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uniteds · 11 months

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stuff that happened in the 2022/2023 football season that should send us into a coma but we’re too desensitized:

1. the whole ass world cup in the middle of the season. what was that

2. manchester united sacking ronaldo and announcing a sale of the club in the middle of the world cup

3. ronaldo getting dropped at the world cup and his replacement scoring a hattrick immediately after

4. keeping up with the belgians (world cup edition)

5. keeping up with the belgians (courtois saying he doesn’t respect kdb after stealing his missus)

6. ronaldo stans beefing with a little moroccan girl

7. the kingdom of saudi arabia buying newcastle united and then telling the premier league that they didn’t and the premier league going “oh okay if you say so”

8. megan thee stallion being romelu lukaku’s date to lautaro martinez’s wedding

9. pique cheating on shakira and then shakira releasing a diss track about it

10. shakira figuring out pique cheated on her because someone ate her strawberry jam and pique doesn’t eat strawberry jam

11. apparently the girl pique cheated on shakira with (clara) cheating on pique with pep

12. wagatha christie libel case

13. real madrid dropping a video accusing barcelona of fascism and the government of cataluyna getting involved

14. the pope coming out as a manchester united fan

15. the one napoli fan that basically made zielinski strip on the pitch

16. mount vesuvius park shutting down because napoli fans wanted to fake an eruption as a celebration

17. frank lampard taking everton into a relegation battle, getting sacked, and then taking chelsea into a relegation battle

18. on that note: chelsea were in a relegation scrap and finished 12th

19. mourinho lost his first ever european final to sevilla europa league black magic

20. whatever the fuck borussia dortmund did on the last day of the bundesliga season

21. anthony martial’s ex wife chasing his first wife down a french motorway with a baby in the passenger seat

22. psg suspending messi because he took an unsanctioned trip to saudi arabia and then unsuspending him two days later because they didn’t want people talking about geopolitics

23. the absolutely bizarre messi apology video released by psg

24. spurs refunding their fans’ tickets after being embarrassing

25. pep’s heartbreak over the fact julia roberts is a manchester united fan

26. chelsea scored one goal in the month of april

27. chelsea and spurs had six managers between them and won one match combined between march and april

28. mourinho fighting anthony taylor after the europa league final

29. milan derby in the ucl for the first time since 2005

30. luis enrique saying he’s cool with the spanish players having sex during the world cup as long as they’re not having orgies

31. luis enrique saying he doesn’t have sex anymore unless his wife wants to

32. man city charged with 115 counts of financial doping and trying to get the barrister in charge disqualified because he’s an arsenal fan

33. mourinho wire-taping himself to catch referees being corrupt

34. ryan reynolds and mac from it’s always sunny in philadelphia buying a football club and that football club getting promoted

35. pele died rip

36. women football awards sponsored by shein and klarna having a category for “male football ally of the year” and it’s just random men that went to one (1) women’s game

37. barcelona negreia case (how do you say calciopoli in catalan?)

38. infantino saying he feels gay, african, like a migrant worker, disabled, arab, and qatari

39. infantino saying he was oppressed as a child because he was ginger and italy is not safe for gingers

40. david alaba’s father in law getting arrested for being one the leaders of a far right group plotting to overthrow the german government

41. richarlison being tumblr’s it girl for a month and then not scoring a goal for the next four

42. juventus being in the middle of another corruption scandal and being docked points because of it

43. two teams getting investigated by the british government for playing football the weekend the queen died

44. gavi getting a yellow card in the first minute of a football match

45. pogba’s brother was arrested by french authorities for being part of a group-organized extortion attempt against pogba

46. richarlison getting a tattoo of neymar’s face and neymar paying him 30k to get it removed

47. iker casillas coming out, puyol implying they had a thing, and both of them retracting it in the most misha collins way possible.

48. sane and mane fight

49. zlatan retired from football

50. barca withholding about 50 million in wages from their players and somehow frenkie still didn’t want to join manchester united

#tp #there’s more but I can’t remember them #manchester united #and others

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wordsbyrian · 1 year

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Royal Navy - Alessia Russo x Reader

Summary: Royal Navy!R was childhood friends with Less and things ended sort of poorly between them, they meet again. years later.

A/N: Alright so I don't know a lot about the Royal Navy but I do know a lot about the US Navy so everything in here is a combination of research and filling in the blanks with American military knowledge.

Sometimes, life doesn’t give you everything you want.

Correction, most of the time life doesn’t give you anything you want. This explains the conversation that you’re currently having while sitting in your girlfriend’s room.

“I just don’t know why you would want to volunteer to join the army,” she says, flopping back onto her bed.

“I’m joining the Navy, Less,” you tell her for what must be the one-thousandth time. “Besides, there's not anything for you to understand. I don’t understand why you're going to school in America but I’m not trying to stop you.”

“I’m going to play football and learn,” Alessia says, “Not signing up to get myself killed.”

“Yea, well, we all can’t be the next Kelly Smith, can we?”

“Don’t get smart with me Y/N, I don’t want to argue with you,” she says, finally sitting up to look at you.

“But you do, because if you didn’t we’d be making out not having this conversation the day before I leave for Dartmouth,” you respond, getting up from your seat at her desk, “I won’t be able to use my mobile so often I’ll write you but don’t bother answering if you’re gonna keep at it like this.”

With that, you walk out of Alessia’s room and as a result her life.

You do hear her calling after you but you know she hasn’t changed her mind so you don’t bother turning around.

That was over 5 years ago and while you did keep your promise of writing and calling her; after your first three letters received no response, you gave up.

That doesn’t mean that you stopped cheering her on, you’ve seen all her major moments, no matter how far away you were.

Over the summer, you along with practically every other sailor on your ship watched as she along with the rest of the Lionesses conquered Europe.

And now, you’re standing on the touchline at Kingsmeadow in your dress uniform for some surprise your sister planned with Chelsea.

But if you had known they scheduled it for the weekend the Blues welcome United, you probably would’ve waited a little longer to take some leave time.

Anything would be better than having Alessia attempt to burn holes in you with only her eyes as you carry the ball out for the coin toss.

You can’t tell if she recognizes you with your hair cut so short and your body so stiff but when you hear the PA ask everyone to turn their attention to you, you know that she’ll figure it out soon if she hasn’t already.

“Everyone please join us in a round of applause,” the voice says over the speakers, “as we welcome back former Chelsea youth player, Lieutenant Commander in His Majesty’s Royal Navy, Y/N Y/L/N. Thank you for your service.”

You allow yourself to smile slightly as Emma Hayes hands you a Chelsea shirt with your name on it before a stadium hand comes to lead you to your seat.

The match is good and you enjoy it as much as you can with strangers coming up to you every two minutes.

When it ends, 2-1 Chelsea, you make your back pitchside having agreed to speak with the players in the small window of time Hayes and Skinner have managed to get them to give up.

When you're led to a back room you’re shocked to see both teams there intermingled but you quickly remember that women's football has always been much more cordial than the men’s game.

After another quick introduction from the assistant who led you there, you stand alone in front of the two teams.

“Hello,” you say, standing pretty stiffly with your hands clutching your cover behind your back. “I’m not going to introduce myself again but now seems like a good time to mention that since my dad is from Newburn, I’m a Newcastle fan.”

That gets a few scattered laughs that help to break some of the tension and ease your nerves.

“I’m supposed to be talking to you about leadership, team building, and morale but I watched the game and I can definitely say that neither team needs to hear from someone whose idea of team building is sticking people in the middle of the ocean for months at a time and seeing who can get passed their problems long enough to survive,” you say plainly, not bothering to hide your disinterest for the situation. “So I figured you can just ask me questions until they let us leave.”

Murmurs of agreement go through the group so you press on, alternating between teams to ensure you’re being fair.

Most of the questions are the normal ones you get when people find out you're in the Navy. So you explain what it means to be both a Lieutenant Commander and a Surface Warfare Officer.

There are a couple of shocked faces when you tell them that you’re trained to operate all the heavy artillery on the ships and a couple of faces that fill you with more than a bit of concern because of how glee-filled they are.

When you tell them that you joined the Navy because of family tradition you can see Alessia roll her eyes and whisper something to Toone but you divert your attention to Millie Bright, who you recognize from the time you spent training with the full team.

And based on her question it seems like she recognizes you too.

“You made some appearances with the full team, why’d you choose the Navy over football,” she asks.

Laughing a little you answer her, “I played 30 minutes in the Conti Cup and was in Hayes’ office the next day quitting. That was literally the worst half hour of my life and I almost drowned in the sinking ship exercise.”

It’s then that you notice Alessia put her hand up to ask a question and considering you want nothing more than to not have to interact with her, you ignore it getting through a few others before you notice Ella with her hand up as well.

So you make the mistake of calling on her.

“Are you ever going to let Less ask a question,” she says with an unbelievable amount of sass.

“I suppose I have to now,” you say, “Crack on, Russo.”

Alessia doesn’t take this well because she glares at you and asks in the coldest voice you’ve ever heard from her, “How’s your sister?”

Never one to be outdone when it comes to being petty you respond in kind.

“She’s fine. Your family?”

It's your words that seem to spark a realization in some of the players’ faces that the two of you know each other but before any of them have a chance to say anything the same assistant from earlier comes to tell you that you’ve completed your time agreement.

For your part, you can’t get out of the building fast enough, barely stopping by the manager's office to tell Emma bye.

Getting to your car, you rush home probably breaking a few minor traffic laws in your haste.

When you do get home, you rush past your sister, Sarah, and her husband straight to your room, where you make quick work of changing into comfy clothes so that you can hide away for the foreseeable future.

You manage to go a full two days before your sister gets sick of your bullshit and barges in opening the blinds to let light into your cave of despair.

“Alright, it’s time to get up,” she says, pulling the blankets from on top of your head.

“Fuck off,” you say, turning away from her.

“I won’t," she replies, "You’ve been locked away in here, not eating, for days. All because you had to see the girl who broke your heart at 17. Grow up.”

Rolling back over you glare at her harshly but she continues speaking before you get the chance to tell her to go away again.

��Don’t make that face at me, it won’t work,” Sarah says, plainly, “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to take a shower and then when you’re done, you’ll come eat lunch before going to walk Magpie.”

Her tone leaves no room for argument and if we’re being honest, you’ve always been appropriately cautious of pissing her off. She did practically raise you after all.

So you did what she asked.

You showered, you ate with her and her goofball husband, and now you're sitting at the park with her idiot dog that is named after a bird.

“Oi, Magpie,” you call out, getting the dog’s attention, “Stop trying to eat that rock you berk, it’s bigger than you are.”

Somewhere to your left, you hear a familiar burst of laughter that has you panicking more than a little bit.

You do your best to ignore it, hoping that she would choose any of the other benches to go sit on. But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for you as Alessia takes a seat right next to you, her dad’s dog coming to rest at her feet.

“Hey,” you say to her, not wanting to be rude before you turn your attention to the dog, “Sup Rocco, getting up there in age, aren’t you old boy?”

Alessia laughs again and you feel your heart skip a beat and a fluttering feeling begins in your stomach.

The two of you sit in relative silence for a while, the only words spoken are from you, usually a shout at your sister’s idiot dog.

You get so used to the silence that you almost miss it when she starts speaking.

“I owe you an apology for the way I treated you at the game,” Alessia begins, “It wasn’t fair of me to treat you like that, especially in front of so many people. -So, I’m sorry I did that.”

You’re not sure what you were expecting her to say but it definitely wasn’t that, so it takes you a moment before you respond.

“I can’t accept your apology,” you tell her after you finish processing. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see her shocked reaction so you continue before she can spiral too far. “Mostly because I was definitely a bigger dick than you were that day. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have acted that way, not in front of your team.”

You can see a small smile tug at her lips and you grin at her in response.

“We were both pretty big idiots, huh,” she says.

“Proper bellends,” you respond, “You’d think we would’ve done some growing up I guess not.”

A comfortable silence falls over the two of you and you let it stay for a few moments before you speak again.

“I think if we had been better at communicating, we probably would’ve been back on speaking terms at least four years ago,” you tell her seriously albeit with a joking tone.

“Are we?”

“Are we what?”

“Back on speaking terms,” Alessia clarifies.

“Obviously,” you say, “I don’t watch Magpie try to eat all the inedible things in sight with just anybody.”

The smile that had been threatening to break out on Alessia’s face is out in full force now and you can feel the fluttery sensation in your gut get stronger.

With that seemingly settled, the two of you fall into a pattern of conversation that is both familiar yet different.

In the past, most of your conversations centered around school, football, and making weekend plans. Now, it’s more of a catch up session but the vibes are the same.

It's perfect.

You don’t know how long you sit there but you’re eventually interrupted by the sound of both of your phones going off.

Your’s a call from Sarah telling you to bring her dog back and her’s a reminder from her dad about family dinner.

You stand up ready to try and catch Magpie and go when Alessia stops you.

“Y/N,” she begins, “Do you know where you’ll be stationed once your vacation ends?”

“Headed back to Dartmouth for five months to train the next batch of SWOs,” you tell her, “Then probably gonna be on shore duty for a while so might end up in command of a URNU. Depends.”

“On what?”

“Lots of things but mostly where the open postings are,” you explain.

“Two more questions but one relies on your answer to the other.”

“Shoot.”

“Will you be able to make and receive phone calls while at Dartmouth this time around,” she asks with a slight blush.

“I’ll be in charge so I can do what I want.”

“So would you be opposed to giving me your number so I can call you?”

Unable to resist teasing her a little bit, you let a coy grin spread across your face.

“Alessia Russo, are you trying to get back in my pants,” you ask her.

You watch as the blush on her deepens and she begins to sputter trying to defend herself.

You laugh a little and continue, “I mean it’s fine if you are but I’d prefer to know so that I don’t fuck it up like I did last time.”

“Y/N/N,” she says, still blushing and stuttering.

“My number is the same,” you say, taking pity on her, “so you better call me.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“I am but now I’m an asshole that you’ve got to call.”

“It’d take the entire Royal Navy to stop me.”

#alessia russo #alessia russo x reader #alessia russo imagine #muwfc x reader #muwfc imagine #woso fanfics #woso imagine #woso x reader #engwnt x reader

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tracksuitlesbian · 9 days

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#f off #elysia boddy #thighs #arms #face card #nuwfc #newcastle united #newcastle united women #weareunited #woso #fawnl

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lucawrites11 · 1 month

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navigation post

hi, you can call me luca. i'm 20, use they/them pronouns and i am the anonymous writing the woso bits and bobs series on ao3

my asks are always open, please send me your questions, thoughts, headcanons, prompts, requests etc. (i do see them all but i will only reply to prompts/requests when i write them)

i am a lifelong newcastle united fan and currently just follow a load of woso teams while i wait for them to get out of the third tier of english football this includes but is not limited to arsenal, barcelona and man city and never includes chelsea for personal reasons. i love football tactics and stuff as well and always love to talk about it :))

(i just want to add that this is my secondary blog so if you don't see me interacting with posts and other blogs - it's because i can't)

masterlist:

leah williamson/alessia russo

make this the best dream i've ever known

complete: seven chapters

alessia invites leah over after united play arsenal for lasagne

[a hint of slow burn, first kiss, euros 2022]

i can't keep up

complete: one shot

alessia misses the uwcl qualifying penalty and breaks down

[hurt/comfort, established relationship]

maybe i should have called you first (but i was dying to get to you)

complete: six chapters

five times leah and alessia drive three hours to see each other and one time they don't need to anymore

[5+1, fluff, established relationship, acls]

you said it looked better on me than it did you

complete: one shot

leah steals alessia's clothes, alessia gets her revenge

[fluff, sharing clothes, wwc 2023]

tears are the words the heart can't say

complete: one shot

leah does her acl playing her girlfriend's team

[hurt/comfort, major character injury]

for better, for worse

complete: one shot

leah deals with endometriosis after a concussion

[hurt/comfort, fluff, established relationship]

is forever enough? (the series)

if i know what love is, it's because of you

complete: one shot

prequel: leah and alessia's chaotic proposals (can be read as a standalone)

[marriage proposals, idiots in love]

how long do you wanna be loved? (is forever enough?)

complete: twenty-nine chapters

leah and alessia's journey to expanding their little family

[ivf, pregnancy, SO MUCH FLUFF, marriage]

never knew the best was yet to come

incomplete: chapter one of thirteen

emilia russo-williamson is here, follow the first thirteen months of her life

[kid!fic, fluff, marriage]

jenni hermoso/alexia putellas

it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

complete: three chapters

jenni and alexia have been broken up for over a year and are living in different countries but then they have the world cup

[angst with a happy ending, fluff, suggestive, slow burn (ish)]

mapi leon/ingrid engen

i wouldn't know where to start

complete: one shot

ingrid has just opened her own tattoo studio in barcelona. mapi goes along to check it out and develops a crush

[fluff, getting together, tattoo artist au]

ellie carpenter/daniëlle van de donk

you'll always be my favorite new year's kiss

complete: one shot

ellie and daan get together in new year's eve

[age gap relationship, first kiss]

you know what the best part of today was? i got the chance to fall in love with you all over again

one shot collection

ellie meets daan's daughter as her girlfriend after dating for almost a year

[fluff, kid!fic]

the missing pieces (of our souls)

evie bronze

one shot collection

lucy's daughter, evie bronze, is iconic in the women's football world

[lucy/ona, past lucy/keira, keira/laura, fluff, angst with a happy ending]

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rashfordxbruno · 3 months

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Matchday! United Women are officially back and will begin the second half of the 2023-24 season with a cup encounter against Newcastle United in the Women's FA Cup fourth round.

It is the first time these two sides have met, and with a passionate fan base backing each team, it is set to be an electric encounter.

We come into today's game from a 2-1 league loss against Liverpool in our final game of 2023 and also played a mid-season friendly against PSV in Malta a week ago - which was eventually won by the Reds.

Today's opponents Newcastle became a full-time professional side prior to the 2023/24 campaign, and have not looked back since. The north-east club are storming the FA Premier Division North, with 10 wins and one draw in their 11 league outings, sitting five points clear at the top ahead of the restart.

They come into Sunday’s game in high-flying form, on the back of 10 consecutive victories. Becky Langley’s side put five past FA Cup third round opponents Stoke City in early December, before sticking 11 past Fylde and seven past Halifax either side of the new year.

The Magpies are not someone to be written off, but I expect us to seal a controlled and professional win.

Let's begin our cup campaign up and running. Come on United! 🔴

#manchester united women #muwfc #newcastle united women #women's fa cup #come on united #ggmu

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tooneys-russo · 5 months

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Boots and Broken Hearts

A/N: A new fic that I have been thinking about, it'll follow Alessia Russo and original character Willa Conti as they navigate their lives at UNC.

Chapter 1:

The right person, but always the wrong time, maybe one day they can get their timing right. Alessia grew up in the South of London, she had two older brothers and a football obsessed Father, Mario. Her weekends were filled with football, either her playing, her brother Gio playing, her father playing for a local side. Alessia had to play with boys up until the age of 12 due to there being no local girls team she could join, but that was the best thing that could have happened to her. Playing with boys had given her a hunger to be better, stronger and faster than the boys to make sure they wouldn’t have anything to say about having a girl on their team. At school she would often be picked first by the boys because they knew exactly how good she was. Her talents had her noticed by the England Development Team, she went to her first camp for the under 14 team at the tender age of 12. There she met her best friend Ella, they were inseparable from the first moment they met. They both featured in elite football academies although for opposing teams, Alessia for Chelsea and Ella for Manchester United, they would play against each other but nothing would change between them off the pitch no matter the result. When it came time for the two to take on professional contracts Ella was offered a full time contract at her junior club, Alessia made the biggest decision of her young life, well the biggest one at that time, she decided to leave everything she knew and went to college in the United States. Alessia made her stamp on the collegiate football world when she made her first start with North Carolina University.

In comparison Willa had a slightly different road to North Carolina. She was raised in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the North East of England. She was chosen at the tender age of 8 to sign her first contract with Sunderland’s Junior Academy. Willa was tagged as an up and comer, he was a 12 year old playing in the under 16 side, and was placed into the England under 17 side by the age of 14. Willa had an outstanding junior career until she was 16, she was playing in the Under 19 European Championships, it was the final, the game she dreamed of. She stood in the opposition’s 18 yard box waiting for the corner to come in. As the ball soared towards her, Willa readied herself. The ball made contact with her head, then she felt a sharp pain to the right side of her face, then darkness. The Spanish Captain had attempted to clear the ball from the box, but instead she had kicked Willa in the face. It resulted in Willa being knocked unconscious, as well as slicing the right cheek, fracturing her cheekbone, eye socket and breaking her jaw. At that moment Willa had scored the winning goal and had her short career ended. She had her jaw wired shut for 2 months, headaches and concussion symptoms for 4 months and multiple surgeries to fix the shattered bones in her face. By the time she was cleared to play again Willa was 17 and without an academy contract. Her final year of high school was frustrating, she was surrounded by her friends from the academies who were on track for professional contracts, while she was playing division 4 women’s. Willa needed to escape from what could have been, so he sat the SATs and was on a plane as soon as she finished school, playing football (now soccer) at University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA. For four years she studied hard for her MBA while also being the star player of the UCLA Bruins Women’s Soccer Team, Captain from her Sophomore year onwards. She had a passion for analytics and would run reports of all stats for coaches each game, she knew she may never make it pro but she could make a difference on the sidelines. In her Senior year she played in the National Championship game and with 8 minutes until the end of the game her knee gave way. She knew exactly what it was, her ACL.

There were three years between Willa and Alessia, she had stared at UCLA and she had now made the decision to step off the field and begin her coaching and analytical career, her knee still gave her trouble after the reconstruction, each time she kicked the ball it felt different and she knew she was done at the tender age of 22. North Carolina was her lifeline and she took it with both hands. Alessia was away on an England Camp when Willa started. Willa had begun working with Anson Dorrance, the coach of North Carolina on their current team list, looking at game footage from both North Carolina and every other team that they were facing. Willa had never watched so much football in her life as she did now. By the time she met the players Willa knew everything that she could about the technical abilities of the players, she noted that Alessia had not arrived yet as she was still at the National Camp. Both she and Anson had begun working on the pre-season preparation for the team. Once August came around Alessia was back at North Carolina and at training. “Willa this is-'' Anson began. “Alessia Russo, 9 goals, 2 assists in your first collegiate season with a conversion rate of 43 percent, well 43.28 percent to be exact. Very impressive.” Willa had a bright smile and held out her hand to shake. Alessia was surprised by the woman in front of her with the Newcastle accent that sounded familiar, she seemed to know more about her than she did. Their blue eyes met as they shook hands. “I’m Willa Conti, pleasure to meet you Alessia.” She smiled and bit her lip gently. “Pleasure to meet you too, Willa. You seem to know a fair bit about football.” Willa laughed and let go of her hand.”Hope so. Might be disappointing if I didn’t.” Anson patted Alessia on the back. “Get on the park and join the team.” Alessia ran to join her teammates who were ecstatic that she was back.

After training Willa was going through the data from each player’s GPS and footage from the session. Her phone rang with a familiar name on the screen, her girlfriend, Jennifer. “Hey babe.” She sat back in her chair and ran her fingers through her long chestnut hair. Jennifer was not pleased at all that Willa had moved all the way to North Carolina away from her in LA, where she had just been recruited into the Orlando Pride Wave NWSL team. “Hi, you haven’t texted me back in hours. Too busy with all those North Carolina girls?” Willa could hear the anger in Jennifer’s voice and sighed knowing what was coming. “I have been running training and doing the analysis ready for this week’s first scrimmage.” Willa was being drained each conversation with Jennifer knowing that it would quickly become a fight. “Of course, well I have a game this weekend and I got you tickets. Are you able to come?” Willa looked up at the schedule on her office wall. “Yeah I should be able to. Will be a good game against Portland.” Jennifer hummed in agreement. “Yeah it will be good to see you, I miss you.”

“I miss you too, I will see you this weekend. Love you.” Willa’s tone was as happy as she could make it.

“Love you too babe.” Jennifer sounded a lot more upbeat than when the call had started. The two had met when they were both on the UCLA football teams, Jennifer was a local LA girl and they seemed to be pushed together instantly. Willa found her comforting but did admit that at times she was so focused on football that she did neglect their relationship, it was lucky that they were on the same team. But Jennifer didn’t seem to mind as long as Willa was at all the parties with her, all the games and on her arm when she needed it. Jennifer was gorgeous and could have easily gone into modelling, she had flowing brown hair that had a slight curl, bright green eyes that matched the trees when they would go hiking around California. Her skin was permanently sunkissed and a rose tattoo graced the side of her forearm. As a couple they complimented each other perfectly, Willa had mid back length chestnut brown hair that was usually in a high pony tail, blue eyes that were like a royal blue, her facial scars were only noticeable in particular light like a lion had scratched down her right hand cheek. Willa’s skin was tanned after being in the LA sun for four years, her Italian background had been particularly beneficial. On her left ribs she had a tattoo of the Newcastle United badge and the UCLA Bruin. The Newcastle badge was important to her, they were her team but they never had an academy, the only one close by who had a girls academy was Sunderland, her natural enemy. Jennifer stood at 5 feet 7 inches and Willa who stood at a comfortable 5 feet 10 inches. The two were the IT couple of UCLA Athletics and he sat next to her when she was drafted to the Orlando Pride Wave, it was everything she wanted and more, Willa opted to not go into the draft, not wanting to be disappointed. When Willa received her offer to coach and be technical analyst at North Carolina Jennifer’s response left a lot to be desired, her focus was on their future in Orlando Pride and what it would mean to do long distance how hard it would be. There was no consideration for what Willa wanted, which was all too common in their relationship.

Willa walked into the athletes dining room ready for another early morning session, she didn’t expect to see Alessia sitting by herself with a textbook by her side. Willa filled up her plate and sat next to the blonde Brit. “Good morning.” Willa smiled warmly, Alessia’s blue eyes looked up at her. “Oh hi.” She sat back and put her fork down on her plate. “What are you doing here so early?” Alessia glanced at the bag on the ground. “You know training isn't until later right?” Willa nodded, “Yeah I know, I just wanted to go for a run at the field, test some things out.” She laughed softly. “Test some things out? Like what the grass length?” She looked back into the older girl’s eyes. “Well depending on the grass length it would change the time that it would take the ball to -” Willa noticed the joking nature of Alessia’s question and the grin she was now wearing. “Ah, um no not the grass length just wanted to check the drills we had planned. Wanting to make sure we are improving on particular things.” Willa looked down at her plate embarrassed slightly about her first answer to Alessia’s clearly rhetorical question. Alessia smiled and bumped gently into Willa’s side. “Sorry, sometimes my sarcasm doesn’t translate. Is it possible for me to come with you to see the drills?” Willa smiled and nodded, unable to answer with her mouth full of food. The rest of their breakfast was filled with casual conversation, Willa discovered that Alessia had gone through the academy system just as she did, she also discovered that she wasn’t a huge fan of the tea available to her in the dining hall. Yorkshire tea was clearly the most superior tea, although with her time in America, Alessia was now very coffee focused, Willa noted that an oat flat white was the younger girl’s order.

Willa and Alessia made their way to the field, she made Willa feel comfortable with no judgement or expectations on her. Alessia felt an instant connection to the young coach, Willa took an interest in what she had to say and never once questioned why she would leave a professional contract behind for college halfway across the world. Willa and Alessia worked on multiple drills for around two hours, by the end they were both trying to catch their breath. “How were they? The drills? They alright?” Willa looked at the blonde next to her. “Well I am absolutely knackered, but I feel good and got to work on my first touch. What did you think?” She fixed her blonde ponytail. “Your touch is bloody good already, I just need your shot conversions a bit higher.” Willa laughed and she smiled. “Oh yeah? As a Sophomore I am out-scoring some of the Seniors.” Alessia put her hands on her hips and looked at the taller girl. “You won’t be playing against these girls in England, or at a World Cup. You are going to play in the best league in the world. The NWSL is dropping in quality and that's the league these players want to end up in. Not you, you have to play in Europe.” Willa said it casually as she grabbed her drink bottle. Alessia stared at her expressions, there was no mistaking that Willa was serious, she was almost matter of factly the way she spoke. Alessia was about to reply to the quite nice comment before they heard Coach Dorrance calling out. “Willa don’t keep the players from class! She is here for an education not just to kick a ball around, if her grades drop you will be tutoring her!” Willa nodded, “Yes Sir, sorry Alessia. I will see you tonight at training,I think we will be looking at some footage after the session. I want to chat to you about some plays.” Willa handed Alessia her drink. “Thanks Willa, appreciate it.”

Alessia counted down the minutes until training, it isn't that she hated her classes, it was just that she couldn’t stop thinking about getting back on the field. Her aim was always to get better, each session added to her knowledge. The second class was finished for the day she was walking to the field, after warm up she watched as Willa explained the drills that she did with her that morning. During the drills in the hot sun, the girls began complaining about getting tired, their shots got more sloppy and their passing became wayward. Coach Dorrance called training and they all came into a group together, Willa had a grin on her face as some girls sat down and others caught their breath. “Well, that was a fantastic session. Willa has been doing some work on what we have been lacking and how we can improve. I know you girls are tired but I will let her chat to you about what the aim was.”

Willa stepped forward half a step. “Each game goes for around 90 minutes, give or take with additional time. The training today was medium to high intensity for 120 minutes. That gives both Coach and I an idea of what level you can maintain and for how long. Your disposals and shots only became detrimental to the function of the drills in the last 5 minutes. We now know that you can last 115 minutes, at a very good intensity. This is going to give us an advantage, we will also be doing lighter sessions after game day and doing recovery but these punishing sessions will give you a mental and physical edge over our opponents. In those moments when the other team is fatiguing you will remember this training and other after this and you will know you can push further. Great session, have a shower and we will meet you in the theater for a film session.” Willa grabbed the drink bottles and passed them around to the players, when she got to Alessia he looked into her eyes. “Feel a bit better with more players?” Alessia took a large drink from her bottle and nodded. “Yeah I actually got a rest.” She said slightly out of breath after her drink. “Good, you did really great.” Willa went around to other players and chatted to them, giving them tips on their movements and positioning. Alessia noticed that Willa genuinely wanted each player to be better than they were at the start of the session, she seemed excited to be involved even if it was picking up cones or organising everything for the coach.

As the girls got ready for the film session a few of them talked about Willa and how nice it was to have a cute girl coaching them and how they wouldn’t mind getting a few one on one sessions with her. Alessia laughed along with the girls, she was very attractive physically but it was her personality that seemed to be the best part of the Geordie. The girls made their way to the theatre and out the front stood Coach Dorrance, Willa sat up the back with a notepad, Alessia saw her and made her way next to her. “Can I sit here?” She paused as she looked at the girl. “Oh yes of course, I want to show you something.” She moved down a seat. “I will be going through with as many players as I can like this to make sure I cover everyone's game.” Alessia noticed that she flicked through her notebook which was divided for each player, she got to her and the first page was full of notes on her past season. “Last season you played as a very solid number 9, the player that would be the main option for goals, I don’t want that to change but I do want to have a look at your off the ball work.” As the game footage played, Coach Dorrance showed what the opposition did that North Carolina needed to address and work on for the off season. Willa focused on Alessia’s movement and where she would prefer her to move, “It is just as important what you do off the ball as what you do on it.” Alessia was captivated as she talked, Willa was captivated by the way Alessia played. They both admired each other's passion for the sport and their drive to make either themselves or their teams better. At the end of the film session the girls started leaving Willa and Alessia walked out together into the car park. “The scrimmage game in two days, I want you to focus on getting into those looser positions, drag those defenders out of the danger areas to allow a player to come through. They will want to follow you and not be aware of the danger that is coming. Trust me, then on the next play you come around the back and get to that back post for the cross and just knock it in. Easy as you like.” Alessia stared at her. “That easy?” She nodded. “They all know you, you will be marked tighter than a compression sock. Use it to your advantage. Goodnight Alessia, great work today” Alessia watched Willa walk back towards her car, she changed her line as she got closer and walked towards a black BMW parked with its lights on. Willa’s head dropped as she got into the car, Alessia watched and got into her own car. She had no idea whose car Willa had gotten into but it appeared she knew the person.

Chapter 2

#alessia russo #woso fic #woso fanfiction

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