Eva Carneiro recently spoke about on
her clash with manager Jose Mourinho.
There was a decent crowd at the City Football Academy
stadium in Manchester last Sunday. It was a beautiful autumn day and it felt as
if there was much to be optimistic about. Manchester City played some dazzling
football and overwhelmed Bristol Academy to keep their hopes of winning the
Women’s Super League alive.
There was a decent crowd at the City Football Academy
stadium in Manchester last Sunday. It was a beautiful autumn day and it felt as
if there was much to be optimistic about. Manchester City played some dazzling
football and overwhelmed Bristol Academy to keep their hopes of winning the
Women’s Super League alive.
Jill Scott, one of the heroines of England’s run to the
semi-finals of the World Cup in Canada earlier this year, scored the first
goal. Steph Houghton, England’s captain during the tournament, was typically
solid in the centre of defence. Lucy Bronze, the team’s best player in Canada,
was close to flawless again.
City’s attitude to the women’s game is a model of the way
forward, too. The women train at the same superb facilities as the men, they
play at a stadium across the road from the Etihad, which has a perfect surface.
It is a signpost to the future.
For the second year in succession, the WSL1 title will be
decided on the final day of the season. City stayed within reach of Chelsea —
another club with an excellent women’s set-up — with their win over Bristol
Academy, but Chelsea will beat them to glory if they win at home against
Sunderland on Sunday evening.
Maybe Jose Mourinho will turn up to watch. If he does, it
will be one of the better decisions he has made in the last few months. It has
been a momentous season for the women’s game in England but as it comes to a
close on Sunday, it is being overshadowed by the ongoing row over former
Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro and the messages it is sending about attitudes to
women in football. By OLIVER HOLT
