🏏 Sun, 16 Nov 2025 12:00 GMT
West Ham Women
vs
Everton Women
Positions estimated (no formation data from the API)
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Five Japan internationals are in the starting elevens for this Matchday 9 fixture. West Ham field striker Riko Ueki and right-back Yu Endo, while Everton counter with holding midfielder Honoka Hayashi, centre-back Rion Ishikawa and left-back Hikaru Kitagawa. It is a rare WSL line-up in which Japanese players occupy key roles in attack, midfield and defence on both sides of the pitch.
- Honoka Hayashi faces the club she left in the summer of 2024. The 27-year-old defensive midfielder arrived in England via Speranza Osaka and AIK in Sweden, and since joining Everton she has become the fulcrum of their midfield, scoring the winner that ended Chelsea's 34-match unbeaten run. Her ball-winning and clean distribution will be tested against familiar faces.
- The duel between Riko Ueki and Rion Ishikawa is the pick of the individual battles. Ueki, a product of the Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza academy, scored four goals at the U-17 Women's World Cup and five at the U-20 edition on the way to the title. Ishikawa, 22, stands 172cm and has gone straight into Everton's back line in her first season outside Japan after leaving Urawa Reds Ladies.
- The flank where Yu Endo and Hikaru Kitagawa meet should be a contest in itself. Endo spent 15 years and 171 matches at Urawa Reds Ladies, winning back-to-back WE League and AFC Women's Champions League titles, and delivers accurate crosses from right-back. Kitagawa, a left-footed attacking full-back who joined in summer 2025 after spells at BK Hacken and INAC Kobe Leonessa, loves to overlap.
- There is an all-Australian midfield subplot as well. West Ham captain Katrina Gorry, 33, has more than 100 caps and was named AFC Women's Player of the Year in 2014; at 155cm she wins the ball and dictates tempo out of proportion to her size. Everton's Clare Wheeler, a defensive midfielder who played at the 2023 World Cup and the Paris Olympics, offers relentless running and interceptions.
- West Ham's front line has a strongly international flavour. Viviane Asseyi, 31, has over 60 caps for France, has played for Bayern Munich and Montpellier, and was voted Hammer of the Year for 2024-25. Alongside her, 24-year-old Germany forward Shekiera Martinez, who spent eight years at Eintracht Frankfurt, was top scorer at the 2018 UEFA Women's U-17 Championship with nine goals.
- Everton's back line leans heavily on recent recruits. Martina Fernandez, 21, is a left-footed centre-back out of the Barcelona cantera who won consecutive U-19 European Championships, while 22-year-old England international Ruby Mace arrived from Leicester City in September 2025 for a club-record fee and can operate at centre-back or in midfield. Behind them stands the 180cm Emily Ramsey.
- Each bench holds a Republic of Ireland goalkeeper with history at the opposite club. West Ham's Megan Walsh, 31, previously played for Everton and was part of Ireland's 2023 World Cup squad. Everton's Courtney Brosnan, 30, built her WSL career at West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur before moving to Merseyside.
- The substitutes could decide the closing stages. West Ham can call on 19-year-old Switzerland forward Leila Wandeler, a graduate of the Lyon academy who featured at Women's Euro 2025, plus Wales striker Ffion Morgan with more than 50 caps. Everton have Katja Snoeijs, who wore the Netherlands' number nine at the 2023 World Cup and scored seven WSL goals in 2022-23.