The Lionesses star was quiet as the Gunners failed to record a second win in five days over the Cityzens, who will face Chelsea in next month’s final.
Playing back-to-back games between two teams is usually exciting. In a thrilling Women’s Super League encounter on Sunday, Arsenal traveled to the northwest to defeat Manchester City 4-3. The rematch in the Women’s League Cup semi-finals was played in London on Thursday.
“The challenge is not knowing what they are going to do,” Renee Slegers, the manager of the Gunners, stated prior to match. “We sit and discuss and try and anticipate their plan for the game, and try to respond to that proactively, but also see what we can bring to the game.”
It’s similar to a penalty taker taking a second attempt at a penalty kick. Do they proceed similarly? Does the goalie? Slegers agreed when GOAL put it to her on Wednesday. It was a metaphor that came to life, in fact, as City got their revenge in a dramatic 2-1 win on Thursday evening.
Mary Fowler found herself in a situation that was nearly identical to that, with the scores knotted at 1-1 on the hour. She had leveled the score at 3-3 on Sunday by beating Arsenal goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar from 12 yards out.
Van Domselaar lunged to her right, but Fowler’s shot was relatively central and went just to the left. Five days later, the Australian forward just had to do it once more to give City a 2-1 lead. Van Domselaar didn’t blink even though she struck her effort with tremendous force.
As the clock reached the last seconds of regular time, it appeared like the parried shot, which was right down the middle, might play a significant role in this semi-final heading to extra time.
But football loves a story, and Fowler was the focus of Thursday’s. The 21-year-old had the last say with her fifth goal in three games after hammering City into the lead with less than 30 minutes remaining, only to have that overturned by Mariona Caldentey’s contentious penalty in the second half. Less than twenty seconds remained in the five extra minutes when Fowler, finding space on the box’s edge, beat an unsighted Van Domselaar and sent City into the final by squeezing a shot through multiple bodies.
It was Man City’s turn to be on the winning side of a close victory this time around, to set up a meeting with Chelsea, who defeated West Ham in the other semi-final, in the showpiece event next month. The team had lost by the narrowest margins in the League Cup semi-finals the previous two seasons, losing 1-0 to Chelsea last year and 1-0 to Arsenal in extra time the year before. Gareth Taylor’s team hasn’t won a trophy in three years, so ending that streak would undoubtedly ease some of the burden on a manager and a team that has seen their hopes of winning the WSL crown crumble in recent weeks.
For the latter half hour of this game, Fowler appeared more like a villain than a hero. Seconds after Arsenal had tied the score, she appeared strangely hurried to take her penalty on the hour, showing none of her customary poise as she blasted the ball straight at Van Domselaar, denying City the chance to take the lead again.
However, it would require more than that to undermine her self-esteem at this moment. She scored an amazing brace in the weekend’s match against Arsenal, and the goal that began this purple patch against Aston Villa in late January may have been the best of the bunch. Her confidence was on display in the decisive finish that ended the draw.
With time running out and limited room to maneuver but a small window to work with, Fowler trusted herself to provide a game-winning moment, and she succeeded. She’s in pretty good shape.