Barca make up for lost time
Barcelona women unbeaten at the European winter break
In the vast Barcelona Museum at Camp Nou there is a solitary case devoted to futbol femení with photographs, trophies and a brief outline of the club’s history. If it seems an afterthought, until recently so did the team.
Though founded in 1970 and an inaugural member of the Spanish league in 1988, the women’s team was not fully incorporated into the club until 2002, at which time they were in the second tier. Promotion, relegation and a further promotion followed until, in 2012, they finally won the league.
While that was the first of four successive titles, Athletic Bilbao and then Atletico Madrid usurped their crown, and it is only in the last few years that the
Catalans have really decided to push their women’s team.
First they made statement signings, notably Brazil’s Andressa Alves, Lieke Martens of Holland, England’s Toni Duggan and Elise Bussaglia of France. Their ranks bolstered, they began to make an impact in Europe, reaching the Champions League semi-finals in 2017 and the 2019 Final.
This season they began by crushing a new challenge, with the arrival in the women’s game of Real Madrid.
Los Merengues are currently playing under the name of CD Tacon – the newly-promoted side that Real took over control of last year – they play in white, are based at Real’s training ground and are Real Madrid in all but name, a fact underlined when they signed Swedish World Cup stars Kosovare Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson.
The teams met on the opening day of the new campaign and Barca, ensconced in the new Estadio Johan Cruyff, thumped their historic rivals 9-1. They followed that up by beating champions Atletico Madrid 6-1, despite conceding in the second minute, and reached the winter break unbeaten, with 12 wins in 13 games.
Spain international Jennifer Hermoso, re-signed during the summer from Atletico, led the way for Barca with 15 goals, while Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala and new Norwegian recruit Caroline Graham Hansen scored another 15 between them.
Atletico were second, five points adrift, but they fell further behind in January, held at Rayo Vallecano while Barca won 3-0 at Bilbao in front of 32,068 at San Mames. If the title continues to drift away, at least Atletico will have a chance of revenge in the Champions League as the Spanish pair have been drawn together in the quarter-finals, when Atleti will be able to field new recruit Deyna Castellanos, the 20-year-old Venezuelan controversially nominated in the three-woman shortlist for FIFA Best in 2017 while still an uncapped student.
As for Tacon, they went into the new year just below mid-table with 13 points from as many games, before Barcelona provided another reality check as they won the January return fixture 6-0 with Oshoala scoring four.
If Tacon are looking for inspiration they can find it elsewhere in Iberia. The women’s team of Portuguese giants Benfica, who are in only their second season, marked their debut campaign by winning promotion and the Portuguese Cup, and this term they went into the winter break leading champions Sporting.
Spain aside, the major leagues took a break with the usual suspects in charge; Arsenal, Wolfsburg, Juventus and Lyon are all on course to retain their titles.
In England the biggest developments were off the pitch. Nick Cushing, who has led Manchester City to one league title, two FA Cups and three League Cups announced he was quitting to become assistant coach at MLS men’s club New York City. Days earlier Chelsea gave a debut to their Australian superstar Sam Kerr. She missed a gilt-edged chance in the first minute, but looked sharp in a 3-1 win over Reading. Just ahead of City and Arsenal, as the WSL resumed, were defending champions Arsenal.
While Kerr and Castellanos were the most eye-catching early moves of the January window, also notable was Izzy Christiansen’s return to England from Lyon in a coup for Everton.
Her old club are on course for a 14th successive French title, going into the break with a five-point lead over customary challengers Paris Saint-Germain, with a goalless draw at Dijon their only blemish so far.
Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich have occupied the top two places in the Germany for the last five seasons, with the former champions the last three years, but there is a new
It is only in the last few years the Catalans have really decided to push their women’s team
contender this campaign: Hoffenheim. Just as the men’s team progressed from fifth tier to first after Dietmar Hopp invested in 2000, so did the women’s after being founded in 2007. After a string of mid-table finishes they went into the break in second place, three points behind Wolfsburg who they host when the league resumes on February 14.
No Italian club has gone beyond the quarter-finals in the Champions League, although Bardolino (now Verona) were semi-finalists in its precursor, the UEFA Women’s Cup, in 2008. But all that may change after Italy’s legalisation of professional women’s football.
Previously there was a salary cap limiting brokentime and expenses payments to €60 a week and €77 match bonuses. With the cap’s removal and an allocated €11million over three years to facilitate the transition, the move is likely to result in those Serie A men’s clubs still without a female section developing one, and the arrival of more higher-standard foreign players.
At present, Serie A teams are unable to compete in the market with the likes of Lyon, Chelsea and Barcelona – but given the lustre and financial power of clubs such as Juventus and Milan they should be able to do so in the future.
FOUR BIDS FOR 2023 FINALS Australia and New Zealand have bid to become the first joint Women’s World Cup hosts. They will face competition to stage the 2023 finals – the first with 32 teams – from Brazil, Colombia and Japan, with the verdict due in June.
ONLY THORNS FANS TOP TIGRES
Mexico’s Tigres may have lost the apertura title to local rivals Monterrey but they can claim to be the secondbest supported women’s team of 2019, behind only Portland Thorns.
In a dozen games across the regular and post-season, Tigres drew an average 18,573 – capped by the 41,615 who saw the neighbours draw 1-1 in the post-season Final first leg. Monterrey won the second leg 1-0 in front of 38,251 to take the title.
Thorns averaged 20,098 in their dozen NWSL matches.
SACRAMENTO ON HOLD
NWSL will remain at nine clubs for 2020 after an attempt to launch a franchise in Sacramento ran out of time. It now seems likely a team from the Californian capital will join in 2021. along with Kentucky’s Proof Louisville FC.
Amanda Duffy, who has effectively been running NWSL as president and MD, is leaving to lead Orlando Pride as executive VP. Utah Royals’ English coach Laura Harvey has left to become USA under-20 coach.
NORTH KOREA OPT OUT
North Korea withdrew from the final round of Olympic qualifying in South Korea. This followed the collapse of a proposed joint-bid to host World Cup 2023 by two nations who remain technically at war.
US PAIR TRANSFORM WANDERERS DOWN UNDER
Western Sydney Wanderers, last term’s bottom team, were surprise front-runners in the W-League with 16 points from a possible 18 before a 4-0 home loss to Brisbane Roar. Their revival is spearheaded by USA internationals Lynn Williams and Kristen Hamilton, both on loan from NWSL champions North Carolina Courage. Last season’s Grand Final runners-up Perth Glory, struggling to deal with the absence of Sam Kerr, took two points from their opening seven matches.
RANGERS MAKE INVESTMENT
Rangers appointed former French men’s international Gregory Vignal as coach and made a raft of full-time signings including luring Emma Brownlie (Everton) and Kirsten Reilly (Bristol City) back across the border and keeper Jenna Fife from Hibernian.
Fife was one of several departures from the SWPL cup winners who were also runners-up in both SWPL and Scottish Cup, culminating in the exit of coach Grant Scott, while Edinburgh rivals Hearts were promoted.