Eight Months Later and With the Tokyo Olympic Less Than a Year Away Russian Has Been Again
Chelsea completed a domestic cup double with an enthralling 3–2 win in extra fourth dimension against Manchester Metropolis at Wembley, with Sam Kerr in one case again the two-goal heroine for her side for a 2d Sunday in succession.
In a pulsating clash betwixt 2 rivals, both sides will experience they could accept come out of the encounter with the trophy later on Hayley Raso's 89th-minute equalizer forced the match into extra fourth dimension.
We look at some of the key talking points from a game that flowed from end-to-end and brought out the best in some of the star players on either side.
Chelsea's Taliswoman
It should accept been no surprise actually. Having scored a sublime goal in the flavor'south "first" FA Cup concluding and two superb strikes just a week ago to assistance her team win a third consecutive FA Women'south Super League title, the stars are very much aligning for Sam Kerr at the moment.
Viewed now for a number of years as one of the leading strikers in world football alongside the caliber of Vivianne Miedema, Ada Hegerberg, Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Jenni Hermoso, the Australian has somewhat stolen a march on her competitors in recent months with her knack not simply for being a goal scorer simply existence a scorer of large goals.
In a word with a current national team passenger vehicle The night before the game, I discussed how we idea the final with a current national squad coach. Twenty-four hours later, I message, "Well?" The response I received was, "One team has Sam Kerr. 1 doesn't." Apt.
While Kerr will score more glamorous goals than the half-a-yard header and deflected winner that saw her become another FA Cup medal on Lord's day, it's no coincidence the best plow up at the biggest moments.
Key Players Take Center Stage
That somewhat leads nicely into the other central stories from Dominicus's last, because it wasn't merely Kerr's two goals that had an impact on what was a five-goal thriller at Wembley and undoubtedly the best women'due south final yet to be held at the national stadium.
On both sides, a player who has improved vastly this flavour stood up to exist counted and increased their contributions to their respective clubs. They did it in spectacular fashion, with Lauren Hemp's brilliant curling equalizer on her weaker foot cancelled out by a rocket from Scotland's Erin Cuthbert later in the game.
Hemp's strike took her tally to 21 for the season, the most of anyone at the club, and afterwards questions earlier in the flavor about increasing her goal and assist tally to go with her insane power to beat anyone inside out with her footstep and trickery, Hemp has answered them pretty firmly over the past few months.
Cuthbert, too, has started to have on a lot more responsibleness in a Chelsea midfield that lost primal players across the season. Whether information technology has been sitting deeper or driving her team forrad, the energetic Cuthbert has been one of the cardinal players for her side this season, simply often lives in the shadows compared to some of the bigger global names at Cobham.
While it was Kerr's deflected endeavour that sealed the cup, either i of Hemp's or Cuthbert's strikes would have been worthy of winning a cup final.
City Looks Like a Side on the Up merely Summer Transfer Window is Important
Far too often in the past Man City have looked a lilliputian off the pace in these encounters, but they take looked much more than on the stride in their two domestic loving cup finals this twelvemonth and based on overall performance may count themselves unlucky to not walk away with the trophy, equally they did against the same opposition in the Continental Cup final a few months ago.
Caput double-decker Gareth Taylor will forever rue the corporeality of primal players he was missing earlier in the season given City has been tough to stop since those players have since returned. Indeed, Taylor's side scored 21 goals in their final iv league games and has constantly looked more of a goal threat in large games than at times in the past.
Information technology feels that twenty-four hour period by day another cardinal actor is being linked with a movement away. Whether it be Lucy Bronze, Khadija Shaw, Caroline Weir, or Georgia Stanway, there will be some concern at City and sources tell OGM the club is expecting a "turnover" of players this summer, but they take as well been linked with plenty of high caliber players potentially coming the other way.
At the moment, Urban center feels similar a club on the up, with plenty of exciting young talent in attack, just how they look come the end of the summer may well dictate how close they get to trophies once again side by side time around.
A Rivalry to Cherish
Lord's day's final was just the latest in a long line of classic matches these two giants have thrown up across a rivalry that is now close to spanning a whole decade. Whether it be their showtime flavour as rivals when Urban center denied Chelsea the FA WSL championship on the terminal mean solar day of the season, the several 2–2 draws since or the 3–iii thriller that essentially sealed Chelsea a title a week before the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely ended the campaign, the fixture has thrown up no end of superb matches over the last eight years.
The loving cup final was befitting of its phase, but such an end-to-terminate disharmonism has become a watermark of this fixture, and it'south clear there'due south mutual respect and admiration between both managers and clubs for how both teams arroyo the game. No sign of either side parking the bus, two exciting attacks just going at it, punch and counterpunch, a tactical battle, and star players who are now regularly putting on a bear witness whenever the sides see.
Hither's to many more in the future.
It Should all be About the Game
Perhaps less so today than in the past, but however too frequently the same phrases creep upwards afterward a big game. Talk of "growth" and a focus on attendances, but in reality Lord's day'southward match showed the women's game has very little left to bear witness.
The game has grown, it will never stop growing, and the virtually 50,000 oversupply in omnipresence proves that better than anything. Simply the quality on show should be the key focus. Worldwide talent, superb goals, and big saves in forepart of a record crowd proves the women'south game is in a healthy place.
It will grow organically and naturally in the decades to come, no forcing it will change that, neither will whatsoever imitation criticism from outsiders threatened by the sport's rapid dispatch. Sunday's match was a superb advert, merely not the start, the women's game has been providing such spectacles for some time at present. For at present, the focus should be on that, and what is still to come is mouthwatering.
Source: https://www.ourgamemag.com/2022/05/16/talking-points-from-the-fa-cup-final/
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