This week, we review friendlies last week involving the U.S. and Mexican National Women's Team. We also look at women's football in Argentina, where River Plate won the 2017 championship and a berth in the next Copa Libertadores Feminina, and a few Argentinians have been successful with teams outside of the country. There is also a summary of the group stage of Brazil's women's league in 2017.
USWNT and Mexico friendlies
On June 12, the U.S. defeated Norway 1-0 in Sandefjord on Christen Press's goal (from Becky Sauerbrunn's long pass) in the 60th minute. Press, who plays with Chicago Red Stars, helped the U.S. mirror their 1-0 result over Sweden in Gothenburg three days earlier. The game attracted 3,866 fans to the 6,000 seat stadium. The Americans had an 11-4 advantage for shots, but tied Norway for shots on goal 1-1, while the Norwegians had more corner kicks (6-4) and fouls (9-6). Norway, the eleventh highest ranked National Team by FIFA, now has a 19-2-29 (W-T-D) all-time record against the U.S.
Match: U.S. Women's National Team vs. Norway Women's National Team
Date: June 11, 2017
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: Komplett Arena; Sandefjord, Norway
Lineups:
USA : 1-Alyssa Naeher; 5-Kelley O'Hara (8-Julie Ertz, 83), 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (capt.), 14-Casey Short, 6-Abby Dahlkemper; 16-Rose Lavelle (10-Carli Lloyd, 86), 20-Allie Long, 3-Samantha Mewis, 7-Meghan Klingenberg (9-Lindsey Horan, 46); 19-Crystal Dunn, 23-Christen Press
Subs not used: 2-Sydney Leroux, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 18-Abby Smith
Not available: 22-Mallory Pugh
Head Coach: Jill Ellis
NOR: 1-Ingrid Hjelmseth; 6-Maren Mjelde (capt.), 11-Nora Holstad Berge, 2-Ingrid Wold, 8-Andrine Hegerberg (3-Maria Thorisdottir, 75), 19-Ingvild Isaksen (13-Guro Reiten, 82), 20-Emilie Haavi (17-Kristine Minde, 59), 28-Ingrid Marie Spord (21-Lisa-Marie Karlseng, 75), 9-Elise Thorsnes, 10-Caroline Hansen, 14-Ada Hegerberg
Subsnot used: 7-Kristine Bjørdal Leine, 12-Cecilie Fiskerstrand, 16-Tuva Hansen, 22-Anja Sønstevold, 25-Synne Jensen
Head Coach:Martin Sjögren
Norway Women's National Team Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (2): 1-Ingrid Hjelmseth (Stabæk Fotball), 12-Cecilie Fiskerstrand (LSK Kvinner FK)
DEFENDERS (7): 3-Maria Thorisdottir (Klepp IL), 6-Maren Mjelde (Chelsea FC, ENG), 7-Kristine Bjørdal Leine (Røa IL), 11-Nora Holstad Berge (FC Bayern Munich, GER), 16-Tuva Hansen (Klepp IL), 22-Anja Sønstevold (LSK Kvinner FK), 30-Ingrid Schjelderup (Eskilstuna, SWE)
MIDFIELDERS (8): 2-Ingrid Wold (LSK Kvinner FK), 8-Andrine Hegerberg (Birmingham City, ENG), 13-Guro Reiten (LSK Kvinner FK), 17-Kristine Minde (Linköping FC, SWE), 19-Ingvild Isaksen (Stabæk Fotball), 20-Emilie Haavi (Boston Breakers, USA), 26-Karina Sævik (Kolbotn IL), 28-Ingrid Marie Spord (LSK Kvinner FK)
FORWARDS (5): 9-Elise Thorsnes (Avaldsnes IL), 10-Caroline Hansen (WfL Wolfsburg, GER), 14-Ada Hegerberg (Olympique Lyonnais, FRA), 25-Synne Jensen (Stabæk Fotball), 21-Lisa-Marie Karlseng (Utland Røa IL)
For Norway, defender Maren Mjelde (114 caps) plays in England with Chelsea and midfielder Andrine Hegerberg plays with Birmingham City. Emilie Haavi is in her first season with Boston in the NWSL and now has 60 caps and 15 goals. She has only played two games for Boston this season as she broke her jaw in preseason training and sat out most of the first stage of the season to recover.
Two other Norwegians play in Germany, two play in Sweden, while one is in France—Andrine Hegerberg's sister Ada, who plays with Lyon and won a Women's Champions League title last month. Ada Hegerberg was named UEFA's Best Women's Player in 2016 and the BBC's Women's Footballer of the Year. The other 14 players are based with clubs at home in the Toppserien league. Head Coach Martin Sjogren of Sweden was named Norway's coach in December, 2016 and won Damallsvenskan titles with Malmo (2) and Linkopings (1) last season.
In another friendly involving a CONCACAF team, Mexico defeated Venezuela 3-0 in Monterrey on June 10, with goals from Charlyn Corral (Levante Spain), Stephany Mayor (Thor, Iceland) and Kenti Robles (Atletico Madrid), all between the 50th and 60th minute. We will look more at Robles league in Spain, where she won a league title with Atletico Madrid this past season, in a feature in the weeks to come.
River Plate Wins Title in Argentina, with Boca Juniors Second—Brazil Group Stage Ends with 8 Advancing to the Knockout Stage
Argentina's league came down to the final game of the 2017 season with traditional men's powerhouses River Plate and Boca Juniors contesting the women's Primera A league crown. Entering their last games of the season on the weekend of June 17-18, River Plate had a slim one point advantage over Boca Juniors (58 vs. 57 points) with last year's champion UAI Urquiza five further points behind Boca on 52 points.
River Plate clinched the league title and a berth in the 2017 Libertadores Cup Feminine for the continental title with a 6-0 road win at Huracan. Boca effectively lost the title on June 3 when they could only gain one point at home against USI Urquiza in a 2-2 tie.
Last season, UAI Urquiza pipped Boca Juniors by 5 points to take the crown. Urquiza was undefeated with a 16-2-0 record for 50 points to Boca's 14-3-1 record for 45 points, with River Plate third at 13-3-2 on 42 points. However, UAI Urquiza did not make it out of their Copa Libertadores Feminina group, finishing third with 4 points after losing to host Colon of Uruguay 2-1, defeating Universitario of Peru 2-0 and tying Sportivo Limpeno of Paraguay 2-2.
The Paraguayan side won Group A with Colon second and went on to win the continental title with a 2-1 defeat of Estudiantes de Guarico of Venezuela, while Foz Catarates of Brazil—Foz do Iguazu is a border city in the South of Brazil near Iguazu Falls and borders both Northwestern Argentina and Eastern Paraguay—took third in the Copa Libertadores after besting Colon on penalties 3-1 after a 0-0 deadlock.
In 2016, after San Lorenzo finished fourth (12-2-4 for 38 points) in the Argentinian league, the fifth place side UBA had 9 losses and only 19 points—half of San Lorenzo's total—indicating that the Argentinian league had quite a gap between the top four and the other six teams. The league expanded to 12 teams in 2017 from 10 in 2016 by adding Villa San Carlos (5th in 2017), Atlanta (10th) and El Porvenir (11th) and suspending relegation for a year.
Although there is still a gap between fourth place San Lorenzo (47 points) and fifth place Villa San Carlos (32) with one game left, the four additional games per team seems to have helped improve the goal difference for teams placed fifth through tenth—ranging from -8 to -34 in 2017, compared to -22 to -61 in 2016. Independiente finished bottom both seasons and will now be relegated without any further expansion.
(San Lorenzo won the 2015 title with UAI Urquiza second).
Argentina made the Women's World Cup in 2003 and 2007 but have yet to post a point. They were seen as the second best side in CONMEBOL to Brazil for years (9th in the latest FIFA rankings of women's national teams) but have been eclipsed in CONMEBOL by Colombia (22) and Venezuela (60) and are now ranked 115th, having not played in over 18 months, though Chile, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Bolivia are in a similar position, along with a number of countries from other federations.
Argentina have always had individual talent including forward Estafania Banini, who was with the Washington Spirit in the NWSL which lost the 2016 final on penalties. Banini (27) had two seasons in D.C. though she had some injuries which kept her on the sidelines at times.
Banini now plays in Spain with Valencia along with Marianela Szymanowski, who was raised in Spain and played for a number of clubs in their Primera Division Femenina de Futbol. Interestingly, Valencia had two Chileans: goalkeeper Christiane Endler who won a Copa Libertadores title with Colo Colo in 2012 and then had a short spell with Chelsea, and Yanara Aedo, a talented attacking midfielder with the Washington Spirit Reserves, who won a title in the last year of the USL in 2015 and arguably was the league's best player during the playoffs.
Argentinian international midfielder Mariela Coronel played for Atletico Madrid and CD Transportes Alicane (now Zaragoza) in the top league but is now with Madrid Second Division side CFF. Argentina's 32 year old international forward Andrea Ojeda—formerly of Boca Juniors and who played for her country in the 2007 World Cup and 2008 Olympics—is now with Fundacion Albacete in Spain.
The most acclaimed Argentinian player at the current time playing outside of her country is playing in Brazil with Santos. Florencia Soledad Jaimes tied for first in the first round with 13 goals in 14 group matches (the first round) of the 2017 Campeonato Brasileiro Feminino. Byanca Brasil of Corinthians of Sao Paulo also had 13 goals while Darlene of Rio Preto and Gabriela of Corinthians were tied for third with 11 goals. Raquel of Ferroviaria was fifth in scoring with 9 goals. Carola of Audax and 30 year old Hilda Veronica Riveros of Paraguay and Foz Cataratas each had 8 goals and were tied for sixth—the latter was the only other import besides Soledad Jaimes among the top 16 goal scorers.
Foz Catarates, who did so well in last year's Copa Libertadores Feminine, just missed the Brazilian championship quarterfinals this year, finishing fifth in Group 2, one point behind Ferroviaria. Of the 16 teams in the Brazilian championship, Corinthians of Sao Paulo won Group 1 with a 12-1-1 record for 37 points, with Iranduba (Amazonas region—outside of Manaus), Kindermann (Cacadorin of Santa Catarina State in the South) and Osasco Audax (Greater Sao Paulo) advancing to the quarterfinals. Santos (Sao Paulo State) won Group 2 with a 11-1-2 record for 34 points, with Rio Preto (Sao Jose do Rio Preto in Sao Paulo State), Flamengo (Rio de Janeiro) and Ferroviaria (Araraquara in Sao Paulo State) moving on.
The playoffs in Brazil—two-leg quarterfinals, semifinal and final will continue through the middle of next month and Tribal Football.com will keep their readers updated.
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
