This weekend my Chelsea team are playing in the 50th Women’s FA Cup final and one thing that has caught my eye in the build-up are the letters written by five past winning captains, reflecting on their experiences.
I have to say that if I were writing my own “Dear Women’s FA Cup” letter, I’d begin with my first final against Arsenal in 2018, my first year at Chelsea. Put simply, it’s the best day of my career to date. You hear the English girls in our team talking about Wembley, putting it on a pedestal, and I’ve embraced that fully so it was amazing to win the cup in front of 45,000 people that day. Sunday will be an even bigger occasion, with 45,000 tickets already sold. I’ve played in front of more spectators, at the Rio Olympics, but Pernille, my partner, told me that this could be a record for her.
An occasion like this makes us feel all the more privileged to be playing at this transformational moment for women’s football – and this is something else for my “Dear Women’s FA Cup” letter. I’ve seen the move from semi-pro to 100 per cent professional, with the chances now given us to be viewed as professional footballers with the right facilities and the opportunity to become the best that we can be. To give you an example, a legend of Swedish women’s football, Victoria Svensson, is now assistant coach of our national side and when she sees our team chef, she’ll tell us, “We never had that” – and she only stopped playing in 2009.
I view myself as one of the lucky ones though I have experienced the other side and it keeps me grounded. I was already playing a decade ago so have an appreciation that it has not always been like this. As an 18-year-old at Djugarden in Sweden, we didn’t have a pitch to train on in January and would just run intervals in the woods for a month. There were no indoor pitches available for us.
Djugarden have a men’s team in the top flight and I am 100 per cent sure they had some place to train. By contrast, though we were playing professionally in the Swedish women’s top division, there was a whole month where we could have got better as footballers but were just running. I even sprained my ankle as it was so slippery. That experience means I am aware that what I have with Chelsea and Sweden is far away from the everyday life of women footballers in many other places.
The fact Sunday’s final falls on the 100th anniversary of the ban on women playing in league stadiums in England is also interesting. I have heard stories about the big crowds there were before that ban – 53,000 for a women’s match at Goodison Park in 1920 – and it makes me wonder where we would be today if the ban had not happened. After all, English football is the mecca and what happens here tends to have ripples elsewhere. The fact it was long viewed as a sport for men only has been a big obstacle and only now are we starting to see more of a joint space.
This is not to say there is still not some lingering sexism, even if it is not explicit like before. The other day in Malmo, in the lobby of our Sweden team hotel, this guy in his 60s or 70s came up and said, “I’m one of your biggest fans, I watch every game” but then started lecturing us on how we should finish. He was telling us, “You shouldn’t shoot like that but like this”.
We were so disappointed walking away from that conversation. I don’t think he had any bad intentions but the fact is, he felt he could teach us how to finish in this condescending tone of “I need to teach you girls how to play football”. We can handle criticism but this was different. He may not have realised it but it gave us the perception, however subtly, that some people still regard football as their game and that we are invading their space.
On Sunday, the goal is to avenge our opening-day defeat against Arsenal – our only loss this season. Looking back, it was our first game and a lot of us had had a proper break after the Olympics. It was the right decision from our manager, Emma Hayes, and the club, giving us the rest we needed to ensure we can sustain our performance throughout this season but it had an impact that day as Arsenal had played three Champions League qualifiers and were already into their season.
They have improved immensely this term and are in good form but we learned a lot from that game and my hope is that, with the right focus and belief, we can show that on Sunday. Every final is 50-50 – it depends on who starts well, who gets momentum, who can show the resilience and mental toughness. There are moments in a final when it can go either way but we have a lot of experience of these occasions at Chelsea and we have to make it count.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3G7Lte4
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