Reds Weekly Round Up! Week 7

 It's been a long 8 weeks since we played our last league game against Birmingham City. Tomorrow night we play Arsenal Ladies at Halton Stadium, Widnes in a 7pm KO that will be screened live on BT Sport.

 Here is the final weekly round up (until the end of the season);

• Fara Williams was in last Sunday's Mirror commenting on the upcoming Arsenal game and the disappointment of crashing out of the Euros early.
  
  "I've felt very low since we went out of the Euros, but being back with my Liverpool team mates has given me a big lift."
  
  "We had a massive boost from beating Arsenal at their place, and if we can do it again on Saturday that will give us the confidence to go on and win the league."

• Louise Fors has been updating her website this week, giving it a makeover in time for the second half of the season! The blogs are a great insight to what it's like living in Liverpool and playing for the club, I really recommend that you go and check out a few of them.
  
  Louise Fors' Official Website 

• Last week there were rumours of a number of Liverpool players leaving the club, one of those has been confirmed this week as Hannah Keryakoplis who has gone to play for Stoke. Hannah made her debut for the Potters this week and scored on her debut.
  
  Keryakoplis was our joint top scorer last season and made 18 appearances. However this season has found opportunities limited. Good luck at Stoke Hannah!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Liverpool Ladies first game back against Arsenal will be shown live on new channel BT Sport, if you have BT Broadband this channel is free and you can subscribe by going to channel 413.
  
  Full details on how to get BT Sport are here: http://www.bt.com/sport/
  
  Anyone unable to watch BT Sport I am sure there will be a live stream link and will share that as soon as I find one on Twitter!
• Today came the news that at the end of the season defender Whitney Engen will leave Liverpool for Swedish side Tyreso FF. There she will join a number of previous and international team mates. There are conflicting reports on Twitter as to whether this is purely over the off-season or a permanent deal.
  
  Tyreso put an official statement on their website, which when translated by Google gave us gems such as "American country impact jaw Whitney Engen is ready for the club". Luckily Katja (@applessqabbles on Twitter) has translated this again for us so it makes a little more sense, you can find that here: Tyreso statement. 

• Ahead of the season starting up again, manager Matt Beard has given a great interview to the official LFC website which you can read here: Matt Beard: "Don't expect another rout"

Thanks for reading this weeks weekly round up, hope to see you at Halton tomorrow night!

PS One last thing, the latest issue of LFC magazine is duo out next week and should feature Amanda Da Costa's regular column.

@LFCLadiesFans

Reds Weekly Round Up!

 Twitter is sometimes a hard place to keep track of important (and not so important) news, so from this week you can catch up with all the latest Liverpool Ladies news here every Friday night. This first round up will also carry a couple of items across from last week.

•  On Saturday 8th June Liverpool Ladies signed off from the first half of the FAWSL season with a thumping 4-1 victory over Birmingham City Ladies. Goals from Natasha Dowie, Lucy Bronze and 2 from German midfielder Nicole Rolser ensured the reds will go into the second half of the season as league leaders. Highlights can be found in the video below.

•  Liverpool midfielder Amanda Da Costa writes an online blog for Equalizer Soccer which do differ slightly from the blogs she writes for the monthly LFC magazine. Her blogs are always worth a read and you can find the latest installment here: Amanda Da Costa blog: A Paris Excursion

• England's Euro 2013 squad was announced Monday 17th June with places in the squad for 3 Liverpool players, the uncapped duo of our captain Gemma Bonner and Lucy Bronze and 100+ capped midfielder Fara Williams. Gemma attended the announcement at the British Museum in London and gave this interview to UEFA.com. Below are two videos, one from the announcement itself and the other introducing the squad. A noticeable and disappointing absence from the squad is Liverpool striker Natasha Dowie. Arguably the most in form attacking player going into the summer break and of course the leagues top scorer. The first game England play will be against Spain on 12th July.

• Onto more international action now, this week Wales had two games against Slovakia. Reds striker Hannah Keryakoplis came off the bench in both games. The first game on Monday finished in a 2-2 draw, while the game on Wednesday seen a 1-1 draw with both games being played in very hot conditions - 31 degrees on the Monday!

• The next red taking part in an international game this week was midfielder Katrin Omarsdottir who also came off the bench to feature in Iceland's 2-0 defeat against Denmark. The defeat means Iceland have now lost 6 out of 7 games in 2013 so far. 

• Whitney Engen's USA team also had a couple of games in the last week, on Sunday night she was an unused substitute in their victory over South Korea and last night Whitney played the full 90 minutes as they did the double over the Korean side. During this game Abby Wambach surpassed Mia Hamm's international goal scoring record, scoring 4 of the 5 goals during the 5-0 win in New York. 

credit: citylightsdreamer on tumblr.

• Danielle Gibbons, Sarah Quantrill and Sam Chappell are at a 6 day England U23 training camp until 27th June, with Gibbons and Chappell part of the Team GB squad for Universiade in Russia this summer.

 Next week may be slightly quieter on the news front, the main event next week will be the England friendly against Japan on Wednesday in which we will hopefully see some of our reds! Thanks for reading.

Match Report: Everton Ladies 1 - 4 Liverpool Ladies

 Last night Liverpool Ladies claimed their first FA Women's Super League derby victory over rivals Everton and strengthened their hold at the top of the table in style. In front of a packed Marine ground - 1,124 being the official gate number - the ladies in red ran riot against the Everton defence.

 It was all change for Liverpool, both keepers were out injured meaning emergency loan signing Rachael Laws made her debut. Katrin Omarsdottir returned from international duty having picked up an injury leaving Jess Holbrook to fill her spot in the centre of midfield against her old team. Also back from international duty with the USA Whitney Engen retook her position at centre back with Lucy Bronze moving back across to right back.

 For the first ten minutes the two teams struggled to find their rhythm, both trying to get a hold on the game. Everton had a couple of early chances, first a Toni Duggan strike was blocked by Liverpool captain Gemma Bonner then Laws saved well from Nikita Parris. Once Liverpool settled it was the same as the Lincoln game, Liverpool holding the majority of the possession barely allowing Everton a sniff of the ball. The reds crept closer and closer to the Everton goal, both Nicole Rolser and Amanda Da Costa cutting through the Everton defence but being offside. Bronze then hit a great ball to Da Costa but her cross was sent narrowly wide by Corina Shroder. Liverpool now with all the pressure and growing in confidence, Engen up from a corner won the ball back and put it back into the box but Fara Williams placed her shot the wrong side of the post. Rolser then had a number of chances, her first sailed over the crossbar and in hindsight could have been passed to the waiting Natasha Dowie. Amy Kane blocked Rolser's second goal bound effort however the Everton defence then failed to deal with the ball in the box and she slotted home her second goal of the season. Dowie and Schroder were working well together on the left, shortly before half time Dowie crossed the ball to the unmarked Da Costa but the ball ran just behind her.  Despite the relentless assault Liverpool somehow went in at half time up by just one goal.

 Everton came out with a renewed fighting spirit in the second half, showing some of the attacking movement they did last week against Doncaster Belles. Bronze and Bonner dealt confidently with the onslaught, Gemma Bonner hit the ball up field to Dowie who went close - the ball going out for a corner. Everton cleared quickly from the corner to hit us on the counter attack, Parris' shot was saved by Laws but straight into the path of the oncoming Jill Scott who equalised for the blues. Everton's joy was short lived, Louise Fors continuing her fine form with a goal from just inside the 18 yard box to put us back in front. A Fara Williams free kick then was saved by Lizzie Durack and sent out for another reds corner, this time Whitney Engen taking no chances and staying back to cover the defence. Yet another Fors strike from an almost identical position was punched away by Durack but only as far as Shroder, who had gotten herself into a fantastic position to score her first goal in a red shirt. Comfortably ahead and in control of the game Matt Beard made a double substitution bringing on Becky Easton and Lillie Billson to replace Williams and  Rolser, Bronze moving into midfield. Towards the end of the second half both teams had chances, Natasha Dowie's chip was saved and up at the other end Laws kept out Everton substitute Simone McGill. With the 90 minutes drawing to a close Dowie put the final nail in the Everton coffin after Billson found her unmarked in the Everton half, she struck the ball past the unfortunate Durack for her 9th goal on the season. 4-1 Liverpool.

 It's difficult to single out just one player for player of the game, not one of our ladies put in a bad shift. Our starting back four all did well halting the Everton attacks, Bronze made more than one crucial interception, Bonner with numerous clearances which also seemed to find a red shirt every time and Schroder not just for bagging a goal but for being the catalyst for many of Liverpool's attacks down the left. If it were based purely on the first half then  I would have said Nicole Rolser but taking the full 90 minutes into consideration the POTM for me has to go to Whitney Engen. A rock at the heart of our defence, breaking up many of Everton's attacks and keeping Toni Duggan quiet all evening limiting the number of chances she could take. This was made all the more impressive when you take into account that barely 48 hours she had put in another player of the match performance for the USWNT against Canada, playing the full 90 minutes in Toronto.

 Birmingham are the next side to face our in form reds. It will be the last game before the season breaks for the European Championships, the game kicks off 7:15pm this Saturday 8th June at Halton Stadium. The match preview for this game will be up on Friday evening. Thanks for reading!

LFC: Laws, Bronze, Engen, Bonner (C), Schroder, Holbrook, Williams (Easton 81), Fors, Rolser (Billson 81), Da Costa, Dowie. Unused subs: Chappell, Keryakoplis, Riccio

EFC: Durack, V.Jones, Greenwood, Johnson, Chaplen, Scott (C), Kane (Whipp 85), Hinnigan (K.Jones 64), Parris, Duggan, Boye-Hlorkah (Magill 78). Unused subs: Brown-Finnis, Nelson, Handley, Williams.

Important dates over the next couple of weeks

On 9th June the FAWSL will break for just under 2 months for the Women's European Championship Finals. Here are a few dates to mark in your diaries between now and then;

Wednesday 29th May : Liverpool host Lincoln in the FAWSL, 7:30pm KO and tickets will be available on the gate £5.

Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June : England national team training camp, 3 Liverpool Ladies have received call ups to camp - Fara Williams, Gemma Bonner & Lucy Bronze.

Saturday 1st June : Iceland play Scotland in a pre-Euros friendly, Liverpool player Katrin Omarsdottir is   included in the 23 woman squad.

Sunday 2nd June : USA travel to Canada for a 'rematch' of that Olympics semi final, with LFC defender Whitney Engen part of the squad and looking extremely unlikely to be back for our game against Everton. *edit 27/05/13 Whitney is already in  Canada ahead of this game and will miss the game against Lincoln Ladies also.

Tuesday 4th June : Derby day! Liverpool make the trip to Crosby to play Everton Ladies, Everton play their home games at Marine FC's ground and tickets will be £5 on the gate on the night. 7:30pm KO.

Saturday 8th June : Our final game before the season breaks for the Euros is at home to Birmingham. This will kick off at 7:15pm and once again tickets are priced at £5.

Sunday 9th June : Final FAWSL games to be played today then the season will break until 7th/8th August when Lincoln Ladies will make another trip to Merseyside for our Continental Cup semi final.


If anyone knows of any others please let me know!