News of special guest Karly Roestbakken brings Steffen running back to the podcast, Rhali now classifies as a regular co-host, which leaves Eric, Dale and Cheryl as expert colour commentators.

Olympic Countdown – 57 days until Game 1

Guests

Karly Roestbakken discusses her football career so far, including her time in Norway’s Toppserien competition, Canberra love, Rae Dower, injury, football culture and plans for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.

We had a great time chatting with Karly, and you can get your own personal message on Swysh.

Hot Topics

Announced this week, the Matildas are set to play (16) Denmark and (5) Sweden in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics.

Denmark

Don’t be fooled by Denmark’s ranking, this will be a cracking match for the Aussies to challenge a team led by Pernille Harder and likely a squad playing in top leagues around Europe and England.

Denmark missed the 2019 World Cup in what was arguably due to a forfeited qualifier against Sweden. Akin to the 2015 Matildas’ strike, the De rød-hvide took action in a pay dispute with the Danish FA.

They also released “If I were a man” to highlight their fight to be recognised on equal footing with their male counterparts.

Brings back memories of this satire from Norway’s North Sea (ish) neighbours, which is well worth a watch or a re-watch.

Sweden

It’s quite an opportunity to play a friendly against Sweden, a team the Matildas will encounter in game 2 of their Olympic campaign.

The highly ranked 2016 Silver medalists have a recent 1-1 draw with the USA (April) and a significant advantage over Australia in their previous encounters (7W, 3D, 1L). Counting only two of their players – Nilla Fischer (182) and captain Caroline Seger (204) – they have close to 400 international matches under their belts.

Melbourne Victory fans will also remember Jess Samuelsson who has now amassed 50 international caps.

Around the World

UK

Women’s FA Cup – 5th Round

Chelsea (Sam Kerr) and Everton (Hayley Raso) met during the week with the Toffees going down 3-0. Chelsea now head to the Quarter-Finals (29/9).

Chelsea and the FAWSL will break now until pre-season kicks off in July (season starts September). 

Scottish Women’s Premier League

Jacynta Galabadaarachchi and Aoife Colvill both made strong appearances as the league comes towards the final rounds.

• Round 17 saw (3) Celtic defeat the (5) Spartans 4-0. Jacynta played the whole 90 and scored in the 30th minute. Top of the table Glasgow City defeated (7) Motherwell with Colvill also playing the whole game and scoring in the 45th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Glasgow City FC (@glasgowcityfc)

Round 18 followed a few days later. Jacynta played the first half for Celtic in their important 2-1 victory over the Rangers. Glasgow City came on at the 67th minute in their 0-0 draw against fourth-placed Hibernian.

Three rounds remain with Glasgow and Celtic who are currently sitting first and second on the ladder, with both positions qualifying for the UWCL.

• • (1) Glasgow v (8) Hearts, (4) Spartans, (3) Rangers
  • (2) Celtic v (5) Hibernian, (7) Forfar Farmington, (6) Motherwell FC

Nordic Football

Steffen provided a wrap across the Nordic countries.

Norway Toppserien kicked off May 22nd

• • (1) Klepp IL (Nikola Orgill, played all 90’) 4-1 over Arna Bjornar. 
  • LSK Kvinner FK (Karly Roestbakken) – game postponed vs Lyn due to a COVID case around the team from last week’s practice game vs Kolbotn 
  • (4) IL Sandviken (Teagan Micah, not available to play as yet) 1-0 over Kolbotn

• Sweden Damallsvenskan Round 6

  • BK Häcken (Dylan Holmes) 3-0 home win vs Eskilstuna United, Dylan on the bench 
  • Hammarby (Elise Kellond Knight) 3-2 home win vs Djurgårdens
  • FC Rosengård (Charli Grant) won 1-0 at home vs Piteå, Charli on the bench
  • Vittsjö (Emily Gielnik, Clare Polkinghorne) drew 0-0 away to Linköping, Emily and Polks played full 90’

• Denmark 

  • 8 of 10
  • Fortuna Hjørring (Indiah Paige Riley) – Champions series – 2-1 home win vs Thisted, Indi played the last 30’
    • Takes them back up to 3rd but will miss out on UWCL later in the year
  • AGF Aarhus (Hannah Bacon) – Promotion/Relegation series – 1-3 away win vs AaB
    • Hannah not on teamsheet but AGF top the ladder and this win qualifies them for the 2021 Elitedivisionen

• Iceland Round 4

  • UMF Selfoss (Emma Checker) 3-4 away win vs Thróttur Reykjavík, still top the league

Be sure to watch this hilarious Woso moment from last week’s game vs Stjarnan

Thoroughly enjoying the Iceland league. Can’t stop laughing at this @emmachecker 💀😂 pic.twitter.com/PiSi7Pvk5s

— Nads (@nads_cas) May 19, 2021

NWSL 

Chloe Logarzo was ruled out for Kansas City with a hip injury in their 2-2 draw with Houston.

Europe

• D1F (France)

  • 21 of 22
    • (5) Montpellier (Mary Fowler played full 90’) 2-1 over (10) Soyaux-Charente
    • (2) Olympique Lyonnais (Ellie Carpenter played full 90’) 1-0 over (3) Bordeaux
    • (6) EA Guingamp (Laura Brock played 89’ 🟨) lost 1-2 to (8) Dijon

A round 16 COVID catchup match between Lyon and PSG will likely decide the league champion with the two teams set to meet on May 31st.

• Primera División (Spain)

  • 31 of 34
    • (9) Sevilla (Aivi Luik ON 66’ 🟨) lost 0-2 to (5) Granadilla Tenerife

• Serie A Women (Italy)

  • Final match (10) Napoli CF (Alex Huynh) 2-2 (5) Roma

• Bundesliga (Germany)

  • 21 of 22
    • (11) SV Meppen (Beattie Goad OFF 66’) lost 0-2 (10) Sand 
  • 22 of 22  
    • Last game Sunday June 6th (11) SV Meppen (Beattie Goad) v (7) Freiberg

• Eredivisie Vrouwen (Netherlands)

  • (2) PSV Eindhoven (Amy Harrison, Kyah Simon) lost 2-3 (3) AJAX. Simon scored in the match.
  • Last game Sunday May 30th – (2) PSV v (1) Twente

NPLW Roundup

1. NSW (Round 8) 

• Sydney Olympic 4-0 Bankstown City – Mackenzie Hawkesby was Eric’s pick for player of the match, tremendous energy, ran the Olympic midfield, scored from 30 yards and set up a goal as well. 

• Illawarra Stingrays 2-4 Sydney University – A double for Kaitlyn Torpey, who has settled in well at Sydney Uni.

• FNSW Institute 3-1 NWS Koalas – Institute forward Charlie Rule scored her fifth of the season with a lovely outside-of-the-boot strike.

• Manly United 4-1 Emerging Jets – Remy Siemsen scored twice for Manly.

• Northern Tigers 1-1 Blacktown Spartans – Maja Markovski scored for Spartans
  
• APIA Leichhardt 4-2 Macarthur Rams – LDV scored twice, GYD also scored. 

2. ACT (Round 7)

• Belconnen United 1-1 West Canberra
  • A strong result for West Canberra who now sit 4th. The intrigue on the ladder is with the mid-table log-jam for positions 4-6 with all 3 teams there (WC, Olympic, Gunners within a point and all switching ladder positions)
    • Scorers Talia Backhouse and Emma Stanbury
• Canberra Croatia 2-1 Gungahlin United – CCFC without Grace Gill but some good signs for the Gunners on this showing. Michelle Heyman was not on teamsheet but ran some laps pre-game
  • Scorers Brittany Palombi, Chantel Jones, and Nat De Marco in her 100th game.
  • CCFC leapfrog Belco to top the league in a NPLW run of 19 games undefeated.
• Wagga City 2 – 6 CUA, Wagga without Piper Lockley
  • Scorers for Wagga: Cameron, Castle. Scorers for CUA: Roden x 2, Annie Grove, Sasha Grove, Hunt, Christopherson  
• Tuggeranong United 0-4 Canberra Olympic, with Heather Garriock on the scoresheet
  • Scorers Ally Cook x 2, Sykes, Garriock.
  • Olympic now equal fourth with West Canberra.

3. VIC (Round 7)

• (2) Calder defeated (7) Box Hill 3-0. 
  • Calder – Harriet Withers, Aleksandra Sinclair x2.
• (8) Bayside United lost to (3) FV Emerging 1-5. 
  • FV – Francesca Iermano brace – pen + header, Alana Murphy volley, Holly Furphy, Ashley Jordan.
  • Bayside – Rachel Stirton
  • Highlights

• (1) placed South Melbourne 3-1 Alamein (5).
  • South Melbourne: Reona Omiya, Caitlin Pickett and Lucy Johnson. 
  • Alamein: Caitlin Storay. 
  • New signing Jen McCormick.
• (4) Bulleen 3-2 Heidelberg (6). 
  • Bulleen: Rachael Quigley, OG, Lia Privitelli). 
  • Heidelberg: Keely Lockhart, Sydney Allen (p).

Queen of the Week

• Cheryl – Francesca Iermano for her brace with FV Emerging, but really the whole of FV Emerging
• Eric – Sydney University coach (and Leeds United fan) Em Husband, for leading The Students to their third win of the year. Illawarra Stingrays is always a tough away trip, and the Stingrays are doing well this year, so to win away and score four times is impressive. Also, check out Milan Hammond’s 35 yard bomb for Emerging Jets against Manly on FNSW YouTube or NPL NSW Facebook.
• Steffen picks three:
  • Karly for appearing on the pod.
  • Del Dimoski – Respect Round in ACT, plight of refs leaving due to abuse, leaving some reffing 5-6 games a weekend, visited at least 2 clubs this weekend.
  • Grace Maher became co-patron of her junior club Majura FC on Saturday.