For all their trading of world-class attackers this summer, Alessia Russo leaving for Arsenal before the World Cup’s top scorer Hinata Miyazawa and the Champions League winner Geyse arrived, Manchester United were indebted to the veteran substitute Rachel Williams for securing a winning start to the WSL campaign.
Aston Villa had taken the lead through Rachel Daly, the WSL golden boot winner last season, just two minutes after going down to 10 players – Kirsty Hanson sent off against her old club – in a dramatic finale to a thrilling game in front of a Villa women’s record 12,533 crowd.
Lucía García swiftly equalised but it looked as if Villa had hung on for a point until Williams nodded home Nikita Parris’s cross in stoppage time. Poor Villa: they had lost at home to United at the Bescot Stadium in April when Millie Turner scored in added time.
There was so much excitement about the football that Villa’s wet-look Castore kit barely merited a footnote. The players felt no need to change into fresh shirts at half-time. “Obviously there has been a lot of talk about that this week but when you get here and it’s the start of the season everyone is buzzing,” Rachel Corsie, the Villa captain, said.
“It is going to be the best season in the WSL, I believe, and we want to make sure we do a really good job so things like the shirts … once you’re in the game and you’re competing you just do what you can as well as you can.”
Just six weeks since the World Cup final, perhaps it was not surprising that the two managers went with what they knew when naming their starting lineups, though Marc Skinner will have to rotate his players more this season now United, runners-up last term after leading the WSL for so long, are also playing in the Champions League.
Geyse, signed from Barcelona, is the player charged with replacing Russo, and she caught the eye with her running down the inside-right channel matching her touch and eye for a shot. Villa were grateful when their new goalkeeper, Daphne van Domselaar, continued the form she showed in helping the Netherlands beat England in the Nations League on Tuesday, getting a crucial touch to palm aside Geyse’s drilled cross-shot as United dominated the first half.
“She has the potential to be one of the best in the world – if not the best,” Carla Ward, the Villa manager, said. “She had a very good debut.”
Villa were better after the interval, having introduced Ebony Salmon, their former player re-signed from Houston Dash, to play closer to Daly up front. Ward thought Maya Le Tissier should have been sent off for blocking Salmon’s off-ball run outside the area and, later, believed Daly was fouled in the area by the same defender.
The Villa manager called for full-time officials. “The big calls have gone against us today and that hurts. There’s a clear red card at 11 v 11, not sure about Kirsty’s [red card], not sure about the corner for the goal, Rach Daly could have had a penalty … let’s leave it to the studio [pundits] to decide whether that’s good enough for this division.
“I’ll never blame the officials because the powers that be need to help them, the powers that be need to make the officials in our game full time.”
After Daly’s looping shot hit the top of the bar, Villa must have thought their luck was totally out when Hanson, one of their four former United players, was shown a straight red card for raising her studs high on Hayley Ladd in the 74th minute.
Yet within two minutes they went ahead. Lucy Parker played a fine pass up to Adriana Leon and the substitute, signed from United this summer, crossed for Daly to control, turn and crack in a 10th goal in her last six WSL games.
Within three minutes United were level. Zelem’s corner flashed through to García and the Spain forward thrashed home the equaliser from six yards out. Two minutes into the eight signalled for added time, Williams nodded into the bottom corner after Parris’s cross looped up off Danielle Turner.
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Skinner believes United will be better this season, especially once his new signings become better acquainted. “We’ve had five days together as complete sessions,” the United manager said. “From my perspective that is a wonderful performance considering we haven’t had time together.
“We didn’t rotate enough [last season] because we didn’t have as many games. We had different tools [today]. I expected the quality of the individuals but [not] the quality of the domination.”
