Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor praised her team’s character following a 1-0 win over Women’s Super League (WSL) holders Manchester City after being forced to make risky substitutions early on.
Bompastor substitued centre-back Kadeisha Buchanan 12 minutes into the top-of-the-table clash at Stamford Bridge. She explained the Canadian suffered a head knock and did not seem herself.
“Yesterday in training, she got a knock to her head during contact with a teammate. She was fine after the training session. She was fine in the evening. We assessed her again this morning and everything was fine,” Bompastor told a news conference.
“I just felt watching her from the beginning of the game, she was not herself. Then I took the responsibility to make the substitution. But for me, I was almost forced to do that because I know my player and I know she was not in the game.”
Bompastor admitted she had not seen the centre back following the decision but would clarify the decision with her when needed.
“As I said, I always have a good relationship with all my players. I always bring them clarity. I’m always direct and honest,” she said.
Buchanan had been at fault for failing to deal with Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw in City’s opening two chances, leading to the decision.
She was replaced with Veerle Buurman who coped with the Jamaican international well during the FA Cup semifinal last season and ultimately the high risk, high reward decision paid off. Buurman was awarded player-of-the-match for her performance.
“It hasn’t happened many times to me in my experience. I think you have to be brave to make that decision in that moment because you know bringing a player in that moment in the game, it’s a risk,” Bompastor added.
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“The good thing is we had a good conversation with Veerle. She was clear on why she was not starting the game and it was off the back of a really good performance from her in the BK Hacken game.
“She had a really good performance against the top player. And I think today was positive. But again, as I already told you in the previous times, sometimes when it doesn’t work, it’s not so positive, but today it was good.”
The French coach was forced into a second substitution before half-time as Melvine Malard suffered a hamstring injury and was forced off, with Aggie Beever-Jones stepping in as a replacement.
“Having to make two substitutions in the first half… I think the character the team showed today was really good and credit to all my players on the performance and the character they showed today, especially against the top side,” she said.
Sandy Baltimore netted the only goal of the afternoon during first-half stoppage time before she was changed for Maika Hamano at half-time in the third forced substitution of the game.
“We knew going into the second half, we only had one slot and we knew Sandy has been playing lot of minutes and she didn’t have the legs to go for more than 60. If I had to use the last slot on 60 minutes, I could have stayed with 30 minutes with no slots so that’s why I was forced to make this one. It paid off.
But again, Sandy was doing well. I spoke to her at halftime and she knows the reason why we made that decision,” she added.
“I think that’s the first time I have experienced that many forced substitutions so it’s good for my own experience as well.”
Manchester City were also forced to make a change in the 77th minute after goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita was shown a red card for preventing Alyssa Thompson’s run into the box. She will serve a one-match ban per WSL rules.
