🏏 Sun, 7 Sep 2025 12:00 BST
Tottenham Hotspur Women
vs
West Ham Women
Positions estimated (no formation data from the API)
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Matchday 1 of the 2025-26 WSL season, and the two captains make for a neat contrast. Spurs skipper Beth England, 31, won both the WSL Player of the Year and PFA Player of the Year awards at Chelsea before joining in January 2023 for £250,000, then a British transfer record. West Ham's Katrina Gorry is a 33-year-old midfielder who stands just 155cm, has passed 100 caps for Australia and was named AFC Player of the Year in 2014.
- There is a Japan v Japan sub-plot here. Spurs start 19-year-old centre-back Toko Koga in the number 32 shirt; she started all four of Japan's matches at the Paris 2024 Olympics, arrived from Feyenoord in July 2025 and promptly became the youngest goalscorer in the club's history. West Ham's number nine is Riko Ueki, 26, a Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza product who scored five goals on the way to Japan's U-20 World Cup title and finished as her country's top scorer at the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup.
- Shelina Zadorsky returns to familiar surroundings. The 32-year-old Canada centre-back spent four years at Tottenham before moving to West Ham, and brings more than 100 caps plus bronze from Rio 2016 and gold from Tokyo 2020. Her aerial strength and calm reading of the game will be aimed squarely at Beth England, making this one of the defining individual battles of the afternoon.
- Spurs build through Eveliina Summanen, the 27-year-old Finland attacking midfielder who holds the club's all-time WSL assist record and has run their creative play since arriving in 2022. Next to her sits Drew Spence, 32, a Jamaica international who spent years as a regular at Chelsea and supplies the calm. Whether that pair can wrestle control away from Gorry and Oona Siren will shape the rhythm of the game.
- Out wide, Olivia Holt is the one to watch. The 24-year-old Denmark winger scored 25 goals in 47 games across two seasons at Rosengard and marked her Spurs debut, shortly after joining in January 2025, with a direct free kick. On the opposite flank, 24-year-old Jessica Naz is an Enfield-born academy graduate who earned her first senior England call-up in May 2024 and has six caps to her name.
- Tottenham's defence is anchored by Australia's Clare Hunt, 26, who played for Paris Saint-Germain and helped her country reach the semi-finals of the 2023 home World Cup. Raised on a sheep farm and holding a science degree from the University of Sydney, she is one of the more unusual profiles in the league. Beside her, Sweden's Josefine Rybrink, 27, brings 200-plus appearances for BK Hacken, while left-back Amanda Nilden, 27, returned from Juventus with the pace and physicality to win her duels.
- The goalkeepers arrive from very different routes. Lize Kop, the 27-year-old Netherlands international, is compact at 173cm but has held down the Spurs jersey on the strength of reflexes and positioning honed at Ajax and Leicester. Poland's Kinga Szemik, 28, kept the clean sheet in the UEFA Women's EURO 2025 qualifying play-off that sent her country to a first major tournament, and has a reputation for saving penalties.
- West Ham's front line is a genuinely international collection. Switzerland's Seraina Piubel, 25, spent eight seasons at FC Zurich, winning four straight Swiss league titles and three cups, and was named the league's player of the year in 2023-24. Germany forward Shekiera Martinez, 24, finished top scorer at the 2018 UEFA Women's U-17 Championship with nine goals after eight years at Eintracht Frankfurt. On the left, France international Viviane Asseyi, 31, has over 60 caps and was voted Hammer of the Year last season.
- Experience runs right through the West Ham spine. Gorry has played professionally in seven countries, including a spell with Vegalta Sendai Ladies in Japan, and still dictates tempo with her ball-winning and passing. Alongside her, 24-year-old Finland midfielder Oona Siren won back-to-back Finnish championships and a domestic cup with KuPS. Left-back Verena Hanshaw, 31, has more than 100 Austria caps and was named in the Team of the Tournament at UEFA Women's EURO 2017.
- Both benches carry real weight. Spurs hold back Maite Oroz, the 27-year-old Spain midfielder who was vice-captain at Real Madrid and made 146 appearances there, second-most in the club's history, alongside Olga Ahtinen, a 28-year-old with 75 Finland caps. West Ham can call on 19-year-old Leila Wandeler, a Lyon academy graduate who featured at EURO 2025 for Switzerland, and Wales striker Fiona Morgan, 25, who has passed 50 international caps.