Manchester United Women Aim for League Cup Redemption as Awujo Celebrates Birthday
Manchester United Women step into the League Cup on Thursday night with something to prove and something to protect. Last season’s finalists have stumbled out of the blocks this term, but the mood around the camp has shifted just in time for Sheffield United’s visit.
The start has been bruising. A shock defeat to London City, then a 0-5 hammering by Chelsea, left questions hanging over this new-look United side. Confidence took a hit, standards were challenged, and the early narrative felt bleak.
Then came Arsenal.
United’s performance in the league draw on Saturday didn’t erase those earlier setbacks, but it did change the temperature. The intensity returned. The structure held. A point against one of the division’s heavyweights has given Marc Skinner’s squad something they desperately needed: a platform.
Into that context walks Simi Awujo, one of the brighter sparks in a difficult opening spell. The Canada international scored her first league goal for the club in the loss to London City, a personal milestone wrapped inside a disappointing team result. Now she is pushing to turn those individual flashes into something more substantial, starting with Sheffield United in the cup.
Speaking to the club’s website ahead of the tie, Awujo offered a glimpse of the personality behind the performances – and the role she plays off the ball and off the pitch.
Raised in Georgia, she grew up learning Spanish and has quietly used that skill to help knit together a multilingual dressing room.
“Yeah, Medi’s (Andrea Medina) quite out there,” she said. “I think it seemed quite easy for her to just mesh with everyone because she's just a good personality – lots of fun! But yeah, I do speak Spanish. I would say I'm proficient, I wouldn't say fully fluent just because I've never lived there or anything.”
It is more than a party trick. For new arrivals like Medina and Rebeca Bernal, language can be a barrier. Awujo has turned it into a bridge.
“But I can have conversations with Medi and Rebe (Rebeca Bernal) as well now, in Spanish,” she added.
Her Spanish began in the classroom, then grew through television and the kind of everyday exposure that slowly turns vocab lists into real dialogue. Now, in Manchester, that background feeds directly into team chemistry. In a season where United are trying to rediscover their collective edge, those small connections matter.
On the pitch, the task is clear. United came agonisingly close to lifting the League Cup last season before Chelsea shut the door in the final. That defeat still lingers, and Awujo made it plain that the ambition has not dimmed.
“As professionals that's always the goal, to win as much as you can – I don't think any of that has changed,” she said. “Obviously, we're not in Champions League this year, the FA Cup hasn't started so I guess in terms of winning silverware the Players Cup is our focus as well as the league right now. Then obviously when the FA Cup comes around the same will apply for that, we're always striving to win the most games and win as much silverware as possible.”
No European football. No FA Cup yet. The League Cup, and the league campaign alongside it, carry extra weight. A deep run here would not just bring the chance of a trophy; it would help reset a season that has started with more questions than answers.
There is one more twist for Awujo. The Sheffield United tie falls on her birthday. A first League Cup outing of the season, a chance to build on her first league goal, and a knockout competition that United desperately want to reclaim as their own.
For a team still searching for lift-off, it is the kind of night that can change the tone of a campaign – or leave it stuck in doubt.
