Colombian players celebrate a goal at the U-17 Women’s World Cup Masashi Hara (FIFA via Getty Images)
The women will star in Colombia’s first World Cup final this Sunday. The U-17 women’s team meets Spain after beating Nigeria 5-6 on penalties last Wednesday. Goalkeeper Luisa Agudelo, the youngest in the team at just 15, saved Nigeria’s seventh shot to seal the win. Colombia had been marked on one attempt and the Africans had failed on another. The win made the country dream of winning the World Cup for the first time in its history. This is the furthest distance ever covered by a Colombian team at a World Cup in any category, including men’s.
The Colombia national team, led by coach Carlos Paniagua, 59, arrives motivated to beat the current tournament winners in an atmosphere of revenge. Spain is the only country to beat Colombians by a goal difference during the championship on their debut on October 12. The South Americans beat Tanzania 3-0 in the quarterfinals, China 2-0 and Mexico 2-1 in the group stage. With four goals scored, Linda Caicedo, a young Pacific woman navigating a typically male world and training at an amateur kids’ club since childhood, is just one goal away from becoming the world’s top scorer. She is also nominated for the Globe Soccer Awards for Best Player of the Year. The winners will be announced in Dubai on November 17, ahead of the start of the World Cup in Qatar, for which the men’s senior team failed to qualify.
Colombian soccer players are also called “super strong girls” and not only because of their good football. To get to where they are, they have skirted a field shaped not only by their rivals but also by profound gender inequality. They don’t have a solid league to provide them with continuous education, and their salaries and economic credit are low and unstable. The football leadership, which has made multiple mistakes with their low support for women, gets a red card from a crowd demanding equally strong support for the talent and character of the athletes on the pitch. President Gustavo Petro has promised to improve national government support. “Not only do they deserve all our admiration and recognition, but they also deserve decent salaries, a women’s league and sponsorship,” he said after the win against Nigeria.
The closest a Colombian team had come to the trophy was at a World Cup in 2003 in the men’s U20 semi-finals in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. At that time, a place in the final in a game precisely against Spain was thwarted by a penalty by Andrés Iniesta after a foul in the penalty area that ended Colombia’s hopes. The national team took third place in the championship. In the women’s category, the 2010 Germany U-20 team came fourth. This Sunday at the DY Patil Stadium in the city of Navi Mumbai on India’s west coast is a new opportunity that Colombia couldn’t have missed.
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