We also review the 2024 CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores Femenina, which saw Corinthians of Brazil win a fifth continental title, but the tournament received many complaints from players, team staff and reporters for logistic issues in Paraguay. And during a NWSL Championship presser, TribalFootball.com had the opportunity to ask Brazilian superstar Marta (38) if she would still consider playing for the host nation at the 2027 WWC and her response was quite interesting.
Review of Netflix Documentary on the Turmoil surrounding Jenni Hermoso and the Spain’s WNT 2023 Women’s World Cup Triumph
Netflix released a documentary on November 1, 2024 entitled: “It’s All Over: The Kiss that Changed Spanish Football,” which focused on the pressure that Jenni Hermoso faced after then Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) President Luis Rubiales kissed her full on the lips during the Gold Medal award ceremony after the 2023 WWC Final in Sydney. A number of the national team players were interviewed for the documentary, and provided their perspective on the duress that Jenni was under from Federation officials to say that the kiss was consensual and absolve their Commandante Rubiales from the global rebuke that was growing after the team returned home.
It also depicted the many examples of abuse and disrespect that the WNT has faced going back years. Jenni Hermoso was featured as well as 2023 WWC Golden Ball winner Aitama Bonmati, Alexia Putellas, Ivana Andres, Irene Paredes, Teresa Abelliera, Laia Codina, Sandra Panos, Lola Gallardo, Olga Carmona—who scored the winning goals in the semifinal and final, from her left back position—and former WNT player Vero Boquette, who played for a few years in the NWSL with the Utah Royals.
It is hugely unfortunate that this incident and the RFEF’s continued disrespect of the WNT overshadowed the team’s tremendous success last year in winning the World title after only two previous WWC Finals appearances: in Canada in 2015, when they did not advance from the Group Stage and then losing in the Round of 16 in France in 2019. The 2015 team was featured as well because they highlighted the previous head coach, Igancio Quesada, who coached the national team for almost three decades. Goalkeeper Lola Gallardo explained: “He treated us as if we were his little girls.”
Vero Boquette also said: “The first thing that comes to mind are those technical sessions with 12 players on the white board. That didn’t happen just once or twice,” as his tactical sessions portrayed 12 players on the team—even though one of those couldn’t play but it seemed pointless to point that out to him.
That led to the next head coach after Quesada finally left in 2015—Jorge Vilda—who wasn’t really an improvement but had a close relationship with Rubiales, who liked to give bizarre pep talks to the players. Olga Carmona talked about Rubiales addressing the team before the Sweden semifinal: "(Rubiales being) there on an everyday basis was new for us. It was common with the boys, but for the girls, not so much.”
That was the meeting where Rubiales tries to motivate the team by screaming “Who is smarter (us or Sweden)? When the response was muted, he asked again and then went onto: “Who has more ovaries—us or them?”
Aitana Bonmati was bemused when re-watching his rant and said that: “It just went in one ear and out the other.”
In a press conference in September 2022, after he had omitted 15 players who complained after the 2022 EURO Finals side, Vilda said: “I challenge anyone to come out and say there hasn’t been respect or that there’s been a bad mark in my behaviour with them (the players) in all my career.”
Putellas said: “Jorge was in charge of everything. He wanted to control everything.” Vero Boquete added: “When you end up in a national team with demanding players, you’re scared of what they’re going to do. He was afraid we would speak out so that’s why he wanted control over us.”
Vilda tried to pit players against each other and used the historic divisions between Barcelona and Real Madrid players—for years so prevalent on the men’s side—in order to maintain his control of the side. In terms of teaching the players tactics and applying various team strategies, he was seen as poorly as was Quesada, even though he seemed to understand that only 11 players should be on the field at any one time. After watching the documentary, I have to ask again—what was Morocco thinking by hiring him last October as their WNT head coach after being out of a job less than a month, after Spain’s RFEF was forced to fire him after all the uproar against him.
Morocco’s exuberant Women’s African Cup of Nations second place finish at home in 2022 under then head coach Reynald Pedros of France followed by advancing to the Round of 16 in Australia/New Zealand in dramatic fashion—having to wait out the last few minutes of Germany’s 1-1 tie with Korea Republic—was one of the enduring stories of the last WWC cycle. They lost to France in their Round of 16 game (4-0), but with Pedros and so many players on their side having played in France, it was a very friendly and positive match. Hiring Vilda to me torches so much of that good will. If they don’t win the title at the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations next July in Morocco, they have the perfect excuse to ditch him. (Even if they win, I could argue for a change of coaches for so many reasons).
Irene Paredes (33), with over a century of caps since 2011, explained the conditions that the WNT faced over the years: “Between games, we were travelling five hours by bus. We didn’t have our own dressing room. We couldn’t use the gym, the only one we had, because it belonged to the boys, even if they weren’t there. It was a lot of things.”
Rubiales was banned by FIFA for three years and will stand trial next year in Spain for sexual assault. Hermoso said: “The fact that all of our team, as well as players from all over the world, were willing to take a stand; that gave me so much strength for everything. I think it gave me a superpower to confront it and keep going.”
Anyone involved in or interested in women’s football should watch this video. It is edifying about how deeply and long the neglect and abuse of the women’s national team in Spain has gone on. It is sad to watch—despite some short game snippets of their journey to the world title—and remembers how Rubiales, Villa and other Federation officials corrupted such a wonderful triumph by a world class team and role models for girls and women everywhere.
2024 Copa Libertadores Femenina Review
2024 Copa Libertadores Femenina was held from October 3-19 in three cities in Paraguay, with 16 club sides from the 10 CONMEBOL federations, for the 16th edition of the annual tournament. Brazil and host side Paraguay each had three participants, Chile and Colombia each sent two teams, while the other six nations sent one team.
In the Group Stage, in Group A, Corinthians and Boca Juniors tied at the top on 7 points, with the Sao Paulo side finishing in first on goal difference (+10 vs. +3). Host nation side Libertad (3 points) and ADIFFEM of Venezuela (0 points) were eliminated.
In Group B, Santos (9 points) and Olimpia of Paraguay (6 points) advanced, while Colo-Colo of Chile (3 points) and Always Ready of Bolivia (0 points) missed the next round—Always Ready scored no goals and surrendered 14 in their three games.
In Group C, Santa Fe of Colombia (5 points) and Dragonas IDV of Ecuador (4 points) advanced over Brazilian side and past two-time Copa winners Ferroviaria (3 points) and Penarol of Uruguay (2 points).
In Group D, without any teams from Brazil or Argentina, Deportivo Cali of Colombia won the group with a perfect record (9 points) while Alianza Lima of Peru was second (6 points) over Santiago Morning of Chile (3 points) and Guarani of Paraguay (0 points).
In the quarterfinals, Corinthians advanced over Olimpia (2-0), Boca Juniors knocked out Santos 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 deadlock, Santa Fe defeated Alianza Lima (2-0) and Dragonas IDV of Ecuador eliminated the other Colombian team to advance from the group stage—Deportivo Cali (3-0). Thus, one side each from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador moved on to the semifinals. At the final four stage, Corinthians defeated Boca Juniors (1-0) while Santa Fe advanced over Dragonas IDV (4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 tie).
In the third place match, Boca Juniors surpassed Dragonas IDV (2-0) while, in the Final, Corinthians won their fifth continental title after a 2-0 win over Santa Fe.
Corinthians won its second Copa title in a row, its third in four years and fourth in the last six years. At home they have won the last five Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino titles and are firmly now the most dominant women’s club side in South America at the moment.
Midfielder Gabi Zanotti (39) of Corinthians won the Golden Boot with five goals; she played collegiately at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire and has primarily played at home, along with two years in China at Dalian Quanjian and Jiansu Suning. She had 21 caps and two goals with Brazil’s WNT. She won a Pan American Games Gold Medal in Canada in 2015 after playing in the WWC earlier that summer, also in Canada.
Nayely Bolanos (21) of Dragonas IDV of Ecuador and Ketlen (32) of Santos of Brazil finished tied for second with four goals. Bolanos has scored seven goals in 11 full national team matches. She could soon be headed overseas in the next year or two, or even up the road to Mexico, with her solid goal-scoring record. Ketlen is also a full international who played a few matches in Sweden with Vittsjo and one game in the NWSL in 2015 with the now defunct Boston Breakers. She has been at Santos since 2015 and this is her eleventh consecutive season with the club.
Unfortunately, the tournament in Paraguay did have some issues and it didn’t help attendances that only one local team made the knockout stage. According to The Guardian, the Corinthians posted on social media after their tournament title victory: “We won, but not everything is a party. Last-minute venue changes, lack of publicity, poor pitches, risk of injury, having only 20 players, games every three days, empty stadiums, no warm-ups allowed on the pitch, inadequate infrastructure … it is disrespectful.”
To be fair to CONMEBOL—which is headquartered in Paraguay—heavy rains disrupted the tournament and games were delayed and even alternated around the four venues to preserve the pitches (with little overall improvement in the field conditions): Estádio Arsenio Erico and Defensores del Chaco in Asunción, Estádio Carfem in Ypané, and Estádio CONMEBOL in Luque. The Carfem and Arsenio Erico stadiums were set to host 14 matches in just 10 days. It must be noted that CONMEBOL moved the tournament from the original host nation Uruguay to Paraguay just 36 days before the start and tickets went on sale a day before the opener—another logistics problem.
On the issue that teams could only bring 20 players (though it was two more than the 18 for the Olympics but below the WWC Finals’ 23 roster limit) Corinthians goalkeeper Lelê was suspended for the semi-final and they had only Nicole on the bench. If she had been hurt, a field player would have had to step in.
Corinthians head coach Lucas Piccinato, told the Brazilian news website UOL after the final: “The format of the Libertadores (Feminina) does not meet the needs of women’s football. It wears us down with so many games in a short time and deprives us of the large audiences that the men’s Libertadores, played in two legs, can attract.”
Perhaps a change in the format could be that the two Finalists play home and away legs, to help engage two sets of local fans and grow the club game across the continent. We do have to give credit to CONMEBOL for regular hosting a tournament that is still considered fairly minor in awareness, but at least South America was way ahead of Asia and CONCACAF by over a decade, who both just started full Confederation club tournaments this year. This season, of the 16 teams, there were only two debutants.
The tournament is seeing many of the same teams qualify every year—2024 had four past winners accounting for nine titles and two who made a final in the past—denoting that the local leagues throughout South America need more investment and development. Hopefully the CONMEBOL leagues improve in the run-up and after the 2027 WWC in Brazil and we see some more variety among the Copa Libertadores Feminina participants in the years to come.
The 2024 tournament had total prize money available of $3.6 million with $2.05 million going to the winners (Corinthians). Five years ago (in 2019), the combined prize money was $285,000. Five million people across the continent watched the 2023 Final, with 2024 figures not yet available.
Looking at the rosters from the 16 teams, three teams used entirely home-based rosters, while most of the imports came from other countries in South America, with a few from CONCACAF and UEFA.
In Group A, ADIFFEM used an entirely Venezuelan national roster. Libertad was entirely home-based except for two imports from Venezuela. Boca Juniors had one import from Uruguay and one from Japan—forward Yuna Sasaki (21), who joined Boca this year from Essendon Royals in Victoria’s state league in Australia and she previously trained at Urawa Red Diamonds at home.
Corinthians of Brazil utilized two imports from Colombia, including Colombian international defender Daniela Arias (30). She joined Corinthians from America de Cali and played with Pachuca of Mexico in 2022.
In Group B, Club Always Ready of El Alto, Bolivia (a growing suburb high above the capital city of La Paz) had three imports from Colombia. Colo-Colo had one import each from Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay; they also had a Brazilian head coach in Tatiele Silveira (44), who played for Internacional at home and was a head coach at Internacional, Ferroviaria—where she won a national title and was the first women manager to achieve that distinction in Brazil—and Santos in Brazil. Olimpia of Paraguay had two imports—one from Colombia and one from Uruguay.
Santos of Brazil had four imports from neighboring Argentina, including iconic international forward Soledad Jaimes (35)—who has played most of her career in Brazil and spent one season each with Olympique Lyon in France and Napoli in Italy—along with fellow international Yamila Rodriguez (26)—who has finished second in both the 2022 and 2023 tournaments with Boca Juniors and Palmeiras and has 11 goals in 46 internationals. American defender Reina Bonta (25) plays internationally for Philippines and is in her second season at Santos.
Canadian goalkeeper Kelly Chiavaro (28), who plays beach football for Italy at the international level, moved to Brazil to join Flamengo in 2022, then spent the 2023 season with Botafogo and then moved to Santos for this season. She played at Colgate University. Santos also had two imports from Colombia along with Suzane Pires (32), who was born in Brazil but plays internationally for Portugal. She played at the University of Southern Connecticut and for a year with the Boston Breakers in the NWSL in 2015—she has since played primarily for clubs in Brazil as well as Maritimo in Portugal.
In Group C, Penarol of Uruguay used an all-domestic based side, while Ferroviaria of Sao Paulo, Brazil also used an entirely home-based side. Dragonas of Ecuador had two imports from Paraguay, including international defender Veronica Riveros (37), who spent the 2021 season with Napoli in Italy, but has played many years in Brazil, including seven campaigns with Foz Cataratas in Foz de Iguacu—which is just across the river from Eastern Paraguay. Dragonas also utilized one import each from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela
Santa Fe of Colombia utilized five imports from neighbors Venezuela—from where a lot of national team players have departed for their neighbor’s league due to all of the political and economic turmoil at home—along with Paraguayan international forward Gloria Villamayor (32), who played in Mexico at Toluca in 2022-23, and has played in Spain and at home. Former Colombian national team captain and defender Natalia Gaitan (33) is back home after years playing in Spain with Valencia and Sevilla and most recently in Mexico with Tigres UANL in Monterrey. She went to college at the University of Toledo in Ohio and this reporter interviewed her in college and at the 2011 WWC in Germany.
In Group D, Guarani of Paraguay had three imports, including Alana Garcia (35), who played for Argentina’s WNT in 2015 at the Pan American Games Finals. Santiago Morning of Chile had three Brazilians on their side. Alianza of Lima, Peru had four imports from Brazil, three from Venezuela and two from Colombia.
Deportivo Cali of Colombia had two imports—one from Venezuela and one from CONCACAF nation Panama in full international defender Katherine Castillo (28), who is a regular international and was on the side at their debut Women’s World Cup Finals in 2023. She has played at home with Tauro and in Argentina with UAI Urquiza.
Marta could still be available to play for Brazil in the 2027 Women’s World Cup at Home
In late news related to CONMEBOL, on November 22, TribalFootball.com asked six-time WWC Finals star Marta of Brazil if she has considered playing with the national team until the 2027 tournament at home (during the NWSL media conference ahead of the November 23, 2024 NWSL Championship between her Orlando Pride side and the Washington Spirit). Marta will be 41 in three years’ time but scored one of the most amazing goals that I have ever seen in the Pride’s 3-1 semifinal win over Gotham FC last weekend, when her cutback move shook off two defenders and she avoided the goalkeeper to score.
She was clearly emotional by the question and took a few moments to settle herself and then said: “Oh wow, this question. I had a conversation with my national team coach and I was really clear about playing in 2027. I told him it was not my goal any more. But I (am) always available to help the national team. If they think I can still do something during this preparation for the World Cup, yeah I would be happy to help them.
"Not only me but all (of) Brazil is excited to host the Women’s World Cup in 2027.”
It was interesting that the next question came from a Brazilian reporter who was also going to ask about whether she would continue to play for the national team; he had to pivot to a different question. Marta’s response shows that if the national team wants her—and they certainly will if she is still playing at or near the high standard that she showed this year in the NWSL—that she would still play. That is an exciting possibility for all women’s football fans to consider during the next WWC cycle.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey