The past week as seen an international break in women’s football, but Arsenal Women players have still been in action.
Despite no players taking the stage for England in this year’s She Believes Cup, that didn’t mean there was a lack of English quality in the Arsenal squad. Jordan Nobbs, who has been capped 50 times for England, won the Women’s Player of the Year at the London Football Awards at the beginning of this month.
As England go into their final game of the tournament tonight, following a thrashing of France and score draw with Germany, having Nobbs in the side would help their chances of pipping the hosts to the trophy.
Moving on from the sunny States which have played host to Phil Neville’s debut in charge of the Lionesses and to even sunnier Algarve.
This year’s Algarve Cup has seen a great performance from a massive nation linked with Arsenal. Last year’s Women’s UEFA Euro’s champions, The Netherlands have been in great form out in Portugal this week.
The tournament has seen them take control, taking seven points from a possible nine in a group which included Japan, Iceland and Denmark. Helping their national side reach their first Algarve Cup final against Sweden tonight were Sari van Veenendaal and Dominque Janssen.
Van Veenendaal managed to make a couple of starts in the group stages which saw her keep a clean sheet against Iceland and keep Japan to two goals in the Oranje’s 6-2 triumph to start their road to the final.
Janseen also made two starts for her country, however, in defence rather than in midfield like she does for Arsenal. She also made a substitute appearance in the Denmark game which was sandwiched between the opening and closing group games.
The pair will be hoping for more international silverware as they play Sweden side with an identical record.
Moving even closer to home and we’ve reached the home nations. Scotland infact.
Not quite the She Believes Cup or Algarve Cup but Lisa Evans, who has impressed for Arsenal in recent weeks, continued to impress on international duty.
Playing in a double-header against New Zealand, Evans gave the Scots breathing space in the first meeting by scoring the second goal in a 2-0 win. she also started yesterday in Scotland’s next 2-0 win over New Zealand but didn’t score.
Arsenal Women are back in action in a week and will be hoping that their international stars will return ready to keep up their form.
The Gunners will be playing in the FAWSL Continental Cup final where they’ll look to defeat an in-form Manchester City Ladies side for the first shot at silverware this season.