After the battle that the Colombian Women’s National Team gave in the last Senior World Cup, reaching the quarterfinals, it was time to face the greatest challenge at the club level: the Women’s Copa Libertadoresa, in which Santa Fe, América and Nacional, who play at home, have the challenge of breaking the dominance of the Brazilian teams to conquer the continent.
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Knocking down the Brazilians, who have been celebrating the crown for four years in a row, is the not easy mission that the Colombian teams will face between October 5 and 21 at the headquarters of Cali and Bogotá. It is not impossible, Atlético Huila already won the title in 2018 by being champion against Santos, and Santa Fe and América were already finalists, and América itself was a semi-finalist a year ago together with Deportivo Cali.
The Colombian teams, beyond the internal problems due to the non-consolidation of a stable and lasting women’s league, want to take advantage of the fact that they play the Cup in the country and that the level of the players is increasing, also infected by the performance of the Colombia selection.
Omar Ramirez, the coach of Santa Fe, sees an optimistic outlook for Colombia. “The Colombian teams have been demonstrating in the last Libertadores that we are a reference in South America, not only in the National Team but at the club level. Colombia already has a title with Huila; America and Santa Fe have a final; Formas Íntimas also played it in 2013, so historically Colombian teams have had good Libertadores. Today both América, Nacional and Santa Fe have to fight any Brazilian team. For me, the Colombian teams are going to do very well,” he says in a conversation with EL TIEMPO.
This time the Brazilian teams once again start with favoritism, due to their level and continental development that makes them maintain distance from the other countries, with Palmeiras as current champion and rival of Atlético Nacional in group A; with Corinthians, as two-time champion (2019 and 2021) and present in group C, and with Inter de Porto Alegre, which will be America’s rival in group D.
For this reason, the Brazilians are the rivals that the Colombian teams look at most carefully, although it is known that to reach the crown they will have to advance a path, starting by overcoming the group stage where there are other rivals of hierarchy. In the absence of a local league, the Colombian teams have been preparing with training, friendly even among themselves, to maintain the competitive level and physical fitness.
This is how they arrive
Santa Fe is the current champion of Colombia and reinforced its roster with Natalia Gaitán, historic National Team player, and with Carolina Arias, who recently performed with Colombia in the Senior World Cup. The lionesses think about improving what they did in 2021 when they reached the final and lost it to Corinthians.
“Santa Fe is doing very well, the girls are motivated, very involved in the Libertadores. We have a balanced team, with experience and youth and that leaves me calm. We have to play the Cup to the fullest every game, but I see Santa Fe with great expectations, we want to make history,” added the Cardinal coach.
The coach also analyzed the group they were assigned to, with Olimpia, Universitario and Universidad de Chile: “It is a combative group, the Paraguayans were already champions of liberators; the Chileans from the U compete very well and the Peruvian has enormous growth, with “Colombian coaches who know us. It is not an easy group, it is complicated.”
America has also been very close to the title. In 2022 the team lost the final against the Brazilian Ferroviária. Now, the scarlet team takes on the challenge with a new coach, since he changed it a month ago and appointed Gustavo Pineda, who has the challenge of leading the team to the fight for this title. “This is a winning team, with desire, desire, impetus,” Pineda said on the day of his presentation. America bases its game on his figure, Catalina Usmetop scorer of the Copa Libertadores and who knows like no one else how this tournament is played.
In National Athletic The expectations are not lower. The team, reinforced by Yoreli Rincón, hopes to take the leap in quality and enter the fight in this edition. “We must improve several aspects: with the ball, identify the free players to progress, in set-piece actions we must improve defensively and offensively, this week before Libertadores we are going to work on it,” coach Jorge Barreneche recently said after beating Santa Faith in friendly.
The Colombian teams play at home, they are motivated by what the National Team has done, and although there is no women’s league in this second semester, they have prepared to overthrow Brazilian power.
PABLO ROMERO
Editor of EL TIEMPO
@PabloRomeroET
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