Ali Riley – FC Rosengard (Swedish Damallsvenskan)

The All Whites are busy training in Peru and thus the top male leagues are all in an international break but that doesn't meant that the world stops turning. There’s plenty other Flying Kiwis happenings going on… like this legend for one thing.

Ali Riley missed Rosengard’s game in the weekend, a 1-0 defeat at home to Hammarby. Dropping all three points to a mid-table team is a bit of a headscratcher until you remember that Rosengard have a Champions League R16 second leg game against Chelsea coming up in a couple days. On the morning of the All Whites vs Peru second leg, in fact.

So with that Ali missed her first league game of the season. It didn’t matter. The team was already guaranteed second place going into this final game of the season regardless of what happened against Hammarby – hence why only four players held their places from the away leg against Chelsea a few days earlier.

More importantly, Rosengard are trying to push through and keep up their record of losing in Champions League quarterfinals (or, you know, maybe win a UCL quarterfinal) but Chelsea didn’t exactly make for a favourable draw.

And unfortunately Riley’s lot didn’t really turn up in the first leg in London. Chelsea came out and dominated, Fran Kirby finally breaking the resistance in the 33rd minute. The goal was long since on the menu with the way the game was going but it was still pretty disappointing to lose the ball on halfway so cheaply, which allowed Mjelde to play in Kirby down Riley’s left wing before Ali had the chance to get back in defence. She sprinted back there but Kirby cut inside and past her, curling her shot past the keeper and in.

Zecira Musovic in goal was the only reason the deadlock hadn’t already been broken. However after the break the Swedish team found a bit of momentum and if it wasn’t for Millie Bright’s goal-line clearance then they might have had a crucial away goal. Rosengard chucked on goal scoring legend Anja Mittag to try break Chelsea’s insane defence down but instead it was Ramona Bachmann – a former Rosengard player – who doubled the lead and then Gilly Flaherty scored in the 73rd minute to give Rosengard one hell of a tough task in salvaging this one back at home. Sloppy goal the third one, possible a killer goal too.

Shout out to Chelsea for live-streaming the game, by the way. Bloody marvellous. Jump to around two hours in to see the goals all packaged together.

By the way, with the Damallsvenskan finishing up, that also means that Hannah Wilkinson’s campaign has wrapped with Vittsjo GIK. Not the best one, the team were winless in their last five games and only finished four points ahead of the relegation zone. Wilko played 18 times out of 22 although six of those were off the bench and she only three times played the full 90 mins. Just the two goals as well which is definitely below expectations… although it was good for second-equal in Vittsjo’s league scoring charts – a long way off Finland’s Linda Sallstrom and her 15 bangers, to be fair.

Yet the second of those goals was one of the most important ones the club scored all campaign as Wilko’s injury time equaliser against KIF Orebro guaranteed another season in the top flight of Sweden. Wicked finish too, how about it?

Damallsvenskan Statties

• Hannah Wilkinson – 18 games (12 starts) | 1039 mins | 2 goals
• Ali Riley – 21 games (21 starts) | 1890 mins | 1 goal | 1 yellow

Up Next: Rosengard vs Chelsea, 6.30am on Thursday (NZT)

C.J. Bott - USV Jena & Amber Hearn – FC Koln (German Frauen-Bundesliga)

Things aren’t going great for CJ at USV. After losing last week to Amber’s FC Koln last week, Jena rebounded by getting thumped 3-0 by Hoffenheim – leaving their goal difference lingering at an ice cold -24 after eight games. Yikes. Bott played 75 minutes before being subbed off but at least they aren’t last. MSV Duisburg lost another one to remain without a point. Yet another close defeat too.

Say, and who did they lose to, per chance? That’d be FC Koln, baby! Let’s take this sucker one deeper and ask who scored the winning goal in the 53rd minute, her second strike of the season? Haha, maaate…

Not a game they dominated by any means but three points are three points anyway you can get them. A couple wins in a row now for Koln, here we go.

Up Next: USV Jena are away to SC Sand at 11.00pm on Sunday and FC Koln take on Turbine Potsdam a few hours later at 2.00am on Monday (NZT)

Steven Old – Morecambe (English League Two)

There ya go, another goal for Stevie Old. It’s his second of the season and a handy one too as The Shrimps claimed a 2-1 win at home against Wycombe. Morecambe have had their struggles this season but recent results suggest they’re starting to turn it around. This last week saw them knock Hartlepool out of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win, as they should against a National League team, before they snatched some points off Leicester’s U23s in an EFL Trophy match that went to penalties for a 2-2 draw. Then this result which pops them up a couple spots on the table and clears some room between them and the relegation zone.

BBC: “Morecambe took the lead with a fine header from defender Steven Old. Aaron Wildig drilled in a deep cross to the far post and Old drifted in unmarked to direct a header from 10 yards into the top left corner.”

Steven Old has emerged as a regular at the back for Morecambe these days. He featured in all three of those games this week and only their keeper has played more minutes in League Two so far. It was a move he made for family reasons at first but it looks like Oldie’s becoming a bit of a key player there. Get this man back in the All Whites!

The Visitor: “As manager Bentley admitted afterwards, Steve Old’s emphatic header was one that he would have been proud to score. While Roche got the man-of-the-match award, the centre-half would have run him close based on his performance. There was nothing flashy in his display; merely an old-fashioned approach which saw danger averted when necessary. He may not have been known to many supporters when he arrived but Old’s name must surely now be one of the first on the Shrimps’ teamsheet.”

Up Next: Colchester vs Morecambe, 4.00am on Sunday (NZT)

Anna Green – Reading & Olivia Chance – Everton (English Super League)

Rosengard made seven changes for their intermittent league game but Chelsea only made four, with the entire same defence travelling (all the way) to Reading, where they obviously met Anna Green and the girls. Except that Greenie was an unused sub as Reading snatched a late draw with an injury time own goal from Magdalena Ericsson.

Good point for Reading there. They’re the first to take anything off of Chelsea this season and it keeps their unbeaten streak going all the way up to six games now in all competitions. Just a shame Anna couldn’t get in there late and maybe injure a few Chelsea players for her national captain’s sake (of course, we’d never condone violence).

Man City went top with a 4-0 win over Bristol but who cares about them? More important was that Olivia Chance and Everton were able to leap off the bottom with their first win of the season, taking care of Yeovil Town in a clash of the two cellar-dwellers. Everton found some form in the WSL Cup with a win over Birmingham and a close loss to Man City last week so they were in a good place to capitalise and… they did. 2-0 thanks to goals from Courtney Sweetman-Kirk and Chloe Kelly.

Chance was a 65th minute sub, first player off the bench, for the CSK soon after Kelly had doubled the lead from the penalty spot. Poor Yeovil. They announced a few days before the game that they would be going professional next season but they still haven’t scored a league goal in five games. That’s a fourth game for Chance, two starts and two off the bench.

Up Next: Cup games, Reading host London Bees at 8.45am on Thursday before travelling to Millwall at 3.00am on Monday while Everton go after Oxford Town at 8.45am on Friday (NZT)

Stefan Marinovic, Deklan Wynne, Myer Bevan & Francis de Vries – Vancouver Whitecaps (American Major League Soccer)

Two of the Vancouver All-Whitecaps played against Peru in Wellington, the other two are on their holidays now. But there’s doings afoot back in Vancouver as the team begins to figure things out ahead of next season. The first development there that matters is one that has sorta been on the cards for quite a while now… ever since Big Stef rolled into town, in fact.

Goalkeeper David Ousted: “I will not [be back], no. The manager and the club told me in June that they weren’t going to pick up my option, so obviously I’ll have to figure something else out.”

So that’s that then. Stefan Marinovic had already pushed him out of the starting line-up by the time of the playoffs, where Mari was ever-present, and now here’s confirmation that, barring anything dramatic, he’ll be the main man come week one next season too. The first of the All-Whitecaps to really affirm himself in the top team (in fact SM went straight in there while the other three have battled away in the ressies).

Speaking of which, then there was this:

There’s no official mention of that yet but it’s been floating around as a rumour on podcast and forums so it sounds legit. Of course signing an MLS contract doesn’t guarantee MLS games or anything, there’s a good chance they get loaned back. But it does confirm that the club are committed to them as prospects. Or at least, given they’re internationals, as possible transfer fees down the line. Francis De Vries still has a USL contract after the Caps took him as a second round draft pick back in January. He’ll have to wait his turn.

Up Next: Ink those pens, champs.

Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

That is all.

Up Next: Mate, you already know what Winston’s up to next…

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