New Look for the New Season (Editor’s Letter)
Column / Opinion p.3
Jen O'Neill said in September that her head understood the FA's restructure and her heart did not, and nine months on she has not changed her mind. This is the third time in eight…
Issue
She Kicks issue 48
July 2018 37 articles indexed
Read She Kicks issue 48 in full
News
News pp.4–5
Lucy Bronze becomes the first English player to win the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year, voted by supporters worldwide and ahead of Lieke Martens and Sam Kerr (Australia), and says she really did…
2017/2018 UEFA Women’s Champions League Final: Wolfsburg 1-4 Lyon (aet)
Match report pp.6–7
Ninety tight minutes in Kiev gave way to five brutal ones. Pernille Harder put Wolfsburg ahead three minutes into extra time; then Alexandra Popp was sent off and Lyon scored through Amandine Henry, Eugenie…
2018 FA Women’s Football Awards: Celebrating 20 Years
Run-of-page feature pp.8–11
The twentieth FA Women's Football Awards gathered the game from grassroots to elite at The Brewery in Islington, and Chelsea led it as they had led the season, taking Club of the Year with…
2018 SSE Women’s FA Cup Final: Arsenal 1-3 Chelsea
Match report pp.12–13
Over forty thousand people came to Wembley in the evening sunshine and saw Chelsea, the best side in England that season, beat Arsenal 3-1 to complete the double. Ramona Bachmann scored twice in the…
Chapman Calls Time on her Incredible Career (Katie Chapman interview)
Interview pp.14–18
Katie Chapman lifted the FA Women's Cup and League Cup with Millwall at fourteen and retires twenty-two years later with ninety-four caps, thirty major domestic titles and a European trophy. She has no interest…
Amy Presents Dissertation Research at The Power of Sport Student Conference (Amy O’Connor)
Other p.20
Amy O'Connor took a fifteen-minute slot at a student conference at Liverpool John Moores to present the dissertation she wrote in her final year, on fan engagement and a business model for the football…
FA Women’s Football Pyramid: New Structure, New Look, New Teams
Run-of-page feature pp.21–23
She Kicks sets out the restructured English pyramid in full at the moment it changed, from the reasoning to the club lists. Seven years after the WSL's licensed launch, the FA has invited applications…
FAWPL Championship Play-Off Final: Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Charlton Athletic
Match report pp.24–25
The last FA Women's Premier League Championship play-off final took the North and South champions to Bramall Lane for the final place in a new Championship, and Charlton came from behind to take it.…
Opta Stats: WSL Stat Attack, 2017/18 Season
Other pp.26–28
The last WSL season before the pyramid was rebuilt is set out in full by Opta across three pages: both divisions' final tables, ten team leaderboards and fourteen player ones. Chelsea took WSL 1…
#SheTweets: All-Action Allen (Remi Allen)
Interview pp.28–29
She Kicks conducts the whole interview on Twitter, and Remi Allen plays along. Her awards sit in a glass cabinet at her grandparents' house alongside her England youth caps, because they are by far…
View From The Field: Kerys Kicks (Kerys Harrop column)
Column / Opinion p.30
Birmingham's captain writes as the men's World Cup begins and hopes England can manage what the Lionesses did in Canada. She reports on presenting the FA WSL Sister Club programme to the Norwegian FA…
She Kicks Goal Getter: Libs Ends Glovers’ Goal Drought (Libby Piggot)
Interview p.31
Yeovil Town went fourteen league games without scoring in their first WSL 1 season, and it was Libby Piggot - a twenty-year-old centre midfielder playing up front on her senior debut - who ended…
Duggan’s Spanish Delight (Toni Duggan interview)
Interview pp.32–35
Toni Duggan is the third English player ever to wear Barcelona's colours, after Gary Lineker and a Leeds goalkeeper almost nobody remembers, and her first season abroad went better than she expected: eleven goals…
Lucy Bronze, 2018 BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year (double-page photograph)
Poster pp.36–37
A double-page photograph of Lucy Bronze captioned only with her name, her club, her country and the hashtag for the award she had just become the first English player to win. It closes a…
SWPL Cup Final 2018: Hibernian 9-0 Celtic
Match report pp.38–39
Hibernian took a third consecutive SWPL Cup at Falkirk and did it in a way nobody predicted, beating Celtic 9-0 in a repeat of a final they had won 4-1 a year earlier. Ellis…
Lizzie Leaves ‘Em Dizzy (Lizzie Arnot interview)
Interview pp.40–41
The chant from the Hibernian dressing room after the SWPL Cup final was that there is only one Lizzie Arnot, and she had just scored five in a major final a year after an…
View From The Field: Murray’s Matters (Joelle Murray column)
Column / Opinion p.42
Seven weeks after fracturing an ankle, Joelle Murray reports from the other side of the touchline. The first fortnight was spent house-bound with her foot elevated, her crutches doubling as toys for an eighteen-month-old…
Super-Scarr Scorer (Emily Scarr interview)
Interview p.43
Emily Scarr scored twenty in twenty-one league games as Middlesbrough finished third in the FA Women's Premier League Northern Division, added three in the cup, and was named a Player of the Round in…
FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018: Groups and Competition Facts
Tournament feature p.44
The ninth Under-20 Women's World Cup opens in Brittany on 5 August with sixteen teams including the holders North Korea, and England drawn against them, Mexico and Brazil. She Kicks sets out the groups…
Marley’s Squad Is Ready to Deliver (Mo Marley interview)
Interview pp.45–46
Mo Marley is going to her fifth Under-20 finals and starts by conceding that England only qualified because France are hosts and an extra place opened - they got in through the back door,…
Meg Meets World (Megan Finnigan interview)
Interview pp.47–48
Megan Finnigan set up the goal that took England to this World Cup, and is measured about it: with an extra place available as hosts, failing to qualify would have been a major disappointment.…
#YoungLionesses: England Under-20 Squad (full-page photograph)
Poster p.49
A full-page photograph of the England Under-20 squad at St George's Park on 20 June 2018, five weeks before flying to Brittany, published under the Young Lionesses banner and captioned with nothing but the…
FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018: Match Schedule
Tournament feature p.50
The full fixture list for the Under-20 World Cup, laid out day by day from 5 to 24 August across four Breton grounds - Vannes, Concarneau, Saint-Malo and Dinan-Lehon - with the final at…
International Action: 2019 World Cup Qualifying, June 2018
Tournament feature pp.51–53
The June window left all three home nations in play and Wales in the strangest position of all. England won 3-1 in Moscow with Jill Scott scoring twice, though Phil Neville called it the…
View From The Field: Ward’s Words (Helen Ward column)
Column / Opinion p.54
Helen Ward closes what she calls the longest season in the history of football, nine months after giving birth and having hit almost every target she set herself along the way. Watford's year was…
The Maren Method (Maren Meinert interview)
Interview pp.55–57
Maren Meinert won a World Cup and three European titles as a player and has since taken Germany's youth teams to five more, and she says none of it was planned - coaching only…
Coach Kicks: Maren Meinert (Germany Under-19/20)
Interview p.57
Germany's youth coach answers the Coach Kicks questions and gives an ex-forward's answer to the first: her favourite session is organising the defence, because in attack she gives players freedom and in defence she…
She Kicks a Beat: Sure Starter Carter’s True Blue Beginning (Jess Carter interview)
Interview pp.58–59
Jess Carter made her Birmingham debut at sixteen in a Champions League quarter-final against an Arsenal side containing Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey and Casey Stoney, and was named player of the match - and…
Safe Hands: Lee Alexander (Glasgow City and Scotland)
Interview p.60
Glasgow City's goalkeeper picks not a spectacular save but a necessary one: a penalty stop at 0-0 in the home win over Poland that kept Scotland's World Cup qualifying momentum intact. She never intended…
Born Kicking: Louise Mills
Other p.61
Louise Mills is eight, plays striker for Treharris Athletic Western and two development centres, and supports Wales, Cardiff City, Liverpool and Real Madrid in that order. She would meet Gareth Bale and Ronaldo but…
She Kicks Back with Sue Smith: From the Field to the Mic
Interview pp.62–64
Sue Smith won ninety-three England caps and has never formally retired from anything - neither club nor international football - because she could not face the tribute videos and the guard of honour, and…
Around the Counties: Women and Girls Football in Dorset is Growing
News p.65
Dorset FA reports growth at both ends of the age range and in places the county had not previously reached. A new Women's Recreational Division brought mums' teams into the entry level, while Poole…
The She Kicks Locker Room: The Before & After with Rachel Rowe
Interview pp.66–67
Reading and Wales's Rachel Rowe keeps her match day light - water and electrolytes, a few coffees, protein and carbohydrate, and a half-full stomach - and her preparation mental rather than ritual: know the…
The She Kicks Locker Room: Car Quiz with Sarah Wiltshire
Interview p.67
Sarah Wiltshire once made three-hour journeys to training as a matter of routine at Yeovil; she now drives twenty minutes three times a week and on Sundays, which is the lightest load anyone has…
The She Kicks Locker Room: Captain’s Chat with Katie McCabe
Interview pp.68–69
Katie McCabe had never captained a team in her life when Colin Bell messaged to say he needed to phone her, and her first thought was that she was in trouble. She was twenty-one…
For Kicks & Giggles: Spot the Difference, Guess Who?! and Why Not?!
Other p.70
The issue signs off with three items, only one of which the reader can actually finish. A Spot the Difference plants seven changes in a photograph and prints the answers - a VW badge…