To Win, Work Hard and Play Harder in the Second Half

Small enough to fit inside an A4 bag - joined-up thinking at last!

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 14 May 2023 at Wembley
Result	Chelsea Women 1 Manchester United Women 0
Competition	Women’s FA Cup Final
Hopstats	My 26th visit (28th game) to the refurbished Wembley, my second Women’s FA Cup final (the first being at QPR).
Context
New territory for the relatively new entity, Manchester United Women. Their first final, their first time at Wembley, up against the only team that could yet pip them to the league title after their excellent season. As for Chelsea, this is their seventh final (sixth at Wembley) and they have won this competition for the last two seasons.
In One Sentence
An assist from the excellent substitute Pernille Harder gave Sam Kerr a close-range finish after these teams had largely negated each other for long periods.
So What?
Three in a row for Chelsea and now both teams turn their attention back to league action. Manchester United could reach 56 points if they win their two remaining games (Man City (h) and Liverpool (a)). Chelsea are a point behind and have an extra game in hand. Their fixtures are West H (a), Arsenal (h) and Reading (a). The teams currently have identical goal difference, so this race will almost certainly go to the final day of the season.
Match Report
I’m writing my own brief take on this game before I see the highlights and read any other reports. I’d privately predicted, having seen both teams in recent weeks, that Chelsea would win this. This was because I felt there were more players in Chelsea’s side with multiple big-game experiences, and more strength in depth to come off the bench if needed. The factor against Chelsea was possibly fatigue after a midweek game. Manchester United are a work in progress, and they have done fantastically well in a relatively short time, but Chelsea boss Emma Hayes has been there, done that and stacked up the T-shirts in the women’s game in this country. Of course, Ann-Katrin Berger’s green top might be helping too (see below). Chelsea looked well off the pace at the start. United had the ball in the net after 27 seconds but there was an offside call. In the last two games, I’d watched Melanie Leupolz and Erin Cuthbert impose themselves on the game from midfield, but this was a different tactical plan, maybe due to the presence of Ella Toone in the United side. They looked to play longer balls over the top down the flanks for the willing runs of Lauren James on the right and Cuthbert on the left. However, the full-backs held firm and for the first half, Sam Kerr wasn’t in the game as much as usual. It was the same with Alessia Russo up front for United. The first-half ended scoreless, and pretty even. At one point we’d had a so-called Mexican wave in the crowd, never a sign of a classic game of football. After that crazy first minute, to my mind each side had one excellent chance. Both keepers were at full stretch to push away goalbound efforts. Earps needed the help of the post too to stop James’ looping header. Then in stoppage time United had a credible shout for a penalty, but the incident, a trip by Niamh Charles on Nikita Parris, began just outside the area, presumably confirmed by VAR – there was no communication of this in the stadium that I could see or hear. The second half began more positively for both teams. Chelsea made the first substitutions, and the introduction of Pernille Harder proved decisive. There were half-chances at both ends and Harder’s was the better one for Chelsea. However, she was released on the right and her ball along the six-yard line just evaded Maya Le Tissier and arrived at exactly the right time and place for Sam Kerr to steer it past Earps. It was Kerr’s fifth goal in three FA Cup finals and the celebration was a well-executed cartwheel and somersault. United made their own substitutions and it was a bit of a surprise to see Toone withdrawn. Kerr set up the other Chelsea sub Sophie Ingle with a clear shooting chance and it really should have been 2-0. As it was, Chelsea’s game management plans needed to be on point. Earps herself came upfield for a corner in the dying seconds, and there was one very scary pinball moment in the Chelsea box, but no goal, and that was it. I think it was another sub, Kedisha Buchanan, making the final clearance. Quite a few of the crowd had dispersed by the time the cup was presented by the Prince of Wales. It seems to take so long to get these formalities over and done with these days. As an occasion, however, this had been superb, and it was a privilege to have been there. As a game of football, there have been better and more exciting ones (yesterday’s for example) but there is no denying Chelsea’s achievement. I doubt whether the history books will record anything other than the result, and Sam K’s tumbling, and I can’t see Manchester United fading away into obscurity now they have had a taste of a big occasion.
Pix – Outside the Stadium
Pix – Inside the Stadium - from Pre-Match to Celebrations
I was pushing my compact camera to its limits at times so one or two of these are a bit fuzzier than I would like. The crowd of 77390 is apparently a record for a women’s domestic game. There seemed to be no segregation in place. I was able to complete a whole circuit of the ground in the Level 5 concourse, tutting every time I went past a popcorn stand. Popcorn has no place in football culture as far as I am concerned 😉 Without wishing to rant, I'd have much preferred spontaneous celebrations to all the stage-managed stuff. Dear Event Organisers, Stop burning hydrocarbons unnecessarily and let the players come over to the fans a lot sooner. Why do you think the stadium is half-empty before you make a start on the presentations?   Any closer together and this would be a huddle
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable statistical significance test by the end of the season. The full keeper top performance table from my last 275 matches is here, on this separate page. Regular readers need no further information, but the details are there for anyone interested. All this arises from an interview with Petr Cech. Today, Green beats Yellow and keeps a clean sheet too. No change in league table positions. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Chelsea Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 46% (60 from 130)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! I will be at West Ham Women v Chelsea Women on Wednesday evening to see the next instalment of this story. Then at the weekend I have a third-tier Women’s playoff at Milton Keynes (Watford v Nottingham Forest) on Saturday and the men’s Non-League finals day at Wembley again (Newport Pagnell Town v Ascot United, Gateshead v FC Halifax Town) on Sunday.