2025 CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores Femenina
The 2025 CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores Femenina was held from October 2 to 18 in Moron and Banfield, Argentina, with16 teams. Corinthians of Sao Paulo won their sixth title, defeating Deportivo Cali of Colombia 5-3 on penalties following a goalless draw. Ferrovaiaria of Brazil bested Colo-Colo of Chile 1-0 for third place. This was the 17th edition of the annual tournament and Corinthians is the all-time leader in title wins, double the number by Sao Jose of Brazil (3).
In the group stages in Group A, Corinthians and Dragonas IDV of Ecuador advanced to the quarterfinals with seven points each. Santa Fe of Colombia was third with three points and Always Ready of Bolivia had zero points, with zero goals scored while allowing 23, including a 11-0 loss to Corinthians.
In Group B, Ferroviaria of Brazil finished first with seven points, while Boca Juniors of Argentina were second with five points. Third place Alianza Lima of Peru had two points and ADIFFEM of Venezuela with one point were both eliminated from the tournament.
In Group C, Colo-Colo of Chile won the group with nine points while Sao Paulo SC of Brazil was second on six points—Colo-Colo defeated Sao Paulo 1-0 in the crucial match of the group on a 58th minute goal by Mary Valencia (22), who is a full international for Chile after she moved to Santiago at age 11 from Colombia, where she was born—with San Lorenzo of Argentina on three points and Olimpia of Paraguay finishing with zero points for third and fourth place, respectively.
In Group D, Deportivo Cali finished first with seven points while Libertad of Paraguay also qualified for the quarterfinals with three ties (three points), over Nacional of Uruguay (two points) and Universidad de Chile (two points).
In the quarterfinals, the winners all shut out their opponents as Corinthians (4-0 over Boca Juniors), Ferroviaria (3-0 over Dragonas IDV), Deportivo Cali (2-0 over Sao Paulo) and Colo-Colo (1-0 over Libertad) all advanced to the next round.
In the semifinals, both games were decided on penalties. Deportivo Cali advanced over Colo-Colo 5-4 penalties after a 0-0 tie. In an all-Brazilian tie, Corinthians defeated Ferroviaria 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 tie.
In the third place match, Ferroviaria defeated Colo-Colo 1-0 with a goal by defender Katiuscia (Fernandes Soares—31) in the first minute, who joined Ferroviaria in 2024 but missed nine months due to a knee injury. She played for Corinthians from 2018-2023, where she won five league titles as well as a Serie A1 title with Santos in 2017. At Corinthians, she won the Copa Liberatories Femenina in 2019, 2021 and 2023.
Ferroviaria had an all-Brazilian roster while Colo-Colo had three imports: two from Venezuela in midfielder Yusmery Ascanio (34), who been with the team since 2012, and forward Ysaura Viso (32)—who has also played with teams in Mexico (Leon), China (Qinhuangdao Beijing Sport), Colombia and at home—along with Paraguayan youth and senior international midfielder Dahlana Bogarin (26), who has also played in Israel and has been with Colo-Colo since 2022. Their defender, Isabelle Kadzban (23) grew up in the U.S. but is a Chilean international as her mother’s family was from Rapa Nui, known also as Easter Island (see more below).
On October 18, Corinthians won the continental club title again with a 5-3 penalty win over Deportivo Cali after a scoreless draw, their third consecutive Copa. Corinthians had only two imports with one Colombian on their side—senior and youth international Gisela Robledo (24), who formerly played at Deportivo Cali—along with one from Venezuela in senior international Dayana Rodriguez (24), who played last season at Gremio and was previously with Athletico Mineiro in 2022 and 2023.
Deportivo Cali’s roster was all from Colombia, except for Ecuador international goalkeeper Andrea Vera (32), who played in the U.S. in college at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas and the University of Rio Grande in Ohio. I covered FC Indiana for years and remember her when she played in the WPSL in 2016. She also played in Spain and joined Deportivo Cali this year from fellow Copa Libertadores Feminina side Dragonas IDV in Ecuador—also known as Independiente del Valle. She was on the 2015 WWC Finals side in Canada.
Interview with Chilean-American midfielder Isabelle Kadzban of Colo-Colo
On November 21, TribalFootball.com talked exclusively with Isabel “Izzy” Kadzban (23) of Colo-Colo, their American-born forward/midfielder player who has played for Chile’s WNT because of her Rapa Nui (Easter Island) heritage and was the first Rapa Nuito to represent Chile internationally. Rapa Nui has grown in recent years through more immigration, but in 2024 there were only around 8,500 residents on the island.
Izzy Kadzban was born in the State of Michigan and played collegiately at the University of Florida and American University in Washington D.C., where she earned her Master’s degree in Marketing. She played for Chile at the youth team level and scored a goal versus Uruguay from her first-ever shot in her second cap for Chile’s senior WNT. She is in her second stint in Chile’s league after joining Universidad Catolica in 2021. She signed with Colo-Colo last February for the 2025 season.
For this season, Colo-Colo had four new signings, including Kadzban, along with Brazilian Camila Martins (35), who joined from Santos in Sao Paulo state, Colombian international Fabiana Yantén (26), who also joined from Santos where she played on loan from America of Cali and Mary Valencia (see above). There had 13 returnees, promoted three homegrown players to the first team, while eight players from 2024 are no longer with the club.
Izzy Kadzban was rostered for the Colo-Colo’s 2025 Copa Libertadores Femenina Finals tournament (see above), but did not see any action.
She explained: “It was a pretty big year for us. We really wanted to win the Libertadores…for us it was supposed to be a culminating moment because we (Colo-Colo) are in our 100th year and having a Centenario. It would have been nice to bring it home. Our men’s team is struggling a bit (this year—they are eighth in the 16 team table on 41 points (11-8-8) with three games left in the season). This was supposed to be our gift (to the fans). It didn’t turn out how we wanted (it) to but we are still content with how we competed with all of the other South American nations. We’re undefeated in Chile (see more below) but we don’t take it lightly that we are able to compete with Brazilian and Colombian teams as well.”
She thought that, organizationally, the 2025 Copa Libertadores Femenina was the best CONMEBOL tournament that she has played in so far. She concluded by saying: “Our fans were really happy with us but we know that we could have done more, so that’s like where the hurt comes in. It’s kind of bittersweet because we are proud of ourselves, but it was not how we wanted to go out (in fourth place).”
Colo-Colo won the Copa Libertadores Femenina in 2012, finished second twice, in third once and fourth on two occasions, including in 2025.
Colo-Colo has another American diaspora on their team in goalkeeper Ryan “Ryann” Torrero (35), who grew up in California, played at the University of Wyoming and Campbell University in North Carolina and been playing professionally in Chile since 2019. She has one senior cap and was called into the squad for the next Nations Cup matches at the end of November/early December (see more below).
Kadzban has not played a game with Chile’s WNT since 2019 and was last in a camp in 2021. She said that a key reason for joining Colo-Colo was to increase her visibility to Chile’s WNT: “My thought process was our national team watches Colo-Colo play.” Note: For Chile’s next Women’s Nations League matches on November 28 in Peru and December 2 at home versus Paraguay, the 23 player squad was announced on November 17, with nine players based with Colo-Colo, six from other clubs in Chile and eight from clubs abroad in England (1), France (1), Mexico (1), Peru (1) and Spain (4):
She feels that Chile has done a nice job in supporting and developing women’s football. She explained: “I actually think ANFP (Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional—the national football federation) is doing a decent job in how they are handling everything. This is the first year that the league is fully professionalized; every person who plays in it has a contract… They have a plan.”
One area that could be enhanced is on the broadcast side with: “Televising all the games instead of making the clubs responsible for how the games get broadcast. If there was a consistent way to get the broadcasts out, that would be helpful. (It could be) streaming or traditional tv—if the federation had a YouTube channel for broadcasting all the games. Obviously Colo-Colo will broadcast every single game on their YouTube channel but other clubs didn’t broadcast a single game. It would be helpful if the national federation took care of that.”
This is an important point which quite often is relegated in importance compared with the increasing value of women’s professional clubs, effective marketing strategies, longer-term contacts and other issues. Increasing the availability and visibility of women’s football on television is vital to the growth of the game for viewers domestically and internationally. Having a federation sponsored streaming site is a solid recommendation that other nations could implement as well.
It has been a struggle of late to find full matches/highlights for national team and confederation championships in some countries, particularly in Asia, Africa and CONCACAF; thus national and continental associations broadcasting all women’s league games on a set website/channel would be a huge boost to the game.
In the 2025 Campeonato Nacional Futbol Femenino league season, in the first phase, Colo-Colo won all 26 of their regular season games for 78 points, 13 points ahead of second place Universidad de Chile (65 points from a 21-2-3 W-D-L record) in the 14 team league. The top eight teams then went into two leg playoffs for the championship. Colo-Colo won their quarterfinal tie 10-0 on aggregate over Palestino after a pair of 5-0 wins.
In the semifinal, they defeated Coquimbo 2-0 on aggregate, after a pair of 1-0 wins on November 13 and 21. Colo-Colo will play the winner of the Universidad de Chile versus Union Espanola for the championship. Colo-Colo is aiming for its fourth consecutive league title, having won titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Izzy Kadzban has scored four goals in three league matches in 2025. She said that: “Colo-Colo does a good job with everything as an institution—I have been very impressed with them.”
We concluded by talking briefly about women’s football in Rapa Nui. She confirmed that there are no senior club teams for soccer on the island: “If you want to play soccer and be competitive, you have to go to Chile. It is really small. My niece, Vairoa Atan Pate, plays at Audax Italiano. She is the only other Rapa Nui in top flight women’s football in Chile.” Vairoa Atan Pate is in her third season with Audax and has been capped at the U-20 level for Chile. Audax finished bottom of the table in 2025 with only three points from a 0-3-23 record and was relegated to Primera B for 2026. Later, over the holidays, this column will review a new book on women’s football history in Oceania, which reviews each island nation/territory as to their history and support of the women’s game.
2025 U-17 Women’s World Cup Finals Review
The ninth edition of the FIFA U-17 WWC Finals with 16 national teams was held in Morocco from October 17 through November 8. This is the first tournament after FIFA switched the event from every two years to every year, which Morocco will host through 2029.
In Group A, Italy advanced to the knockout stage with three wins (9 points) along with Brazil (4 points), with host side Morocco third (3 points) and Costa Rica fourth (1 point), while the Ticas tied Brazil 1-1 in a surprising result. Lucia Paniagua (15) scored Costa Rica’s goal and plays at home with Sporting; she was the youngest ever player in the CR domestic league (men or women’s) at age 13 in 2023.
In Group B, DPR Korea also won their group undefeated and untied, with Mexico finishing second on six points, Netherlands third with three points and Cameroon finished in fourth with no points, but scored four goals and allowed seven goals, as they lost all three of their matches by a single goal.
In Group C, the U.S. was undefeated with nine points and advanced with China (six points), ahead of Ecuador (three points) and Norway (zero points), which is not a good sign long-term for the latter as their senior side has struggled substantially in EURO and WWC finals for almost a decade. Norway’s U-17’s did not score a goal and allowed 12.
In Group D, Canada won all three matches (9 points), with France second (6 points) and Nigeria third (3 points). Samoa finished fourth (0 points), scoring twice, both coming in their opening match 4-2 loss to France, but allowed 14 goals in their debut U-17 Finals.
In Group E, Spain—which has won the U-17 Women’s World Cup twice, in 2018 and 2022, and finished second in 2014 and 2024—won the group on nine points, ahead of Colombia with six points, while Korea Republic and Ivory Coast were tied for third with one point each and an identical goal differential (-6).
In Group F, Japan and surprising Paraguay finished tied for first with 7 points, with Japan advancing in first with a +5 vs. +4 goal differential. Zambia finished on 3 points, while New Zealand was bottom with 0 points, scoring once and allowing 11 goals. For Paraguay, Claudia Martinez (17) of Olimpia in Asuncion scored three goals in their 4-1 win over New Zealand on October 22. She was a revelation earlier this year at the 2025 Copa America Femenina in Colombia this summer, where she also scored a hat-trick against Bolivia (see: The Week in Women's Football: Exclusive with agent Gkelias on state of women's game; Copa America review - TribalFootball.com).
Four third place teams advanced to the Round of 16: Zambia, Nigeria, Morocco and Netherlands, over Ecuador and Korea Republic, with all the teams finishing the group stage with three points, except for Korea Republic who earned only one point in their three group matches.
In the Round of 16, five teams advanced easily:
Brazil 3 China 0
Canada 6 Zambia 0
DPR Korea 6 Morocco 1
Japan 4 Colombia 0
Italy 4 Nigeria 0
Mexico defeated Paraguay by a single goal (1-0) while two matches were decided on penalties—France (5) Spain (4) after a 0-0 tie and Netherlands (7) U.S. (6) following a 1-1 tie.
In the quarterfinals on November 1 and 2, DPR Korea blasted fellow East Asian side Japan 5-1, with the other three matches going to penalties: Brazil (5) Canada (4) after a scoreless draw, Netherlands (7) France (6), with 5 missed penalties in total, after a 2-2 draw and Mexico (5) Italy (4) after a 0-0 tie.
In the semifinals on November 5, in a match that had all the billing of a final, DPR Korea defeated Brazil, with a brace from Yu Jong-hyang (16) of Naegohyang Sports Club at home, the first coming from the penalty spot just before halftime as Andreyna was red-carded for touching the ball with her hand on the goal line. The Netherlands defeated Mexico 1-0 in the other semifinal to make the Championship match.
In the third place match on November 8, Mexico defeated Brazil on penalties, which was Mexico’s best finish since 2018 in Uruguay when they finished runner-up to Spain (2-1). Brazil’s fourth place finish was their best ever in the history of the tournament.
In the Championship final on November 8, DPR Korea faced Netherlands—a repeat of their group match on October 24 in which DPR Korea won 5-0—and Korea became champions for the fourth time with a 3-0 win. The final attracted 5,954 fans in Rabat.
Korea DPR are repeat champions of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup after a 3-0 win over Netherlands 3-0 in the Morocco 2025 final on October 24. The Asian side earned their second successive U-17 title and fourth overall. Photo courtesy of FIFA.com.
The DPR Korea full field press bothered the Netherlands, as it did many other teams, and they were up 1-0 by the 14th minute as the Dutch didn’t clear a bouncing cross and Kim Won-sim headed home the ultimate winner. They scored a second four minutes later when Pak Rye-yong capitalized on a turnover deep in the Netherlands half. The Netherlands hurt themselves again with an under-hit back pass just before half time (42nd minute) as, again a messy play in the back resulted in goalkeeper Maren Groothoff trying to clear the ball but it bounced off of DPRK’s Ri Ui-gyong, who had challenged her, to score the third goal.
After the game, Netherlands head coach Olivier Amelink was quite positive about his team and their experience in Morocco despite the final game loss: “I’m very proud of the girls. It was a tough game against Korea DPR. They were the better team, but if I see the bigger picture and how we grew in the tournament, I’m very proud of the girls. It was a good tournament for us, and I think we cannot imagine a better start in the U-17 World Cup (in their debut U-17 finals). Playing against Cameroon, Korea DPR, United States, Mexico—we played against so many countries and different cultures. That’s amazing for their development.”
Ri Ui-gyong, DPR Korea’s midfielder who won the Player of the Match award in the championship match, said: “I’m extremely satisfied. Our players played the final match wonderfully. It’s hard to express this joy in words. This is also my first championship, so I’ll continue to work hard and aim for even greater results.” At home, the state media said that the U-17 side brought: “joy to our beloved motherland.”
DPRK scored a record 25 goals in their seven matches, allowing only three, while the Netherlands scored 8 goals and allowed 15, winning their Round of 16 and Quarterfinal matches on penalty kicks.
In nine U-17 FIFA Finals to date, DPR Korea has four wins—2008 in New Zealand, 2016 in Jordan, 2024 in Dominican Republic and this season in Morocco. Spain won the two previous editions in 2018 in Uruguay and India in 2022 (the 2020 tournament was cancelled because of COVID). DPR Korea won the U-17 and U-20 WWC titles in 2024 so they have won three youth global titles in a little over a year.
The next step for the Koreans is qualifying for the 2027 WWC in Brazil from the Asian Finals in March in Australia and making a deep run through the knockout stage (in four previous tournaments, they have made the quarterfinals once in 2007 in China). Going into the 12 team finals in Australia, DPRK is ranked 10th by FIFA, with Japan the only other finalists ranked higher (8th) so they should be a favorite to win a direct WWC spot for the first time since 2011 in Germany.
Regarding personal awards, DPR Korea’s Yu Jong-Hyang won the adidas Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player; she also won the Golden Boot as the top scorer with eight goals and two assists. Her teammate Kim Won-sim won both the Silver Ball and Silver Boot, scoring seven goals with one assist. Midfielder Rosalie Renfurm of the Netherlands won the Bronze Ball for third among all the tournament’s players. Italy’s Giulia Galli 17) of Roma won the Bronze Boot after scoring five goals with one assist.
Mexico’s Valentina Murrieta (16) of Club America won the Golden Glove as the top goalkeeper. In the quarter-final against Italy, Murrieta saved two penalties during the game and a third during the shoot-out as Mexico advanced to the semifinals. In the third place match win over Brazil, she earned her second Player of the Match award, saving two spot kicks. Spain won the FIFA Fair Play Trophy.
For the U.S., three of the 21 players are with NWSL teams: forwards Micayla Johnson (Chicago Stars), Mak Whitham (Gotham FC) and KK Ream (Utah Royals). Goalkeeper Evan O’Steen, midfielders Jaiden Rodriguez and Scottie Antonucci and Johnson played in the 2024 U-17 Women’s World Cup in the Dominican Republic when the USA took third, its best finish since the inaugural tournament in 2008. Note: Defender Sydney Schmidt signed an academy contract last year for her hometown USL Super League side Jacksonville SC, allowing her to retain her amateur status and play collegiately if she so chose to. In mid-October, she signed a professional contract with North Carolina Courage of the NWSL. The following Americans on the 2025 finals squad were with college sides:
Goalkeeper Evan O’Steen (Florida State Univ.)
Defenders Meila Brewer (UCLA) and Pearl Cecil (Univ. of Virginia)
Midfielders: Riley Kennedy (Univ. of North Carolina), Jaiden Rodriguez (USC), Nyanya Touray (Florida State Univ.)
Forward: Lauren Malsom (Univ. of North Carolina)
Players are going to college at a younger age as well as turning professional with American clubs, particularly in the NWSL. For example, defender Meila Brewer is a freshman at UCLA this season at age 16, after reclassifying two years ahead of schedule to attend college. There were four collegiate players and four professionals on the USA’s 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup roster last year, for a total of eight. Eight players from the USA’s 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Team are currently playing professionally in the NWSL. In 2025, there were eleven players either in college or in American professional leagues on the U-17 Finals roster.
Head coach Katie Schoepfer was in the U.S. Youth National Team player pools from the U-17 to U-23 level and was a two-time All American at Penn State University and scored 48 career goals. In her professional career, she made 100 appearances with the Boston Breakers in two leagues—Women’s Professional Soccer WPS) and the NWSL. A Connecticut native, she was inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame in 2019.
The U.S. had a pre-tournament camp in Spain, where they had three training players join them, including center back Claire Kessenger with the CE Europa Femenino A U-19 team of Barcelona. She previously played for RCD Espanyol de Barcelona for seven years and their Juvenil A team was the first girls’ team in Spain to compete in the boys’ 1st division, which was a top team in Spain.
Mexico started five U.S.-based players against Italy in quarterfinals: Stella Barajas (16) of Legends FC in Southern California, Anaiya Miyazato (16) of FC Tucson, Ava Stack (17) of the University of Georgia, Citlalli Reyes (16) of the Las Vegas Lights and Leila Ávila (17) of the San Diego Surf. Samantha Ruiz (17) of Legends FC in Dallas was a sixth American on the roster.
For Brazil, Giovanna Waksman scored three goals in the group stage and was the 2025 Florida Gatorade Player of the Year with 87 goals for the Pine School, which is supported by Botafogo owner John Textor. Textor is an American businessman who founded Eagle Football Holdings, which is the majority owner of Botafogo (Rio de Janeiro of Brazil), Olympique Lyon in France and RWDM Brussels in Belgium. The group sold a minority stake in London’s Crystal Palace in July of this year for US$250 million.
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