The 2009 FA Women's Cup Final was the 39th final of the

FA Women's Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup, and now Women's FA Cup (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponso ...

, England's primary

cup competition A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

for

women's football Women's football most often refers to: * Women's association football Women's football may also refer to: * Women's gridiron football * Women's Australian rules football * Ladies' Gaelic football * Women's rugby league * Women's rugby union ...

teams. It was the 16th final to be held under the direct control of

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

(FA). The final was contested between

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

Pride Park Stadium Pride Park Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Derby, England, which is the home ground of English Football League club Derby County. With a capacity of 33,597, it is the 16th-largest football ground in England. Pride Park is a bus ...

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

on 4 May 2009. Arsenal won the game 2–1 to secure their fourth successive FA Cup triumph and their tenth in total. The match was attended by a crowd of 23,291.

Match

Summary

Arsenal, managed by

Vic Akers Victor David Akers, OBE (born 24 August 1946) is an English football manager and former player who was most recently the assistant manager at Boreham Wood. As manager of Arsenal Ladies he became the club's most successful manager of all time w ...

, reached their fourth FA Women's Cup final in succession after a 3–1 victory against Everton in the semi-finals, while Premier League Northern Division side Sunderland, managed by Mick Mulhern, reached their first ever final in the competition after beating Chelsea 3–0 at the

Stadium of Light The Stadium of Light is an all-seater football stadium in Sunderland, England, and the eighth and current home to Sunderland. With space for 49,000 spectators, the Stadium of Light is the ninth largest football stadium in England. The ...

, becoming the first team from outside the top flight to do so since

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. Arsenal, who came into the game as favourites, dominated the vast majority of the match, with

Gemma Davison Gemma Suzanne Davison (born 17 April 1987) is an English footballer who plays as a forward. She has previously played for Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Reading whom she joined from Chelsea in 2018. After joining Arsenal at youth team level ...

and

Kim Little Kim Alison Little (born 29 June 1990) is a Scottish professional association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for and captains Arsenal W.F.C., Arsenal of the English Women's Super League. Before her retirement from international ...

creating several chances in the opening minutes. Sunderland created their first half chance as Sophie Williams chased a long ball down the left and crossed, but

Niamh Fahey Niamh Fahey ( ; born 13 October 1987) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder or centre-back for Women's Super League club Liverpool, which she captains, and formerly the Republic of Ireland national team. She ...

's challenge was enough to prevent

Jordan Nobbs Jordan Nobbs (born 8 December 1992) is an English professional footballer who currently plays for no club. She previously played for Sunderland, Aston Villa and Arsenal . Nobbs has played for the England women's national team at the youth and ...

getting in a clean shot on goal. Arsenal hit back with Little striking over from distance and Davison drawing a save from Sunderland goalkeeper Helen Alderson after cutting in from the left. An angled shot from

Suzanne Grant Suzanne Winters (née Grant) (born 17 April 1984) is a former Scottish association football, footballer, who played as Forward (association football), striker. She made 105 appearances for the Scotland women's national football team, Scotland na ...

slid underneath Alderson, but

Lucy Bronze Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze (born 28 October 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Women's Super League club Chelsea and the England women's national team. She has previously played for Sunderland, Everto ...

managed to prevent

Rachel Yankey Rachel Aba Yankey (born 1 November 1979) is a former English footballer who played as a winger or forward. Yankey is best known for her long association with Arsenal Ladies, for whom she played 15 seasons over two separate spells, and is rank ...

from scoring with a last-ditch clearance. Arsenal took the lead just after the half hour, when Alderson failed to hold Davison's shot and

Katie Chapman Katie Sarah Chapman (born 15 June 1982) is an English former professional association football, footballer who notably played for FA WSL clubs Arsenal W.F.C., Arsenal Ladies and Chelsea L.F.C., Chelsea Ladies and was a member of the England wome ...

followed up to score from the rebound. The Gunners had a chance to double their lead two minutes ahead of the break, when Little slotted a good ball through to Grant, but her shot went wide of the far post. Arsenal had most of the possession in the second half, but their second goal came in injury time, when Chapman chipped the ball into the path of Little, who got round Alderson before tucking the ball into the empty net.

Kelly McDougall Kelly Marie McDougall (born 22 January 1984) is an English former international footballer. She played in midfield for Everton Ladies and Sunderland Women. Club career McDougall joined Everton aged 12, and also played youth football for Kno ...

pulled one back for Sunderland in the seventh minute of stoppage time, whose length was dictated by Sophie Williams having to receive more than five minutes of treatment after suffering a seizure.

Details

References

External links

Highlights from The FA Women's Cup Final
{{DEFAULTSORT:FA Women's Cup

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2008–09 in English women's football FA Women's Cup Final, 2009 FA Women's Cup Final Sport in Derby Football in Derbyshire 2000s in Derby