes 📰🗞️

a. Ahead of May 17’s vote to confirm the official sponsor of the 2027 World Cup, FIFA released its official bid evaluations, awarding the Brazil bid a more advantageous score than the joint Germany-Belgium-Netherlands bid. FIFA’s 211 members will gather in Bangkok this Friday to cast their ballot for the host. 🏆

b. Disgraced former President of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, will stand trial for sexual assault and coercion following last summer’s World Cup, when Rubiales planted an unwanted kiss on Spanish World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso. 🇪🇸

c. The US Deaf Women’s National Team will face-off against Australia ahead of the USWNT’s June 1st friendly against South Korea in Denver in a first of its kind double header event. 🇺🇲

d. Decorated German side Wolfsburg picked up their 10th straight DFB Pokal Frauen title this weekend. Despite falling short in other competitions this year (for one example: after appearing in the 2023 Champions League Final, Die Wölfinnen fell short to Paris FC in the qualifying rounds this season), Wolfsburg overcame Bayern Munich 2-0 to claim Germany’s preeminent Cup trophy. Goals came from 21-year-old ascendant German talent Jule Brand and Dutch 29-year-old Dominique Janssen. 🇩🇪 

e. England Lionesses Goalkeeper extraordinaire Mary Earps received a Member of the Order of the British Empire honor last week, acknowledging her contributions and service. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

V. Parting Shots 🥃

From referees, to footballers, to fans, the mother of our producer and beyond, this Mothers Day has shown a light on the many mothers making this game a beautiful one. To the Moms ❣️

VI. Good Reads 📚

From Roxy Simons in Yahoo Sport, ‘Rob McElhenney criticizes rules over Wrexham women's team pay’

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