#i don't want that for Damaris so i would prefer her not to take that risk

[redwineconversation]

two headlights shine through the sleepless night

In about 50 hours or so we'll know what Lyon looks like.

Well, kind of.

We'll know what they could look like, I should say. I would feel a lot more confident about the game against Arsenal if Lyon wasn't so crippled by injuries, and it's why, no matter how the game ends, that I think there should be an asterisk after the scoreline.

Lyon is missing six (6!!!) players from the starting lineup that won the Champions League final back in May: Ellie Carpenter (ACL), Griedge MBock (torn ligaments; dislocated kneecap); Kadeisha Buchanan (transfer); Catarina Macario (ACL); Delphine Cascarino (muscular tear); Ada Hegerberg (various factors).

Other big names include Vanessa Gilles (thigh injury), Sara Dabritz (ankle injury).

Alice Sombath limped off the field against Bordeaux, and that, too, is cause for concern for me. Alice Sombath is having a trial by fire season not unlike Bacha did in 2017-2018. As I said before, sometimes you only discover your true self when there are no other options left. Sombath is young, having just turned 19 on Sunday, and while she is very, very green, what she is also doing is growing into herself.

But as I said, she is also inexperienced. And that matters when it comes to big games. Bompastor seems to move Henry back to center back for the "big" games, and I think it comes down to experience more than anything. Henry has played in so many big games that they have almost become routine at this point. I would not be that surprised if even if Sombath isn't injured as badly as it originally looked, Henry was still moved back to a position she openly admits to disliking. It's a sign of respect, in some ways, to the opposition if Henry is playing CB instead of her preferred DM.

Neither of us will be particularly thrilled about it, and that's because Henry just shines when she gets to play her natural position. There is no better No. 6 in the world, and this is not Lyon bias speaking. Lyon molded Henry into exactly what they wanted when they signed her. I've said before that as strained as their relationship can be, they're still tethered to one another, and acknowledge the implications that come with that. If Henry plays in her preferred position, she will expose the consequences of Arsenal's somewhat bewildering capitulation of Miedema playing as a 10. Miedema simply cannot be allowed to play as a 10 against a team of midfield of Lyon's calibre. It just will not work.

But that still doesn't erase Lyon's mountain of issues. Even if Sombath is fit, even if Henry gets to play DM instead of CB, it doesn't change the fact that Lyon's backline is seriously crippled. Only Renard and Bacha survive from last season. 2/5 is not great.

The Carpenter Dilemma has not been solved and will remain unsolved until she comes back in January. It means the right side will be extremely exposed, especially with Cascarino out as well. Arsenal's luck in playing a Lyon as crippled as they are is to be frank nauseating. If Cascarino was available then at least McCabe would have something to think about, now Arsenal will be able to casually stroll up and down Lyon's right side with not a care in the world.

Which allows me to discuss the state of Lyon's midfield. I said repeatedly we don't know how van de Donk will handle Case of the Ex and won't know until the game actually happens. Will Lyon's rage seep into her bloodstream? Will her eyes change too? Or will the fact it's Arsenal dominate over Lyon's rage? We don't know. We won't know until it happens.

Take away the uncertainty of how van de Donk will handle it, you still have Horan, Henry, and Damaris to contend with, and that's probably the only reassuring thing I have left as a Lyon fan. Henry and Horan have played in a lot of big games. Henry in particular lives for this kind of shit. Van de Donk, too, has played in big games, but maybe not with this kind of emotional history at stake. They are still players with a ton of experience in big games and know how to breathe. I'll explain what I mean by that in a bit.

Lyon is pretty much toothless up front, so I am perplexed as to why Arsenal fans are pretending that losing Williamson and their other CB is somehow a disadvantage for Arsenal. If Malard of all people ends up scoring against Arsenal then to be frank Arsenal deserve the labels put on them. There is a genuine possibility that Lyon's frontline will be Malard - Bruun/Le Sommer - Becho, and again, if you let those players score against you, you deserve it.

But. As I said, Lyon knows how to regulate their breathing.

The Ballon d'Or rankings will probably piss them off (and more of that in a later post), most of it for good cause, and I have said repeatedly that Lyon needs something to get pissed off about. A vexed, vengeful Lyon is unplayable, but they need something to happen to tap into that state of mind, one that changes the color of their eyes.

This team honestly cannot stand losing. I wish people had actually watched the Bordeaux game because it was interesting for me how Lyon's eyes flickered back and forth, how the anger was there - especially when the calls were going against them - but they were trying to suppress it. They try so hard to be good sometimes, even if at the end they succumb to their true nature.

So we have a crippled Lyon starting their campaign in an already bad mood. Renard said something in the postgame interview against Bordeaux, about what really matters is the results on a field. Fundamentally, Lyon just wants people to understand that they believe the UWCL is theirs, and there are consequences when a team (tries to) take(s) away from them.

Even crippled with injury, the thought of another team taking what's theirs will cause their eyes to change. The question, which will remain unanswered until probably December, is whether that's enough.

[hardtchill]

You’re being purposefully obtuse. Julie is injured and will not be playing, truthfully if she doesn’t return by next January camp I believe she’s done. Andi will be starting this camp. That means we STILL need a backup for her! This situation is not the same with Huerta, stop using her as a scapegoat to try and say players shouldn’t try to get onto the USWNT if they can. Same shit was said about Cat before she switched over! And she’s having a decent first few years.

Dude, you're not seeing the actual problem.

The problem in the US has never been a lack of talent. There were back ups for Ertz and still are, but they refused to develop those available until Ertz got injured and they panicked. Why would Damaris be the exception to the rule?

Also, Cat is a completely different example. She always played for the US and it has been clear for a long time that she would choose the US. Damaris would switch suddenly after playing for Spain during her youth years, it's very different.

You can pretend that Damaris is needed, but in truth she is not. What the US needs is to stop playing starters to death and giving young talent chances. And yes Damaris can be that talent that gets a chance, but right now that is not the system the US uses.

So yeah, seeing as she can choose two other countries with way better track records of giving young players chances, the US wouldn't be my pick for a player like her.

[a-eo-iu]

🍀🌸🌼!

🍀 Which ocs would get along the best?

I'm assuming this means the ones that aren't already friends, so!

Ven would probably really like Marse and Damaris as they're all unique "anomalies" (Ven because they're a double born type, Marse because he's cursed, Damaris because she's the only remains of a long dead and forgotten world), but especially Marse, they have a lot in common (travel a lot, forever seeking Something that they don't know what, prefer to avoid people...) (Damaris travelled for a while but they stopped Seeking and decided to just settle down and enjoy the here and now)

On that note, Damaris and ymumy would probably like each other since they're both robots who spent a lot of time deactivated and whose creators are now (most likely) long dead and lost to time, so there is no longer anything like them in the world, and everything there is to know about them is what they know about themselves.

I think Leader and Elleiz might get along pretty well since they're both kind of personifications of their worlds who want to destroy everything that doesn't agree with their version of how the world should be. And this would be very bad. If Leader was in Ban's place he would've destroyed the entire world instead of isolating himself and only destroying one planet. If he can't take over the world no one else will be left alive to try. Which is probably what Elleiz wanted but didn't get from Ban.

Frank would love Pannela, he is part plant and would love to study if and how their plant magic would affect him. He would be fascinated.

Also adding to the above: the new santre I have not named yet. She would also love to study both of them.

Oli and Vic. I cannot elaborate but I know they would.

Wild and Neon. No need to elaborate.

🌸 Who's your most morally questionable oc?

I guess Nul? It doesn't care about morals it just wants to make the world burn. It knows right from wrong and it does do good when it's convenient but it prefers to do evil because it thinks it's more fun. No morals just chaos.

🌼 Pick an oc and put them on blast

You have probably never drawn Neon so you can't know just how hard they are to draw but THAT FUCKER IS SO ANNOYING TO DRAW!!!!!! I KNOW I CREATED HER BUT I REGRET IT. Bad alien. Horrible alien. If I was less attached to her design I would absolutely redesign and make them less bad. ALSO They are literally so. Cartoon villain. This dumbass could be conquering worlds. Destroying the few remaining capitalist systems that still exist. Spreading terror across the galaxies. But instead they're out in space looking for interesting individuals to join their pirate crew. She's not even Evil evil! She's friendly and loves her crew and is genuinely interested in them. (But they're still totally fine with murdering and kidnapping and looting and crimes.) Literally a cartoon villain. Ridiculous. (Affectionate)