Arsenal Ladies 0 - Manchester City 1 (Christiansen 72')
Starting XI: Byrne, Scott, Fahey, Mitchell, Stoney, Ohno, Williamson, Yankey, Nobbs, Kinga, Carter
Subs: Smith for Kinga 63', Ayisi for Ohno 79'
Unused Subs: Chamberlain, Sampson, Weir, Murray, Bailey
The Arsenal Ladies officially closed the book on 2014 with their final game of the year, the Continental Cup final. First, some background info. The Continental Cup has been around for four years now, and the first three years of the tournament saw the Gunners post a three peat. To clue you in on the importance of this tournament, allow me to use an analogy. The Continental Cup is of comparative importance to the Capital One Cup. So, not that important but hey its still nice to win things.
Sadly, for the first time ever the oddly shaped and moderately artsy, circular trophy shall no longer rest in the hands of the Arsenal. It was the first major trophy for Man City's Ladies squad, and I suppose its quite nice of Arsenal to allow Man City to have something to celebrate. I mean the Gunners have collected a ludicrous 41 trophies over their 21 years of existence, so its just good manners to share the wealth.
Despite the loss, Arsenal's very own Leah Williamson took home the FA WSL Continental Cup player of the year, with 33% of the vote. Williamson beat out Jess Clarke of Notts County, Ji So-Yun of Chelsea, and Toni Duggan of Man City.
Sticking with happy award news, the Ladies had their end of season banquet and handed out the season awards. Casey Stoney took home the Player's Player of the Year award while Dan Dan Carter took home Manager's Player of the Year and Jordan Nobbs nabbed Fan's Player of the Year. Christie Murray also won "Best Trainer" according to the Arsenal ladies instagram, and while I'm not sure if that means she practiced really hard all the time or moonlights as a physical therapist for the team, congrats to her.