Shelina Zadorsky echoed a similar sentiment to her West Ham United teammates and manager Rehanne Skinner following a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers put in another impressive performance at Chigwell Construction Stadium and had four golden chances to shock the defending Barclays Women’s Super League champions.
Somehow, though, with Honoka Hayashi’s equaliser wrongly adjudged offside and Aggie Beever-Jones and Erin Cuthbert on the scoresheet for the visitors, Chelsea made the trip back to West London on Women’s Football Weekend with all three points.
“We created some good-scoring opportunities,” explained a positive Zadorsky, who reached the semi-finals of the 2024 CONCACAF Gold Cup with Canada earlier this month. “We know we have to put those away.
“At the same time, as a defender, we are frustrated to concede, especially [the second goal] from a set-piece. There are little tweaks that we need to make as a team but there are a lot of positives to take away from the game against Chelsea.”
One of those positives was the number of chances West Ham’s front three - Jess Ziu, Riko Ueki, and Viviane Asseyi - created against a side challenging at the top of the WSL.
Buoyed on a successive crowd of over 3,000 in Dagenham, left wing-back Kirsty Smith struck wide from six yards out, Asseyi missed a close-range header, and Riko Ueki also hit the bar.
But despite the frustration of missing those chances, there was reason to be positive due to the number of chances created against a side that had conceded just two goals in their last 12 fixtures.
“It is a credit to the work rate of our midfielder and forwards that got into dangerous positions so often,” Zadorsky explained.
“When we used our speed and get forward quickly, we can hurt the team’s backline and I think that is what we did against Chelsea, especially in the beginning of the game.
Sitting eleventh in the WSL, Skinner’s side have five fixtures – against Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Leicester City, and Tottenham Hotspur – left to conclude 2023/24 and will take confidence from a positive performance, despite the final result, against the leaders.
Zadorsky agreed. “We have to put our energy into what we can affect and what we can control. Football is frustrating [when decisions go against you] but I am just frustrated that we didn’t keep a clean sheet.
“As a team, we need to find consistency. Liverpool was not our best game, but we have bounced back with a great performance against Chelsea. It is about being able to produce that against every team now.”
