Community Shield 2020 doubleheader

To kick off the new season, England will have a Community Shield doubleheader.  The match is between last season’s regular season winner going up against last season’s English Football Association (FA) Cup winner.  Since there will be no fans in the stands, both matches will be played at Wembley Stadium in London.  Here is the schedule.

English Women’s Community Shield

Chelsea vs Manchester City – 7:30 AM EST (BBC One, BBC Sport website).

English Men’s Community Shield

Arsenal vs Liverpool – 11:30 AM EST (ESPN+).

Manchester City won the Women’s Super League last season rather easily since five of the players that was on England’s team during the last Women’s World Cup are key players on this team.  Plus, the team added American midfielders Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle to the squad.  Unfortunately, Lavelle will not play in this match.  Chelsea won the Women’s FA Cup last season after adding Sam Kerr, who is arguably the best women’s soccer player in the world.  This match will be prove that the Women’s Super League is ready to catch up with the rest of the leagues in Europe.

The men’s Community Shield match will be between the Premier League champs Liverpool and the English FA Cup winner Arsenal.  With the FA Cup victory earlier this month, Arsenal was able to build off of that momentum and was able to sign forward Willian and defender William Saliba.  I think that both players need to start in this match.  Liverpool had one of the most dominant teams in Premier League history because the title race was over even before the pandemic rocked the world.  This new season will be interesting because the team has decided to keep the roster the same for now.