It’s not easy to sleep the ball with your left foot like Catalina Usme (Marinilla, 33 years old) does. And less in the opposing area, to gently define the inside edge, to overcome a defender’s hold, in the round of 16 of a World Cup, with a packed stadium, in a tight game and a zero score. It takes the calm and maturity that separates the talents from the stars to put that “pass in the net” – as she tells her América de Cali teammates in training – and open the doors of the unprecedented. It also requires a lot of tenacity in his case to overcome the obstacles that keep appearing throughout his life.
Andrés Usme (Marinilla, 39 years old) is the goalscorer’s older brother. After the game against Jamaica, when everything was hype and illusion, she called him. “How did you see it?” he asked. He then told her what he liked and didn’t like and gave her advice. While the Colombians rose early to see the key to the Round of 16 and wildly celebrated Catalina’s goal, Andrés tried to control his excitement and shouting and devoted himself to watching the ninety minutes through the eyes of a coach. He is the technical director of the Ecuadorian women’s team, a position he fought for and achieved thanks to a path he followed together with his sister, Colombia’s No. 11.
“I have learned to deal with the joy of victory and defeat. Before I screamed and cried, it was impressive. Not anymore, I’m more thoughtful and see the games from a different perspective because I know Cata will call me later so we can talk about her performance. There I tell him: “Look at that, I corrected the other one.” But I won’t lie to you: that goal against Jamaica moved me a lot and reminded me of his entire trial,” he comments on the phone from Quito, with a strong Antioquia accent.
Usme Pineda’s home of Marinilla, Antioquia has always been a game of football. The family’s favorite plan was to be a spectator of the games that José Domingo, the father, played in the tournaments that were held in the city. The whistle at half-time and at the end of the game was the longed-for signal for the three children, Catalina, Andrés and Diego, to run onto the field, get the ball rolling and dream of a world final. It was always clear from the moment she took her first steps that Catalina would be a soccer player. There was no exact episode where they identified its quality. It was just known.
But it would be wrong to attribute his success to fate. There were no facilities, especially for women. At the age of eight, she captained a men’s team’s forward squad along with Diego, who was a year older than her. It didn’t take long for the character to transform. She always had support from her family, they encouraged her to keep training and any objections from other people quickly silenced her about what she was doing on the pitch. Andrés recalls with a laugh that the opposing defenders didn’t treat them differently but, on the contrary, tried to stop them in any way they could. Do you remember a specific game? “Cata and Diego played. She was totally hooked. I think he scored a couple of goals that day and when the ball was far away a bareback shot him. My brother almost went insane and I had to go inside to separate them.”
At the age of 11, around the turn of the century, she was called up to represent the Marinilla team in Pony Fútbol, a traditional children’s championship held annually in Medellín and featuring footballers such as Juan Fernando Quintero and James Rodríguez. . With the team’s hopes pinned on her, her spirits collapsed when the organizers decided not to let her participate. The competition was for men only. There was no excitement or outrage, times were different. She got some revenge when the championship opened a women’s division years later and she led Deportivo Independiente Medellín’s youth team alongside Andrés in the same tournament. She was able to see other girls enjoying the opportunity that was denied to her.
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After the cancellation, he looked for alternatives and found Formas Íntimas Sports Club, one of the few dedicated to women’s football at the time. Headquartered in Medellín, Catalina, who attended high school in Marinilla, put in hard days to keep her passion alive. She got up early to go to class, left at noon and boarded a bus that took her to the capital of Antioquia in an hour. I worked out and got home at midnight. That was her commitment to Luz Mary, her mother and main supporter, who only allowed her to fully devote herself to the sport after she graduated. The family often formed rope groups in order to get money and pay for the trips.
This lasted for several years until he finally moved to Medellín. Andrew was waiting for her. “I went there very young to work as a carpenter. When my brothers graduated, they went to Medellín with me. Of course he tries his football: he has never thought of doing anything else in his life. She worked as a waitress, took inventories, taught soccer and did whatever it took for her to make a living. He resigned when there were tenders or tournaments and went looking for work the day after. All this effort to be able to continue playing,” remembers the eldest of the Usme Pineda.
The Antioquia team had their eye on her and, in addition to recruiting, also granted her a scholarship to enter the Colombian Polytechnic Jaime Isaza Cadavid. He enrolled in the athletic program, but there was a time when class schedules overlapped with his team’s practices. He had to make a decision and football prevailed as always. “I have my whole life to study,” he explained to Andrés. And he wasn’t wrong.
The second edition of the South American U-20 Championship was played in January 2006 in Viña del Mar, Chile. Catalina, who had just turned 16, was called to represent the country. “I asked my mother, ‘Are you going to let Cata go that far?’ And she answered me, “Sure, don’t you see that you have to support her?” And so he left at that age. We’ll take her to the airport and say goodbye.”
Andrés lovingly keeps the t-shirts from his sister’s first experiences with the tricolor. He inherited them because they suited him better than her. Women’s soccer was still in its infancy that the Colombian soccer federation provided female players with male uniforms, without lasts and in sizes well over the corresponding size. Despite the lack of support and repeated rudeness, Andrés points out that Catalina has always had a proactive attitude.
After the South American, Usme became a regular in the national squad and made it into the senior category. In a team with, among others, Yoreli Rincón, Orianica Velásquez and Carmen Rodallega, she finished second at the South American Championships in Ecuador in November 2010. Second place secured Colombia a place at a venue it had never matched before: the World Cup, held in Germany a year later, and the 2012 Olympic Games in London. At the latter, Catalina suffered the first of two injuries that narrowly left her with the choice to retire.
The third game of the group stage was played against France at Saint James Park in Newcastle. At the end of the first half, Usme came out on a stretcher. The diagnosis was disheartening: torn ligaments. “We cried with grief that day. My mother, I don’t know how she was supposed to do that, almost caught a flight to England. Thankfully, Cata overcame that and is reaping the rewards of that integrity today. Then there was another injury and as it is, it stopped again,” emphasizes Andrés. He’s referring to the break he suffered in 2014 while playing with Formas Íntimas against Atlético Nacional. Already established as a coach, he oversaw the organization and witnessed first-hand what happened with just a year to go before the next World Cup. One of the doctors treating her told her she could no longer play, which Andrés says motivated her. “As soon as they told him ‘forget football’, oh god, he put everything into his recovery.” He traveled to Canada for the World Cup and scored the second goal in Colombia’s first win, a historic 2-1 win over France , the same rival against whom he was injured three years earlier.
The first edition of the country’s women’s professional soccer league was held in 2017. Catalina made her debut with América de Cali and she has defended that jersey ever since, with the exception of a brief stint with Independiente Santa Fe, where she played against the Libertadores with the Cup. She’s an incredible goalscorer: she’s scored 74 goals in 118 professional games. The women’s league is played in just four months, while the men’s league lasts eleven months. If they had a championship with the same terms, Catalina Usme’s numbers would most likely be scandalous.
With 52 goals in 70 games, she is the all-time top scorer for the Colombian team. In today’s world, he has scored two goals, one in the opening game against South Korea and the one that left-footed Jamaica in the round of 16. It’s the hope of a team that can do the unexpected and get into the semi-finals against strong England in the early hours of Saturday morning.
After coach Nelson Abadía’s speech before taking the pitch at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, Catalina will surely take over as announcer as always, addressing her team-mates in the same way she addresses the media. “Did you notice when she said she didn’t care if it was Germany? [el rival en la fase de grupos]? Well, she is. Also not ordered to do this moment. This is what sets Cata apart. It’s frontal, it doesn’t beat around the bush, it does what it wants,” concludes Andrés enthusiastically.
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