🏏 Sun, 6 Sep 2026 14:00 BST
Crystal Palace W
vs
Everton Women
Positions estimated (no formation data from the API)
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Crystal Palace, promoted as runners-up in the second tier, make their WSL bow at home to Everton on the opening weekend of the expanded 14-club division. Jo Potter leads the newcomers, Scott Phelan the visitors. Five Japanese players are involved: Palace start 21-year-old defensive midfielder Fuka Tsunoda, while Everton field centre-back Rion Ishikawa, 23, left-back Hikaru Kitagawa, 29, and midfielder Yuka Momiki, with holding midfielder Honoka Hayashi, 28, on the bench.
- Tsunoda won five domestic trophies at Urawa Reds Ladies, including two WE League titles, and plays as a young anchor built on anticipation and high turnovers. She also scored on 43 minutes against Arsenal in the game that settled the 2025-26 WSL title race. Now she has to hold the middle for a newly promoted side against top-flight intensity.
- The opponent facing her, Everton centre-back Rion Ishikawa, arrived in England from the same club — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Urawa Reds Ladies — for her first move abroad. At 172cm she is a strong, physical one-on-one defender who started her debut in a Merseyside derby and helped win it 4-1. Two former Urawa team-mates lining up on opposite sides is a neat opening-day sub-plot.
- Everton's left flank belongs to Hikaru Kitagawa, a left-footed attacking full-back who joined in the summer of 2025 after INAC Kobe Leonessa and BK Häcken in Sweden. Her overlaps and crossing accuracy are her calling cards, and her first WSL goal — against Aston Villa — came off her weaker right foot. With fellow left-footed left-back Maz Pacheco, 28, also in the side, Everton have options going forward on that side.
- Yuka Momiki provides Everton's technical edge in midfield. A Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza graduate who played in the United States and Sweden before Leicester, she joined Everton as a free agent when her contract expired, becoming the club's fourth Japanese player. A veteran of the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics, her close control and final ball are the tools to unpick a promoted side's block.
- Honoka Hayashi waits among the substitutes. The 157cm holding midfielder moved from West Ham in the summer of 2024 and quickly became a fixture in the middle, scoring the winner that ended Chelsea's 34-match unbeaten run. Her ball-winning and passing link the phases, and she is a realistic option if the game becomes tight.
- Everton's midfield carries international pedigree. Australia's Clare Wheeler, 28, played at the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics and made her move permanent after a loan from Fortuna Hjørring in Denmark, offering relentless running. Next to her is 20-year-old Zara Kramžar, the first Slovenian to play in the WSL, who won back-to-back Serie A titles with Roma before joining in February 2026 on loan with an obligation to buy.
- Ruby Mace anchors the defence. The 23-year-old England international can play centre-back or holding midfield and arrived from Leicester in September 2025 for a club-record fee, bringing reading of the game honed at Manchester City, Arsenal and Birmingham. Behind her stands 174cm Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan, 30, a long-time WSL presence.
- Palace are not short of top-flight know-how either. Scotland international Jamie-Lee Napier, 26 and 162cm, came through Chelsea's academy and has since played for Birmingham and London City Lionesses, creating from advanced positions. In defence, Molly Bartrip, 30, was the only player to feature in every minute of every WSL match in 2024-25, and she partners the younger Tiya Goldie.
- The Palace bench is stacked with mileage too. Jamaica international Allyson Swaby, 29 and 172cm, has defended for Angel City, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma and AC Milan across the United States and Europe. Ireland midfielder Hayley Nolan, 29, joined from London City Lionesses, and 21-year-old Abbie Larkin brings forward impetus after spells at Glasgow City and Shelbourne.