Welcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s unfastened girls’s soccer publication. Here’s an extract from this week’s version. To obtain the total model as soon as per week, simply pop your e-mail in beneath:
Women’s soccer is on a well-documented upward push. At elite degree, the game continues to professionalize whilst larger visibility has larger its achieve like by no means earlier than. Its sustainability, on the other hand, is dependent upon the improvement of a powerful grassroots community with ladies proceeding to achieve get admission to to and being empowered by means of a recreation from which, globally, they’ve historically been excluded.
It is on this area that Girls United, based in 2017 by means of Romina Calatayud, exists. Romina’s hobby in soccer got here from taking part in from a tender age. “It’s been an important part of my upbringing and a personal passion,” she says. “As many girls and women of my generation have, I grew up playing on pitches where I was often the only girl.”
“I started to think about what the parallels were between inequality in sport and inequality in other areas. That’s where the idea of Girls United was born. It’s that mission to use the power of sport to change gender inequality more broadly.”
Starting in Romina’s home country of Mexico, the organization has expanded to London. With more than 4,500 players and 135 coaches involved, the emphasis is on building locally-led pathways for girls to develop. The context in each place differs, but the aim remains the same. “There’s a lot of parallels,” she says. “We’ve got girls of a similar age range [5-18 years] and in both locations they’re girls who are trying to find their voice and themselves; trying to build a community where they feel a sense of belonging, where they feel like they can really express themselves and do the thing that they love, which is football.”
For Romina, it is essential a strong connection is upheld between the grassroots and the elite level. “We can be creating more spaces where girls are being activated and they’re having opportunities to play,” she says. “But if they don’t then see opportunities to continue their journey as footballers, and as athletes or as sports doers, then we’ll have a system that isn’t sustainable.”
Girls United has established a player journey that provides these opportunities. Working in schools, they start with “Love the Game”, the place ladies are given the risk to fall in love with soccer. From there, avid gamers can transfer into native satellite tv for pc periods earlier than doubtlessly achieving Girls United’s membership groups: “It’s about facilitating and building a network that allows them to feel confident to go along that journey and transition so that when they change schools or whatever, it’s not its the end of their time in football.
Developing coaches and program leaders is also an organizational focus. Romina is passionate about supporting educational outcomes and professional development. Life skills are integrated into their curriculum, using football to engage their players in conversations. “The learning is in depth and really quite powerful,” she says. “What we try to do is make sure that all of our programs are supporting individuals to build those life skills that can help them in school, in a professional environment and whatever it is they dream to do in life.”
Girls United has had plenty of success. A great source of pride, however, remains in their schools’ program as they witness a “neighborhood that builds across the college and the ladies, which then ripples and grows by itself”. Working in Lambeth and Southwark, they have seen players progress and grow in confidence. One example is Grace, who started at the age of nine with little confidence or interest in the sport. Now 11, she has become captain of her school’s mixed team and was a mascot for England’s Euro 2022 opener, developing her aspirations of becoming a Lioness.
Stories such as Grace’s provide motivation for Girls United to continue. They are expanding into Mexico City in January and their ambition is to grow geographically and deepen the impact of their pathways. “We want to use the momentum of the women’s game to really give more girls that opportunity,” says Romina. “I think the World Cup will be another exciting moment for us to highlight just how important this is on a grassroots level and how we can change society and individuals’ lives through football if we choose to create positive spaces with it.”
Talking points
Miedema latest victim of ‘ACL curse’ Anyone watching Arsenal’s Champions League fixture last Thursday will have feared the worst when Vivianne Miedema fell to the turf on the stroke of half-time. An ACL rupture was confirmed on Tuesday, a diagnosis that means yet another of the world’s best misses out on a major tournament. Twenty-five percent of the 2022 Ballon d’Or nominees are out with an injury that has become endemic in the sport, increasing calls for more to be done to address the problem.
Lyon in danger as WCL group stage ends As we head into the final matchday of this year’s Champions League, seven teams have secured their places in the quarter-finals. Roma have progressed to the knockouts at the first time of asking, joining Arsenal, Chelsea, Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and PSG. In what promises to be a dramatic encounter, Lyon and Juventus will battle for the final place on Wednesday. The holders need a result against the Italian champions to go through.
Club World Cup raises workload concerns Gianni Infantino last week announced Fifa’s plans to introduce a Women’s Club World Cup and Women’s Futsal World Cup. The Club World Cup would start from 2025. He also announced that Fifa believes the women’s Olympic football tournament should be expanded from 12 to 16 teams. The announcement was met with plenty of discussion around workload and player welfare as yet more fixtures are added for the world’s best players.
Quote of the week
“What I tell the players… If you play at your highest level, you can be proud of yourself. You’re going to be devastated by not winning, but at the end you can be proud because you did everything that’s in your control and that’s then the level you have. That’s how I approach it all the time because you can’t always control the result because the other teams, the best teams in the world, are really good.” – the England head trainer Sarina Wiegman,
Recommended viewing
Benfica’s Cloe Lacasse Made it 5 targets in 5 video games for him in Europe this season. An excellent run, well-executed flip previous Mapi León and nutmeg end persevered her robust goalscoring shape. It used to be only a comfort for Benfica in opposition to Barcelona, however an indication that groups could make the Spanish champions pay for switching off.
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