There was plenty of action and drama involving Arsenal players at the Olympics as the group stages drew to a conclusion. Three of Arsenal’s seven athletes withdraw in painful circumstances, while four go through to the knockout rounds.
In the early games, Laia Codina started in defence for Spain for the first time in the tournament, playing the full 90 minutes against Brazil. Mariona was a second half substitute with Spain already through. Marta was sent off for Brazil, who eventually lost 2-0. Brazil squeeze through as the second best third placed team.
Japan were also 3-1 winners against Nigeria in the same group. In the 6pm games Germany sealed their passage to the knockouts with a 4-1 win over Zambia. In Marseilles, Emily Fox’s USA took on her clubmates Caitlin Foord, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Steph Catley and Australia.
Fox played for 65 minutes while Cooney-Cross was replaced at half-time as USA ran out 2-1 winners, eliminating the Matildas at the group stage for the first time since their Olympics debut in 2000. They go out on account of having a -1 goal difference on Brazil. Coach Tony Gustavsson has already left with a mutual decision from coach and federation not to renew their contract.
In the later games, Cloe Lacasse was reinstated in the Canada line-up as they defeated Colombia 1-0 and they go through despite being docked six points after it emerged they had been spying on their group stage opponents New Zealand. The reigning gold medalists won all three of their group games and go through with three points. France defeated New Zealand 2-1 in the other group game to go through to the quarter-finals
Saturday’s quarter-final line-up looks like this (all times BST):
USA (Emily Fox) v Japan @ 2pm
Spain (Laia Codina, Mariona Caldentey) v Colombia @ 4pm
Canada (Cloe Lacasse) v Germany @ 6pm
France v Brazil @ 8pm
Meanwhile, on more general Arsenal Women news, Arseblog News can exclusively reveal that former Brighton and London City Lionesses Head Coach Mel Phillips will join the coaching staff this summer to head up the analysts team. Head Analyst Joe Moore left the club for Oxford United in the spring and setpiece coach Patrick Winqvist departed this summer, while assistant coach Rene Slegers extended her contract for two years.
Arsenal confirmed their second summer signing yesterday with Dutch international goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar joining from Aston Villa after Arsenal triggered her release clause. She joins Mariona Caldentey, signed from Barcelona. We believe this is certainly not the end of Arsenal’s summer transfer business.
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