1Young guns
Three of the girls Development Squad players joined the first team on the trip to Portland and Miami.
Katie Bradley, Jess Park and new signing Fran Stenson joined up with the likes of Steph Houghton, Jill Scott and Karen Bardsley with the huge opportunity to train and play alongside some of our more experienced squad members.
All three made appearances during our friendly against Paris Saint-Germain, and just days later striker, Jess Park, featured in our big clash against Lyon at the Hard Rock Stadium. Park definitely didn’t hold back.
All three girls oozed confidence and soaked up the wealth of experience from the first team while remaining humble and grounded. It really was a delight to see and it’s no doubt that we have future stars in our midst.
READ: 2018-19 FAWSL fixtures released
2Injury progress
With a number of players out with injuries, a huge positive from the trip was seeing Steph Houghton make a swift comeback after her knee operation. Our skipper returned to feature in every game, including the full 90 minutes against Paris Saint-Germain in our third place play-off in the Women’s International Champions Cup.
While Steph’s recovery was visible through game time, Pauline Bremer was working hard behind the scenes.
The German striker has been out since last September after breaking her leg badly against Everton. Pauline has been working tirelessly throughout the past 10 months, but while on tour she was finally able to run, sprint and train with a ball on the pitch.
Although the 22-year-old isn’t back in full training with the rest of the squad it was so promising and uplifting to see her back with a football and gearing up ready to make her comeback.
3Doughnut delight
Completely unrelated to football, but one of the highlights was when three of our City stars had the chance to visit one of the most famous spots while we were staying in Portland!
Jill Scott, Demi Stokes and Karen Bardsley made an appearance at Oregon’s Voodoo Doughnut shop where they decorated their very own Manchester City doughnuts. Demi got particularly creative and even made one of the edible dolls into City’s new away kit, while KB put ‘keeper gloves on hers.
Put it this way – if they weren’t professional footballers then a career in the doughnut decorating industry would definitely be on the cards!
4Final day comeback
After just two minutes of play against PSG in our third play play-off City went 1-0 down after Melike Pekel slid her volley past Bardsley.
Focused on finishing the game on a high, City bounced back before half time to claim the victory with Scott’s header and Mie Jans’ first ever City goal!
We have to mention that KB had an outstanding game and made a number of crucial saves to mute the threat from PSG. Particularly that block in the final seconds of the game… Watch the highlights in the video below!
The result meant we ended on a high and were able to bring back a third place medal – a little confidence boost heading into the new season.
5New recruits
Tessa Wullaert, Gemma Bonner and Caroline Weir all came on tour, while fellow new signing, Lauren Hemp, was away with the Under-20 England World Cup squad instead.
Open training sessions, a friendly in Portland and the Women’s ICC tournament was the perfect opportunity to not only showcase our new talent, but to integrate the players both on and off the pitch.
The trio gelled into the squad seamlessly and all made their own impact on the various matches, and Caroline Weir was responsible for both the superb corner and free-kick which supplied the two goals in our win over PSG.
Their enthusiasm was evident from the first training session, and we are bound to see them make their mark on the upcoming season.
