Women's Champions League, Gotham Super Team, McGuire's safe landing?
A collection of weekly things, Saturday afternoon edition
Women’s Champions League
The UEFA Women’s Champions League wrapped up its group stage across Europe last week. And as 16 teams whittled down to eight, the trend of the past 12 months continued its pace: global parity in the women’s game increasingly pervades us.
For one, this is the first iteration of the UWCL group stage to see a club outside the traditional top-five (England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) proceed into the quarterfinals. That is, of course, since the group stage was introduced in 2021.
Though not the longest-running sample size for group stage progression, this year sees a full 50% of the final eight teams come to us from outside the top-five framework. Benfica (Portugal), Brann (Norway), Ajax (Netherlands), and Häcken (Sweden) all secured a ticket to move on after the final run of games.
With each of those four placing second in their respective groups, they follow behind reigning champion and two-time victor, Barcelona; historic juggernaut of the women’s game and eight-time champion, Lyon; two-time runners-up and four-time semifinalists, PSG; and one-time runners-up, three-time semifinalists, Chelsea.
Perhaps most glaringly, though, this year marks the first-time in UWCL history that no German team is represented in the quarterfinals.
Since the tournament was first introduced to the world as the “UEFA Women’s Cup” in 2001, Germany has been home to more European Champions than any other country, with nine trophies collected via Frankfurt (four-time Champions), Turbine Potsdam (two-time Champions), VfL Wolfsburg (two-time Champions), and Duisburg (one-time Champion). Germany has also seen more runners-up than any other country. Wolfsburg, Turbine Potsdam and Frankfurt have fallen just short of the trophy for a combined total of eight times. With that in mind, a German team has been present in the European final for a full 17 of the 22 competitions. A remarkable stat, but what’s more, only England has seen more teams end their Champions League run as semi-finalists, as a German side has done so ten times as well.
Now with eight teams remaining, Germany has zero teams represented, for the first-time ever.
Coming at the end of a year that saw the esteemed German National Team (second only to the United States for trophies accrued within international women’s football) eliminated in the group of the 2023 World Cup, that’s one tough year for Germany. Should they qualify for the Olympics this summer, they may actually be the one team with even more to prove than the United States does.
Gotham ‘super team’?
I wrote about Gotham FC’s super team aspirations for The Guardian this week. (To get their twice-weekly women’s football newsletter in your inbox, which I sometimes contribute to, you can subscribe here).
I drew some of the references within from a press conference in NYC this January. I observed remotely, but the celebratory affair included Taylor Swift's “The Man'' bumping in the lavish Rainbow Room at 30 Rockefeller Center, before Gotham’s 2023 Championship-winning season montaged highlights overhead, all preceding the introduction of four Team USA standout-signings believed to make this officially a ‘super team’ (Rose Lavelle, Crystal Dunn, Emily Sonnett and Tierna Davidson).
But most of my article drew from a one-on-one chat I had with Gotham’s GM, Yael Averbuch West, last week. Averbuch West gave me a lot to chew on, and I had much more to say than can fit in a singular article. So, I’m adding a bit more here.
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