Unbeaten with Colo Colo, Tatiele Silveira eyes Libertadores glory | OneFootball

The Brazilian coach Tatiele Silveira wants to make history in the Women's Copa Libertadores. Her team, Colo Colo from Chile, hasn't lost in a year and is one game away from qualifying for the tournament final held in Argentina.

Tatiele, 45, leads a team aiming to break Brazilian dominance and win their second title in South America's premier club tournament, 13 years after the unforgettable victory in 2012.

With a 100% success rate in four matches in the competition, all without conceding a goal, Colo Colo is on a streak of 36 consecutive victories in official games. Not even the powerful Corinthians, the current two-time Libertadores champion, has such impressive numbers.

The last defeat? On October 6, 2024, against Santos (1-0), in the group stage of the last edition of the continental tournament, which was held in Paraguay.

This year, the Chilean team defeated Olímpia (2-0), São Paulo (1-0), and San Lorenzo (1-0) in the first phase. Then, they eliminated Libertad (1-0) in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals for the first time since 2017.

The perfect campaign was aided by the relentless striker Mary Valencia, a Colombian naturalized Chilean, who scored five goals.

“I am proud of this group, for the work of the girls, for the discipline, the effort, the sacrifice. This respect was not earned in two days. It was built in Chile, from other cups, and now we feel valued by the club, by our fans,” said the coach after the victory over Libertad.

First Steps

The Brazilian coach followed the quarterfinal match with an intensity that inspired her players, who will face Deportivo Cali next Wednesday for a spot in the final on October 18.

Born in Porto Alegre in July 1980, Tatiele started playing soccer at the age of ten, playing with boys. After three seasons, she found a girls' team when Internacional opened its first women's soccer school.

Known as Tati, she played ten years as a midfielder for Inter. In 2004, she stopped playing professionally but continued playing futsal while starting to venture into coaching youth categories.

“While I was playing, my family always had a requirement: I could play, but I had to study. So, I finished high school and applied for a degree in physical education. I didn't know I wanted to be a coach back then, but I liked sports,” she said ten years later in an interview.

In 2017, Tatiele took over the professional team of Inter and led the 'Gurias Coloradas' to win the Campeonato Gaúcho that same season, but her contract was not renewed despite a record of only two defeats in 40 games.

Two years later, she joined Ferroviária and led the team from Araraquara to their second Brazilian women's championship and the Libertadores final, losing 2-0 to Corinthians.

“We Don't Think About Records”

Tatiele continued her career at Santos, another giant of South American women's soccer, and at Vasco, but the decisive change came in mid-2023 when she went to Chile to lead Colo Colo, with which she won two national titles (2023 and 2024).

“We are experiencing a special moment within our group. The girls stayed because they believed in the project, because this is the centenary year [of Colo Colo] and that's beautiful. And it's incredible to put a club in a Copa Libertadores semifinal,” the Brazilian told journalists.

In Chile, Tatiele faced the challenge of bringing her methodology outside Brazil. She also had the support of a management team that allowed her to implement a project that quickly found the path to success, with increasingly ambitious goals.

If she wins the Libertadores, the coach will not only break the streak of six consecutive titles by Brazilian teams but also become the second woman to win the Women's Libertadores, after fellow Brazilian Lindsay Camila, who won with Ferroviária in 2020.

“We don't think about records, but about winning games, maintaining the level of concentration, the mentality, which is difficult,” emphasized Tatiele. “We keep fighting, winning, and valuing this, which is also part of a project.”

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