Fútnotes, Volume 4

All the WoSo news that's fit to print, and then some.

February 13, 2023

The first international break of 2023 is upon us, and there was plenty of good news (and some bad) from around the world in the past week.

México

México’s National Team’s roster is out for the upcoming Revelations Cup.

Rayadas announced the signing of Carlee Giammona, who was teammates with Pachuca’s Leyla McFarland at Pepperdine University. - Rayadas 

Jenni Hermoso was called up to Spain’s National Team. Hermoso is only one of a handful of regular players called into the team, many of whom refuse to play for manager Jorge Vilda. - Real Federación Española de Fútbol

A partnership between Club América, OL Reign, and Olympique Lyonnais was announced, including a friendly against OL Reign at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, Washington (just outside of Seattle) on February 25th. - OL Reign

Pumas got embroiled in a scandal, and I tried to make some sense of it.

Rayadas de Monterrey and the North Carolina Courage will play home-and-home friendlies this year. The first match will be on Thursday, March 9 at Estadio BBVA, with the date of the second leg still to be determined. - North Carolina Courage

Rest of the World

A soap opera is playing out in Canada, as the Canadian Women’s National Team (Canada XNT) threatened to strike if they weren’t funded at the same level as the Canadian Men’s National Team (Canada MNT). They posted their plan of action and reasons for striking after negotiating with Canada Soccer, the governing body of the sport in the nation, for over a year.

It’s truly unfair to compare men’s and women’s national teams of course, but should be noted that the Canadian MNT is ranked 53rd in the world (FIFA), qualified for their first World Cup since 1986 this past year, losing all three games in the group stage, and won Olympic gold in the 1904 games. The Canadian XNT is ranked sixth in the world (FIFA), will play in their eighth straight World Cup later this year, and has won Olympic bronze in 2012 and 2016 as well as gold in 2020.

An unfair comparison indeed.

Canada Soccer had the option to either agree to fund the players at an equal rate despite their clearly unequal standing in the game, or lawyer up and threaten to sue.

The Canada XNT had no choice but to agree to play, since a suit would take away from money they didn’t have because they aren’t being funded.

The team will however have the spotlight on them, which will provide them a big stage to get their message out. They’ll be in the SheBelieves Cup tournament with the United States, Brazil, and Japan this week before heading to Australia and New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup in July.

The last thing these players should be forced to deal with when gearing up for the biggest tournament on the planet is having to publicly fight the very body that should be taking care of them for the basic necessities. The good news is that Canada Soccer still has time to do the right thing and fund the Canada XNT at an equal level to the Canada MNT. The bad news is that Canada Soccer doesn't have a great track record when it comes to doing the right thing (CBC.ca).

Tigres’ Mia Fishel got a call up to the United States U23 National Team.

The Chicago Red Stars made a fun video to celebrate the release of the 2023 schedule.

Finally in response to one of my tweets, Christian Sinclair, M.D. put together this cool graphic that shows the confirmed partnerships (that we know about) in women’s soccer, representing ten teams in five different nations.

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 [email protected].