Corinthians Women’s coach reviews the season, eyes Club World Cup challenge | OneFootball

On the morning of last Sunday (14), Corinthians secured the runner-up position in the Paulista Women's Championship by defeating Palmeiras 1-0, with a goal from midfielder Gabi Zanotti, at the Canindé Stadium. The Brabas took second place as they were surpassed by a 5-1 score in the first leg, in Barueri.

Moments after the final whistle, coach Lucas Piccinato held a press conference and projected the Women's Club World Cup – Copa das Campeãs – which will take place between January 28 and February 1 in London, England. The Brabas will face Gotham FC, from the United States, in the semifinals. The match will take place at Brentford's stadium.

Photo: Rebeca Reis/Agência Paulistão

“It's difficult to measure such distinct competitions. In the middle of the year, we faced American teams and played competitive matches. Gotham, for example, didn't have a good group stage in the United States championship, but they improved in the knockout stage and ended up champions. There are many factors involved until then: preseason for both teams, holiday period, and of course, the transfer window. There's still plenty of time ahead.”

“If I am at the club next season and the management believes I am the right coach to lead the team in the World Cup, I will do my best to develop a good game plan and aim for a great debut. This is our dream. Certainly, we will use this runner-up position as a boost to make a World Cup different from what this Paulista Championship was,” he began.

If they advance to the Copa das Campeãs final, the Brabas will face Arsenal or AS FAR, from Morocco, at the Emirates Stadium. The stadium will also host the third and fourth place decision.

Later, he evaluated the Brabas' season. There were 72 games and five competitions played. The Alvinegro won the Conmebol Libertadores (vs Deportivo Cali-COL) and the Brazilian Championship (vs Cruzeiro) and, on the other hand, finished as runners-up in the Paulistão (vs Palmeiras) and the Supercup (vs São Paulo). Additionally, they were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Copa do Brasil, against São Paulo.

“The evaluation of the year, with the highlights of a runner-up position, will always be downplayed, naturally, by the context of what the final was, especially because of the first half we played at Arena Barueri, which conditioned the entire final series. And then, we always look at it as a general snapshot. You can't not look at this last picture. But I think our year doesn't represent this picture of the final. We had a Paulista where we led from start to finish, had a great semifinal, and unfortunately, had a first half in Barueri that conditioned us to be in a very adverse result.”

“I think last year's championship might even have had this context of mental fatigue. We had a very large number of athletes who were leaving. Everyone is human, right? Sometimes you can't focus on one thing and another. We had a Paulista Championship last year that was very challenging. We were behind Palmeiras in the qualifying phase and had a below-average semifinal, in my view. And honestly, this year I didn't feel that,” he continued.

Piccinato also highlighted that the mental fatigue of the squad ended up influencing the team's runner-up position, in addition to the departure of some athletes. He also reviewed the team's performance in the Paulista Women's Championship. In the first phase, the Brabas led the tournament with 35 points in 14 games and eliminated São Paulo in the semifinals, winning both matches.

“I think last year's championship might even have had this context of mental fatigue. We had a very large number of athletes who were leaving. Everyone is human, right? Sometimes you can't focus on one thing and another. We had a Paulista Championship last year that was very challenging. We were behind Palmeiras in the qualifying phase and had a below-average semifinal, in my view. And honestly, this year I didn't feel that.”

“I felt that even though we rotated the team a lot in the Paulista, we had a very consistent campaign in the first phase: one defeat in 14 games, playing many classics, because the Paulista brought us this perspective this season. We had two semifinals against São Paulo, a great opponent on the other side, but with a very good level of concentration and very strong halves against São Paulo, two very good second halves. And even when we weren't doing well in the game, we managed to control the match,” he stated.

He adds: “I don't feel it's a departure of players or staff, because we talked at the beginning of the year about how much we wanted this Paulista, how much it hurt us not to have won last year. I don't feel it was strange. There is, of course, great merit on the other side. A great championship too. Since Rosana's arrival, and even before, with Camila, there are 15 games unbeaten until today's match. It's a team that strengthened, qualified, had a great final, and truly deserves the title.”

The Brabas' coach also responded about the farewell atmosphere of some athletes. Goalkeeper Kemelli and defender Mariza are confirmed departures for the next season. Besides them, right-back Letícia Santos and forward Eudimilla are expected to leave the club, as they also have contracts until the end of this year.

“It's devastating to lose a competition, right? Everyone is… we work so hard, dedicate so much, there are 52 games in the year, each game matters, and losing a final will bring you a bad feeling, a feeling of sadness. End of Mariza's cycle here, who is moving on to another moment, so I think the two things come together. A normal sadness of those who lost a title they really wanted to win.”

“I think part of this is the demonstration I speak of this year, of not having felt that, at any moment, the group let go of the Paulista and said 'no, we don't want the Paulista.' On the contrary. Now, we can't play a game, a first half, as terrible as we did at Arena Barueri, because that will cost us, especially against a team as qualified as Palmeiras,” he highlights.

Despite two runner-up positions and two titles, the Corinthians Women's coach believes the team had a consistent season and then criticized the women's football calendar. This year, the CBF delayed releasing the calendar, which only started in March, resulting in a large concentration of matches, especially in the second half of the year.

“To weigh only on the physical part I think is cruel to the physical part, given that we had a very consistent year. The calendar has been heavy for quite some time, there are many games. The problem isn't even the games, it's their concentration over a very long period, which is this second half. But it's our calendar, which we've discussed many times, talked about how much it needs to improve, and I think it's up to other people to take care of that.”

“What we try to do a lot is rotate the team, give everyone high minutes. We have a player here who was in another team last year, a starter in another team, came here with minutes, so to speak, of a bench player, and today has more minutes than she had last year, due to the size and number of games we have. And we, of course, want to have a strong squad to compete in all competitions with those who are whole, with those who are well to play, so that we can fight for all competitions, just like this year, when we fought for all,” he concluded.

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.