Long live Chile, and long live your smiley with Chilean flag!!! Things had seemed quite worrying at the beginning of this final round, but in the end Chile showed its worth, while Colombia, that was everyone's choice as one of the directly qualified teams, crashed out of WWC badly: it's a shame, because they had some good interesting players, and, on paper, they didn't seem inferior to Argentina, but Banini & Co. (I wonder how important NWSL experience was for Estefania) showed that they were deserving the play-off over them instead. I am excited at the notion of having Tiane Endler at WWC: she didn't only inspire little girls to play football, she also inspired grown-up fans to root for Chile! I remember a friendly tournament in Brazil, when I learnt to know and appreciate Chile women NT for the first time: when was it, zaku_II? 3 or 4 years ago? Later I had seen most of these players (Lara, Aedo and so on...) in Japan at Mobcast Cup with Colo Colo, and I kept liking them. I am very happy that they finally claimed second place in CONMEBOL, behind out-of-reach Brazil.
Oh, by the way. can anyone post a picture of Christiane Endler celebrating the win and/or the direct qualification? Edit: nevermind, this video posted by @WWC_Movement on the general WWC 2019 qualification thread has everything. Chile wasn't qulified yet at the end of the game, but, in the final part of the video, we can see Endler hugging everyone, many players in tears of joy (Lara in particular) and also a nice scene, with Chilean Yanara Aedo consoling Argentinian Estefania Banini: they had just finished battling with their respective National Teams, but they're team-mates in club, Washington Freedom FC in NWSL!
And they were team mates in Colo Colo for at least five years , even after Karen Araya leave Colo Colo in 2013? Banini was made the captain of the team, and later even played in Valencia last year.
Super psyched for Chile! But I do gotta say, it's a shock for Colombia, I think, to have failed to qualify for the WWC. This is the team that shocked France in the last WWC, have consistently been the #2 team in CONMEBOL for the past eight or so years, and have been investing heavily in WoSo recently with the change to a fully-professional league and having sent the team to China for the Four Nations Tournament earlier this year. That 1-3 loss to ARG on day one of the championship group was brutal.
November. CONCACAF doesn't even have its final tournament until October. UNCAF and CFU qualifier will be occurring over the summer.
Cool. Better see Argentina at the next Juegos Suramericanos 2018 then. Hopefully, Cochabamba will have proper venues for women's football. A red flag is that host Bolivia has declined to participate in that category, however.
I forgot the South American Games is this year. Last one was in 2014 in Chile and Argentina won gold medal winning over Chile 2-1 the final match after defeating Brazil in semis with PKs.
Nope. All 1st fase games of group B were played at Coquimbo... The 2nd and final games were ALL played at La Serena... No team played more than 4 games in Coquimbo and all group B teams played at least 4 games in Coquimbo. Brazil and Argentina moved to the 2nd and final stage and they played 4 games at Coquimbo and 3 at La Serena... By your own standard CONMEBOL did NOT protect Brazil when they got group B...
Yep, that is what I meant when I wrote "I stand corrected". Conmebol found other ways to protect Brazil in Group B, though: Brazil always played at night (cooler temperatures, and previous knowledge of the other match result), Brazil did not play 4 day matches in a row. The only other team which had those perks: host Chile. Obvious and expected, since Chile organized the tournament. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
Ok, I will bite. I thought your point was about the pitch but let's look into temperature, previous knowledge and matches in a row. 1st Stage Group B had double games 1st at 16:45 and the 2nd at 19:00 on April 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th 2018. Every team had a day off. Brazil did indeed play all it's group games at the 19:00 but I do not see how this is an advantage in terms of temperature. The temperature range was quite small as you can see from the Hi/Lo on those dates Date Hi/Lo Average Hi/Lo Thu 4/5 20°/12° 18°/12° Sat 4/7 19°/13° 18°/12° Mon 4/9 20°/12° 18°/12° Wed 4/11 23°/13° 17°/11° Fri 4/13 16°/12° 17°/11° https://www.accuweather.com/en/cl/coquimbo/53362/april-weather/53362?monyr=4/1/2018&view=table And judging from the hourly difference in the last two days the temperature drop 1° celsius from 16:00 to 19:00. https://www.accuweather.com/en/cl/coquimbo/53362/hourly-weather-forecast/53362?hour=65 Regarding playing the group stage with previous knowledge this is indeed a small advantage that the seeded teams got (both Brazil and Chile) Only Equador and Bolivia had to play 4 day marches in a row - Bolivia had the first day off (their first game was against a team that had already played a game) - Equador had the last day off. Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela had a day off between games. So not really an advantage for Brazil as only Brazil was "protected". Final Stage Played on April 16th, 19th and 22nd. The schedule was dependent on standing on each group So I really do not see Conmebol going out of it's way in order to "protect" Brazil or Chile. The use of seeds is common place. I don't see pitch, temperature or games in a row advantage for anyone. Yes, Brazil (and Chile) got a small knowledge advantage on the group stage. But had they alternate the starting time of the team it would mean that a time would have less than 48 hrs between games and you would be complaining that Brazil had more rest time (if it played games as 16:45). I think you already had a hypothesis before you went looking for evidence. Had you looked at the evidence before jumping to conclusion you would acknowledge that Chile is actually the most developed country in SA. But WoSo isn't popular here (I couldn't watch the game on TV paid or not in Brazil - no one care to broadcast it) thus two dedicated venues is a major effort and your complains pitch, temperature and prior result knowledge was just a consequence of these limitation instead of a conspiracy... What will develop WoSo in SA is actually the requirement from CONMEBOL that every team thay plays in the Libertadores have to have a professional WoSo team... This will change things here quite fast
One more protectionist measure: group calendars were set up so that each seeded team played against a side which did not rest. Every bit helps XD I commend you on presenting ample proof, that is how arguments should be defended. I confess that I am biased, since I did not root for the seeded teams. Unfortunately, advantages do add up, just in case a seeded team hits a qualification snag. The tournament is meant to protect its seeded teams, so that the whole event has traction. Few people want a final phase without Brazil/the host. I can also see how Brazil playing on the awful pitch of Coquimbo is more an organizational shortcoming than anything else. Let us hope that the new Conmebol requirement does help raise women's professional football. I suspect that some women's clubs will field ill-prepared squads since their tournaments will operate in the red during the first years. Conmebol has not specified whether it will subsidize those new professional clubs.