I am still seething about Kavanagh
You have got to be shitting me!
🚨🔴⚪️ Bad news for Arsenal as Mikel Merino is injured.
“He has a shoulder injury and it looks like he will be out for a few weeks”.
“He landed on the floor and Gabi landed on top of him, it’s a fracture probably”, Arteta says
Yes. Seems like the best outcome for all, at this point in time.
I just watched Merino’s first Arsenal interview. I thought it was pretty impressive.
James P. Sullivan approves
Needed that one
A goal and an assist for Laca in France 3-0 victory over USA.
Hello Gooners. It’s probably understandable that it’s pretty hard to find a photo of HK with the official Bundesliga top goal scorer trophy, the Torjägerkanone. However, I did stumble across this photo of a January visit to a Bayern fan club, where they presented him with a kanone snuff box. I laughed.
Enjoy.
I listened to some of the 606 call in show on BBC R5 Live after the Euros final. Absolutely hilarious.
I watched the end of the Copa America 3rd place game. The commentator kept calling crosses and free kicks into the box “line drives”. No similar travesties yet.
Both Gabbies on the bench. From the bits of a couple of Brazil games I have seen, they are below par, that’s for sure.
🤬
Šeško staying at Leipzig.
Good news!
Here’s my report from the game on Friday night.
The Build-up:
It was part of “Global Football Week” here in Melbourne, which basically is a private promoter (I think) bringing out AWFC, Spuds and NUFC.
Spuds and Newcastle must have got on a plane the morning after the final game of the Prem season. Ange was at a lunch at the MCG on Tuesday…40-ish hours after the final whistle. Happily, the Wed night game ended 1-1, with Newcastle winning a shootout. I didn’t go, of course.
Friday was a double-header. The opener was Newcastle playing A-League Men All-Stars. Hilariously, all the senior players, except Trippier, had left already, so NUFC got annihilated 8-0. 😂
The official attendance was about 42K. Although my ticket would have let me see that game, I had to go for a work trip in another city, so I ended up going straight to the stadium from the airport. I arrived about 1 hour before kickoff of the women’s game. From footage I have seen, it looks like the men’s game had fewer people. I saw a number of Newcastle people leaving after their match. On the other hand, A LOT of Arsenal fans were still arriving…so maybe there were 25 to 30K in a 45-50K seat stadium.
Pre-match for the main event included a rendition of The Angel, with some singing from the “active” area behind the goal, but not so much elsewhere. The noise level in my bit was quite low but that’s to be expected, I think. It was probably better than when I saw AFC lose to Auxerre in a CL group game at Highbury, though!
The Game:
Arsenal had good possession and pressed ALW, who found it hard to move out of their half. ALW had some OK moments moving through midfield and their greatest attacking threat, at times, was on the right with Cortnee Vine. A Matilda, she plays club football for Sydney FC, but she is really good and could have moved to Europe or the US after the 2023 WC. I think she surely will for next season. She was up against McCabe and it was a pretty good dual, with Vine holding her own. Katie put in some typically meaty challenges, even in a friendly.
From memory, Catley, Russo, Viv Lia and Pelova came off at half time for Maanum, Fox, Goldie and Lacasse, with 4 other subs in the second half. With Russo being subbed, the second half had less goal threat as we had no-one up front to offer it, with Stina not on the trip. ALW had a golden opportunity to equalise at the end, with the player through on goal being thwarted by a very good save from Williams.
Not really the goal fest I was hoping for, but possibly to be expected for a variety of reasons. The arsenal.com match report will tell you more.
Other random points about the game.
The Impact
Putting aside the question about how wise it is to play a friendly on the other side of the world, rather than giving the players time off, the impact that the game had here was pretty big. The Matildas are the most popular national sports team in Australia and having 3 of them in the Arsenal squad is a big deal. This was the first women’s All Stars game ever, catching up with the men, who have been doing it since 2013.
There were a lot of Arsenal supporters on the streets the whole week. I was told that 4,000 turned up for an open training session on Thursday. The day after the game, there was a meet and greet at a football clothing store not far from where I live with Catley, KCC and Foord. People were queueing up before dawn for the 10am start. I also joined a couple of the Australian, Arsenal Women chat groups to see what was going on and there is a huge amount of chat/support there.
Arsenal are trying to make their fanbase outside of the UK feel like they can be part of North London, too. I think that they did this pretty well over the past week for us far-flung supporters in this part of the world. I expect to see a lot more AFC colours around here, in the future.
He was the coach for the A-League All Stars against AWFC on Friday. Apart from that, he said he’s taking a break after finishing with Juve, but also that he’s going back to Italy in a few days. I don’t know why. He also said he has a few offers. The rumour mill has it he might be in line for the Matildas after the Olympics or maybe the Italy Women.
You might find this interview illuminating.
Today, I went to an event that was part of the Arsenal Australia (official supporter’s club) national gathering. By chance, Joe Montemurro was at the venue, so I got to meet him briefly.
AND Cedric is also a Portuguese Knight of the Order of Prince Henry.
Cross everything you have that Arteta Jedi mind tricks on Carsley are effective. Zero minutes for Bukayo, please.