This week, we talk to the coach of BIIK- Kazygurt in Kazakhstan—Kaloyan Petkov—who led his team to a stunning 3-1 first leg victory at home over Barcelona in the Round of 32 in the Women's Champions League. We also examine the report that Barcelona asked their Federation to postpone its league match the following weekend because a number of their players had intestinal issues. We also look at the NWSL Playoffs, with North Carolina Courage crowning their record breaking season with the League Championship Title.

BIIK-Kazygurt Earns Deserved 3-1 WCL First League Victory in Shymkent over Barcelona.

Two weeks ago, when reviewing the UEFA Women's World Cup Finalists, we talked about the importance of strong club sides in Eastern Europe, who have built a pedigree through extended runs in the Women's Champions League, developing the game in their nations and ultimately their national teams (http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/the-week-in-women-s-football-the-lowdown-on-uefa-women-s-world-cup-qualifying-4247822).Then last week, in the first leg of the Women's Champions League Round of 32 on September 12, we saw no better example of that then BIIK-Kazygurt of Kazakhstan's 3-1 home leg win over Barcelona of Spain, who for the last three years have made the Women's Champions League Quarterfinals, with a Semifinal appearance in 2016-17—on all three occasions they fell to French teams Paris St. Germain or Olympique Lyon. Tribal Football.com talked exclusively to BIIK-Kazygurt's head coach Kaloyan Petkov, who in his six seasons with the club, which has made the Round of 32 in the last 5 seasons, with Round of 16 appearances during the last two campaigns in 2016-17 and 2017-18. This win over Barcelona could arguably be viewed as the club's greatest ever triumph.

Kaloyan Petkov, a native of Bulgaria, has coached in the United States and Russia and just received his UEFA PRO Coaching License; Petkov has always imported a considerable number of talented players from abroad (primarily Eastern European nations, the United States and Africa) to boost the relatively small number of domestic players. This year he has three imports from the U.S., three from other Eastern European nations (one each from Georgia, Russia and the Ukraine) and three from Africa. Petkov talked about his club's 3-1 win over Barcelona and what it meant to women's soccer development in Kazakhstan. Their first tally came from Alexia Putellas of Barcelona's own goal during a goalmouth scramble—Petkov said they had practiced set pieces in preparation for the game—and then BIIK doubled the margin in the 49^th minute through Uganda's Fazila Ikwaput—who scored from near the touchline on the right wing from an nearly impossible angle that nicked the far post—and then Ikwaput fed Gulnara Gabelia, the veteran Georgian international, on a breakaway for the third goal on the hour mark. England international forward Toni Duggan, in her second season in Spain, pulled an important goal back for Barca in the 66^th minute, which could be a lifesaver if they score 2 goals and hold the Kazakhstan champions goalless in the return leg in Spain, then Barcelona would advance on that single away goal. Petkov felt that Kazakh goalkeeper and Captain Oksana Zheleznyak was vital for the club, making 8 saves in total, particularly in the first half to stymie Barcelona. Petkov said: "After the third goal we tried to close down the midfield but in the second half we had two more good chances to score…A lot of people didn't think that we could score against Barcelona. There was a big celebration after the game from the club record 3,000 fans who were very happy, many of whom were seeing their first ever women's football game. They couldn't believe that a team from Kazakhstan could beat Barcelona."

Petkov hopes that this win will help the domestic league grow, which this season only has 5 teams who compete for one WCL spot, so good players on other teams tend to gravitate to BIIK. BIIK Kazygurt currently leads the table after 8 games with 24 points while Okzhetpes has played 7 games and has 15 points; BIIK has defeated Okzhetpes by 2-0 and 1-0 scores so far this season. ODYuSSH 2 (6 points), SDYuShOR 7-BIIK (6 points) and Namys (0 points) trail in the table, with Namys scoring only 1 goal with 31 against in six games. Petkov hopes to have 10 teams in the league next season. With a squad of 25 players, he typically uses his first squad, including his imports, only in Women's Champions League matches and in practice games against boys' teams. BIIK's second squad competes in the league matches because the quality of the league is so much lower.

He is considering playing in the Baltic League next year. His plan, before the Group Stages of the 2019-20 WCL if they indeed win the league again this season, is to go to Vilnius, Lithuania and play Gintra and some other Baltic League sides. The Women's Baltic Football League is an international women'sfootball league which began in 2017 with the two top teams in Estonia's Meistriliiga, Latvia's Sieviešu Ligas and Lithuania's A Lyga competing in a round robin format, with no fixtures between teams from within Lithuania, Latvia, etc. In 2017, Gintra finished first with 12 points while Parnu of Estonia was second on 9 points. BIIK, a four hour flight from Vilnius, would only play away matches and not host home games because of travel costs for the other teams, but Petkov is looking for improved competition and all the teams in these three countries are either WCL veterans or attempting to be. FC Minsk of Belarus joined for the 2018 season and at this point are leading the table by six points over Gintra, though they have played 5 games to 4 for Gintra.

Petkov also wants to see more development of facilities for women's teams—his club has the best women's stadium and facilities in the region and better than many men's Kazakh clubs—across Europe. Even in Western European countries, they have experienced subpar facilities for WCL matches; when they played in Scotland last year against Glasgow City in the WCL Round of 32, Petkov said that the lights standards "were 5 meters from the ground, were not certified and their field was like playing in a parking lot."

One unsettling situation came up after Barcelona's return home from their WCL first leg loss in Kazakhstan, which unfortunately has taken a shine off the celebrations for BIIK and the nation in general. Barcelona was to play Levante at home on Sunday September 16 in the Liga Iderdrola (Spain's top league) following their road trip to Kazakhstan, but the Federation postponed the match. Spanish newspaper Marca's website said: "Several members of the Catalan club's Barcelona Femeni side had come down with a case of gastroenteritis during their midweek Champions League trip to Kazakhstan. The club presented a report of the various cases of sickness to the federation and it was agreed that the game should be postponed." By the following Tuesday (September 18) the club was back to training and nothing else was mentioned about the illnesses.

This has ramifications beyond moving a league match to later in the season. Coach Petkov was concerned and checked with the hotel where Barcelona had stayed the day that the story came out: the Rixos Shymkent in the southern city of Shymkent. Hotel officials were aggrieved by the news and published a response in Russian saying that they took special care of the team and received no reported cases of illness by any guest during the time they were in Kazakhstan. Indeed, at the same time that Barcelona was staying at the hotel—noted by many travelers as the best in the country—Kazakhstan's Prime Minister, in town for meetings, stayed there. On the club side, BIIK provided a car for the Barcelona coaching staff, a bus for the team to use, a dedicated police officer with the Spanish side, a Spanish-speaking liaison from his coaching staff and even had bottled water for the team at practices and games. Barcelona didn't blame anyone but presented information on the player's health to the Federation in their request to reschedule the game. The Barca players could have become ill on the flight home, but no matter where or how the players contacted their illness, the implication that many have jumped to is that they became sick in the country without presenting any definitive proof, and it is an easy leap to the notion that Kazakhstan is not safe. Petkov saw a Russian Sports website headline on Saturday, September 15^th that simply said: "Barcelona; poisoned in Kazakhstan." Petkov told TribalFootball.com: "This is very bad for us. This puts the country of Kazakhstan and the club in a bad light and could hurt our chances to recruit international players in the future as well as to host a WCL Group." BIIK has been unsuccessful in bidding to host one of the ten Women's Champions League Qualifying Groups with three other clubs. These reports could result in UEFA not hosting international club games in the country for years to come. The onus is on BIIK to disprove the headlines, because Barcelona has a global name and cache. What we do know is that Barcelona lost 3-1 to a vibrant BIIK side in front of a record crowd and videos of the match show that the Spanish side played quickly and with skill, and even had much more of the play in the first half. This news puts an undeserved varnish on a landmark victory for the club and Eastern Europe in the Champions League. Petkov adds: "We had played a strong game against a big club. These charges are not fair." TribalFootball.com reached out to Barcelona and the Spanish Football Federation for comment but had not received any comments by press time.

NWSL Playoffs—North Carolina Courage win the Title over host side Portland.

The North Carolina Courage became the first side to win the NWSL Shield as regular season champion and playoff championship title in the six year history of the professional league with a 3-0 victory of the Portland Thorns on September 22^nd. The Courage lost only one game in 24 regular season matches, 2 international exhibition games and two NWSL playoff matches, and capped an amazing season where they scored a league record 53 goals and allowed only 17, leading the other eight clubs in both categories. Brazilian international Debinha opened the scoring in the 13^th minute with her 9^th goal of the year. American international Jess McDonald scored from Jaelene Hinkle's cross to double the score in the 40^th minute. McDonald scored her third of the playoffs and 10^th goal of the year in the 64^th minute to seal the win for the Courage. It was North Carolina's fourth victory of the season over Portland, who saw a sellout crowd of 21,144 go home disappointed. North Carolina now has tied Portland with two victories in the NWSL title game (their first in 2016 when they were still based in Rochester/Buffalo, New York as the Western New York Flash).

On September 15^th, in the first semifinal for the 2018 NWSL playoffs, the Portland Thorns advanced to the league final, defeating the Seattle Reign 2-1 for the second time in 8 days. The Thorns 3-1 victory on September 7^th clinched second place for the side and the chance to host the semifinal. Seattle dominated the first half and Jasmyne Spencer scored late in the first half (her second goal of the season), but the margin could have been greater if Adrianna Franch had not made several difficult saves in the Thorns net. Portland went into half-time deadlocked thanks to Tobin Heath scoring from a sharp feed by fellow U.S. international Lindsey Horan, Heath's eighth goal of the year. In a very physical second half, Horan scored the winner in the 77^th minute on a header from a short feed by Canadian international Christine Sinclair. Horan now has 14 goals on the year. Portland is in the NWSL Champions game for a record third time, after winning both previous occasions in 2013 and 2017.

In the second semifinal, held two days later, also at Providence Park in Portland, North Carolina because of the severe floods from Hurricane Florence, shutout the Chicago Red Stars 2-0 to advance to their third consecutive League Title Match, and a repeat of last year's game where they lost in Orlando to Portland 1-0. Jess McDonald scored her eighth goal in 2018 with Sam Mewis scoring her fourth of the year. Crystal Dunn assisted on both goals watched before a neutral field crowd of 4,646. Canadian international Sabrina D'Angelo posted the shutout in her first start sincethe team captured the inaugural Women's International Champions Cup on July 29 in Miami. Last year, North Carolina defeated Chicago 1-0 at the same stage of the playoffs and Chicago has now lost in the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season.

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 Twitter: @TimGrainey