Santos Win the First Copa Libertadores Femenino

[video sent to us from See the Cup]

Brazilian team Santos won the inaugural ladies Copa Liberatadores on Sunday, or to give the tournament its full and excellent sounding Spanish language title: Copa Libertadores de Fútbol Femenino.

A healthy crowd of 14,000 were in attendance at the Estádio Urbano Caldeira to see Santos beat Paraguay’s Universidad Autónoma by a score of 9-0. Yep, that’s nine to nil.

In hindsight the ten team competition (one from each CONMEBOL country) was weighted heavily in Santos’ favour. According to Wikipieda, Santos was one of the parties involved in setting up the tournament, and the city acted as hosts for many of the games. The Santos team also had the incredible Marta on loan from WPS‘ LA Sol, as well as the backflipping sensation Cristiane on loan from the Chicago Red Stars. Santos went through the Copa with the following winning scorelines: 3-1, 12-0, 11-0, 3-1, 5-0, 9-0. Ouch.

Santos’ dominance may be a little unnerving, but it’s excellent to see a women’s version of the South American continental club competition get off the ground. And I just had an idea for the future: What if the WPS champions were entered into next year’s competition?

Would be a great boost for WPS, and extra exposure for the Libertadores. I know USA isn’t in South America, and MLS teams don’t compete in the male Copa Libertadores. But who says the ladies Libertadores Feminino has to be a mirror image of the men’s competition?

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Category: South America