Fútnotes, Volume 1

Women’s soccer, especially in English-language media, all too often focuses solely on leagues in Anglophone and Western European countries. And while this segment will undoubtedly have some NWSL and WSL content (especially with large swaths of global women’s soccer on hiatus at the moment), my goal is to elevate women’s soccer from all parts of the world with equal reverence. I sincerely hope you enjoy some of the most newsworthy things from the past week.

Mexico

After putting nine on Mazatlán, Rayadas announced the return of all-time Liga MX Femenil goalscorer Desirée Monsiváis. Uh oh.

Speaking of 100 goal scorers in Liga MX Femenil, Licha Cervantes suffered a Grade 2 sprain to her left knee in the match against Santos. While not great news, it was feared that she had suffered damaged ligaments which would have required surgery. Instead, some rest and rehabilitation should see her back on the pitch sooner rather than later.

While attendance figures and television ratings can’t be conflated with league quality, it’s always interesting to see how Liga MX Femenil clubs stack up, especially against NWSL clubs.

Industry leading scouting and analysis platform StatsBomb is providing access to their platform to Liga MX Femenil clubs for free, marking their first foray into providing data for a league in Latin America.

The FMF and Curveball Sports announced the 2022 Women’s Revelations Cup Mexico will take place from February 15 through February 22 in León. The four team tournament will feature México taking on Costa Rica, Colombia, and Nigeria.

Rest of the World

A new publication called Brown Girl Sport started up, with the purpose of “telling the stories of South Asian women in sport.” One of their first interviews was with England goalkeeper Aman Dosanj, who is the first British South Asian soccer player to represent England at any level. Definitely worth checking out.

Speaking of England, a cold snap forced the cancellation of several matches of the weekend, including Chelsea vs. Liverpool which was on national television and stopped a few minutes into the match. Flo-Lloyd Hughes of CounterPressed podcast had a good segment on the debacle, which she accurately links to climate change.

Another scandal for the Portland Thorns, as they fired assistant coach Sophie Clough for “kissing a player’s neck” during the team’s championship celebration as well as claims of bullying. They also fired athletic trainer Pierre Soubrier for administering codeine without a prescription to players, and in one instance without the player’s knowledge. There was no immediate indication if this would impact the status of Soubrier’s wife, Thorns and United States Women’s National Team forward Crystal Dunn.

In that same report, former Washington Spirit head coach Kris Ward was found to have "engaged in overly aggressive behavior and harassment through negative racial stereotyping towards a player." Along with Clough and Soubrier, Ward is “ineligible to work in the league in any capacity until approved by the (NWSL) commissioner.”

Barcelona Femení was fined €1,001 and disqualified from the Copa de la Reina after playing Geyse Ferreira, who was ineligible after being sent off during last year’s Copa de la Reina match against Madrid CFF. Sevilla was also disqualified for fielding Nagore Calderón, who was similarly sent off last year against Villarreal.

Corinthians reportedly received R$500,000 reais (around US$98,000) for Adriana from Orlando City, with another R$100,000 (around US$20,000) due if she makes the Brazilian World Cup squad.

Don’t ever let them tell you no one pays attention to women’s soccer.

If you have something that should be included in this segment, please reach out to me via twitter or email me at golazodelgringo@gmail.com.