Fútnotes, Volume 56

Liga MX Femenil President Mariana Gutiérrez gave an interview to TUDN’s David Faitelson on Tuesday, and there was a lot to unpack from it.

Some points from the interview:

• It’s possible the league and teams could become independent of the men’s league and teams.

  • This could mean not having the fates of women’s teams tied to whether or not a club’s men’s team is relegated.

  • This could allow for independent teams to come into the league as well.

• The league is the third-best attended league in the world.

• Necaxa is called out by name by Gutiérrez, with the president saying, “we can already tell Necaxa if they want to continue or not, but the market has already been explored.”

Amy Lopez and I went into the nuances of this in the latest episode of Our Futbol, but there’s a lot we still don’t know and a lot of things that would need to play out to know if it winds up being a net positive for the league or not.

México

Las Vegas native and México U20s forward Hailey Gordon is registered with Tigres U19 squad. (Liga MX Femenil)

Speaking of Tigres, the Washington Post did a great article on how Las Amazonas (and to an extent, Liga MX Femenil) are changing what soccer fandom in the country looks like. (Possible paywall)

Aurélie Kaci and Andrea Sánchez of FC Juárez did not travel with the team before their match at Querétaro as both were suffering injuries to the meniscus in their right knees. They will be evaluated at a later date. Emili Bautista also missed the match with an injury to her abdominal muscles. (FC Juárez)

Merel van Dongen, who has been wearing a protective mask, underwent nasal surgery on Wednesday. Rayadas reported the surgery was successful and that van Dongen would miss two to three weeks. (Rayadas)

Thank you for reading Golazo del Gringo! If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with anyone who enjoys women’s soccer.

Rest of the World

North Korea won the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, downing Japan 1-0 to become the third nation to win the tournament for a third time. Germany and the United States are the other two nations to achieve the feat. Choe Il-son won both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball, scoring six goals in the tournament. (BBC)

Christine Sinclair is retiring. Sinc’s résumé speaks for itself: Two-time NCAA champion with Portland State, two-time WPS champion, once with FC Gold Pride and once with the Western New York Flash, three-time NWSL champion with the Portland Thorns, Olympic Gold Medalist with Canada, and a host of other professional and personal awards.

Kin Saito is no longer sporting director for Cruzeiro Feminino, a position she held since May 2022. (GE)

USWNT assistant coach Twila Kilgore has left “to pursue other coaching opportunities.” (US Soccer)

Sarah Bouhaddi signed with Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia. (One Football)

Loved this profile by Theo Lloyd-Hughes on IFK Norrköping and Serbia WNT attacking midfielder Vesna Milivojević. Listen to the podcast too, which is linked in the article. (Squad Depth)

Bay FC is planning on building a training facility on Treasure Island, an actual island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. What could possibly go wrong? (The Mercury News)

44 year old Melissa Barbieri will play her 28th season, re-signing with Melbourne City for the 2024-25 season. “Bubs” also serves as City’s assistant coach. (A-Leagues)

Shoutout to andrew37 on bluesky, who turned me onto this YouTube series by Craig Hadley on women’s soccer in the West Midlands region of England. I love that there’s enough of an ecosystem where someone is doing hyper-local women’s soccer coverage and analysis.

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 bluesky or twitter (if you must) or email me at [email protected].