The challenge for the Colombian Women’s National Team, this Saturday in Bucaramanga, was enormous: win the title of the Women’s Copa América and put an end to the hegemony of Brazil, who had won seven of the eight editions of the contest, since the first, in 1991.
Although the team led by Nelson Abadía subdued Brazil by game, the experience of the rival weighed and, with only one arrival, they won 1-0 to get the ninth title.
Brazilian women’s football has been devastating in the south of the continent. This year he won both the South American U-17 and the U-20, and in the latter, as if that were not enough, he has won all the editions.
Brazil, in the process of renewal
Brazil, in this edition of the Cup, was in the process of renewal. It was the first official tournament played, in the last 20 years, without its greatest historical figure, Marta, Six-time winner of the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award and the team’s all-time top scorer with 112 goals. A knee injury left her out of the squad.
The two historical partners of Marta, Formiga and Cristiane, were not in this edition either. The former withdrew from the National Team and the latter was not taken into account by the team’s coach, the Swedish Pia Sundhage.
However, the pace of Brazil was overwhelming: six games, six wins, 20 goals for and none against, the latter, a record for the women’s Copa América. What makes Brazilian football so strong?
Although in that country there is a long tradition for this sport, the women had to fight, and a lot, to be allowed to play.
In 1940 the first matches between women were played in Brazil. But a year later, then-president Getulio Vargas banned women’s soccer, arguing that its practice affected their ability to procreate. That veto was maintained until 1979, but after that strange rules were established, such as prohibiting stopping the ball with the chest and reducing games to 35-minute times.
Despite all this, women’s football in Brazil, which had had a somewhat clandestine development since the 1950s, found its definitive boost in the 1980s. The first Brazilian team appeared in 1986.
“At the time there was a lot of prejudice. The woman had no space in football. She was always denied everything, always forbidden. We managed, with our love for football, little by little, to open a gap for our modality”, recalled Fanta, a midfielder who was part of that first call, quoted by the newspaper El Correo.
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In 1988, Brazil participated in an experimental tournament in China, which was the impetus to play the first Women’s World Cup, in 1991, with Verdeamarelha as the only representative from South America: it was left out in the first phase.
The work, little by little, was bearing fruit. In 1996, Brazil lost bronze against Norway at the Atlanta Olympics, but that defeat was the final impetus for the creation of a women’s league, which began to be played a year later, although it was only definitively consolidated in 2013.
Brazil was gradually approaching the world title, although they have not yet been able to achieve it: they reached third place in the World Cup in the United States, in 1999, and, already with the golden generation of Marta, Formiga and Cristiane, they lost the final against Germany at the World Cup in China in 2007. At the Olympics they won a silver medal in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
However, Brazil was losing ground with respect to the United States and the European teams and the fact of having been left off the podium at home, in Rio 2016, made them look for solutions.
Brazil and its European commitment: Pia Sundhage
In 2019, the Brazilian Football Confederation appointed Sweden’s Pia Sundhage as coach. She won two Olympic gold medals with the United States, in Beijing 2008 and London 2012, and was world runner-up in 2011 with the same team.
Later, leading the national team of her country, she won the silver medal in Rio 2016. The idea of hiring Sundhage was basically to bring the talent of the Brazilians closer to the characteristics of the European and American game.
Sundhage closely follows not only the work of the senior team, but also has constant contact with the U-17 and U-20 teams, having constant conversations with the coaches of those categories. And that has allowed all the women’s teams to have the same pattern of play.
Sundhage is very self-critical. “I’m not happy with our performance, especially attacking. We should have been more effective. I didn’t like our performance, we have to improve”, she said after beating Uruguay 3-0!
The renovation is bearing fruit. “We don’t have a piece, but we do have a whole group to conquer things that sometimes we only achieved through a reference. Today we all play together”, said Bia Zaneratto, the player with the most assists in the Cup, four, and author of three goals in the tournament. Brazil had an important advantage and even, when they submitted it, took the hierarchy to obtain a new title.
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