Corinthians Women coach explains tactics, eyes US friendly | OneFootball

On the night of last Friday (3), Corinthians faced Red Bull Bragantino at Estádio Alfredo Schürig, Fazendinha, in a match valid for the sixth round of the first phase of the 2026 Brazilian Women’s Championship, and won 5-1. The goals for the Brabas were scored by midfielder Gabi Zanotti (twice), Andressa Alves, Belén Aquino, and Vic Albuquerque. With the result, the Corinthians side moved into first place in the national competition with 13 points — four wins, one draw, and one loss — with 17 goals scored and seven conceded.

Moments after the final whistle, Corinthians Women head coach Emily Lima spoke to the press in the mixed zone and was asked about several topics. The coach analyzed the individual performances of some players, squad rotation, the day-to-day work of the coaching staff, explained the tactical formation she has been using, and looked ahead to the Teal Rising Cup in the United States, starting next Thursday (9).

Photo: Rodrigo Gazzanel/Agência Corinthians

Check out coach Emily Lima’s answers below:

Variations in tactical behavior during defensive/offensive phases

“It’s a type of collective game, and it’s been improving, not just on the right side, but overall it’s improving. On the right side, we’re still working on some pieces, especially at full-back. We brought Ivana back into the starting lineup for this match to see how she would do in a position she’s not so used to. She had played there many times, but not as a full-back. I think it’s about continuing to work so we can have a group and a team that can develop in all areas of the field. Not just on the right side or just on the left side, but I see that collectively we are evolving. There’s still a lot missing, a lot, but I believe the wins help generate more confidence in the players, more confidence in the work, and help them understand what we came here to do. We present the proposal, and I think that’s it — to keep evolving the team as a whole.”

Offensive play

“We’ve been working a lot on balls played into depth. Today we see many teams using man-marking. Man-marking creates a lot of space for us when we understand that we can do what we want with the opponent. So we’re looking a lot to pin back the center-backs and create overlaps from midfield, with that touch into depth. We’ve been working on that a lot. We understood that Corinthians’ interior play was very strong, but out wide, where we see a lot of space and where we’ve been successful with these crosses into the edge of the box, it’s been paying off. We also can’t become easy to read, playing outside and then inside. So since we understood Corinthians were very strong inside, we started to maximize this game with more depth. But playing with depth isn’t just about playing with depth, it’s about how to get in and how to occupy the box. So it’s been working, and I believe now we need to understand the right moments to go from outside to inside, inside to outside, and not be predictable.”

Choosing the team captain

“There wasn’t any conversation, it’s part of my profile. Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve believed that leadership has to come from the group and not from one, two, or three leaders. I believe everyone has to have a voice, everyone has to be a leader. I’ve always worked with this group profile. I don’t work with 11 starters and 20 or 30 backups, we try to work with groups. By working as a group, I believe what we always say: a team wins games and a squad wins titles. So building this squad, this group, has to be very strong so we can go after the titles still left for us this year.”

Outlook for the Teal Rising Cup, a friendly tournament in the United States

“I believe it’s a tournament during the FIFA international window. We’ll be able to evaluate even more players who have had only a few minutes in the Brazilian Championship, so it’s a very good moment. We finish this first stretch here with our first goal achieved, which since we arrived was to finish at the top of the Brazilian Championship, and then take this break in the Brazilian Championship with the girls away on international duty, and already go into this tournament fully focused on it, and try to rotate, rotate players, try to put together the best team for the opener against Kansas, and try to have a good tournament and finish it better than last year.”

Corinthians’ work as a group, from the coaching staff and staff members to the players

“I don’t think it’s about Emily, I think it’s about the group that works with Emily. The group is everyone: medical department, physiology, physiotherapists, communication, administration. I think it’s a profile that anyone who has followed me since the beginning, when I started at Juventus, knows. We work a lot with this mindset of helping one another all the time, we can’t think individually, because nobody does anything alone, we always need someone for something. So they need people giving them massages, taking care of them, taking care of the kit, taking care of the food, taking care of nutrition.”

“So there’s a whole team behind this, and this team has helped me a lot to maximize these ideas of mine, to believe that the day-to-day work will make us stronger. And the human side, which is what I always talk about and always will talk about, is something I learned at home and will carry with me for life. And I try to spread that, so I think this human side is what matters most in everyday life, and I try to pass it on to everyone beside me and hope to pass it on to the group so they understand that the human side has to come before the athlete. Before being athletes, they are human beings, and so are we. So if we have that connection, that understanding, I believe we’ll be on the right path.”

Belén Aquino, Vic Albuquerque, and squad rotation

“I’ve known (Belén) Aquino since I worked with national teams, both Ecuador and Peru, we studied those teams a lot. When I was at Inter, we talked about her a lot. After she came to Corinthians, I said: ‘Wow, what a great addition.’ It’s very difficult to find a fixed starting 11 in this team, because the week of training is very good. I’ve been saying that every week since we arrived here at Corinthians has been better than the last. And this past week, before this game, was for me the best week. So we could mention several names who could have started today. And the most important thing about starting is earning continuity the following week, and not assuming it won’t happen.”

“Vic had been a starter in every game. And now she ended up not keeping that spot, but not because Vic let up, it’s because the level in training is extremely high. So that’s good, because when we need Vic — I’m using her as an example — she comes in and scores, so that shows the importance of what we want to build at Corinthians, which is this mutual respect among everyone. One comes out, another comes in, and I’m going to give everything I can because we can’t let the level drop. I believe that’s it. Like all Corinthians players, she’s not here by chance, you have to have the level to play here, so she’s one more player adding to the Corinthians group.”

The team’s tactical formation — ‘positional play’

“So today we’re playing in a 4-1-3-2. What happens is that this midfield diamond rotates a lot. So we’re playing positional football, but positional football with movement, with mobility in that diamond and from the two forwards. So when we talk about man-marking, we have to create space. To create space, we need mobility. So that’s what’s happening and, sometimes, the difficulty in seeing it is because of the opponent. So we invite the opponent to do exactly what we want, to create those spaces. But the formation has been this one, with these position changes and mobility that create the doubt you mentioned — just as we want it to create doubt on the other side too, for opponents and in training drills.”

The team’s physical development since her debut in charge

“Actually, we are evolving, we are improving. It’s not easy to play 90 minutes at that pace. We need greater control of the game in moments when we end up easing off, because it’s impossible to play all 90 minutes like that. Today was one of those days. Instead of keeping the ball and having greater control of the match, we wanted to force our way in however possible and suffered in transition, and that’s exhausting, because you have to keep running back all the time. That happened a lot at the end of the first half and the start of the second. We have the challenge of identifying why that’s happening. You mentioned the Palmeiras game, and that happened in the first half against Palmeiras too, and we need to detect why it’s happening. I believe it’s much more about our own control, about controlling the match a bit better, both with and without the ball, than about the opponent creating situations. I think we’ve been creating situations for opponents, and we have to understand why things are happening and try to correct them.”

Tamires’ mistake in the Red Bull Bragantino goal, the performance of number 37, and an assessment of Juliette

“Yes, there were two individual mistakes, but I believe that we have — we use a phrase, which is urgent situations. When that happens, the teammate beside her has to urgently try to solve the problem. Many times that doesn’t happen, as it didn’t this time, and we can’t concede a goal like that. It’s inattention, not being focused for the whole game, and it happened. It happened, and we’ll try to adjust it, correct not only that but some other things too, really tighten up some things that happened in both the first and second half, especially closing down the ball, especially the moment to run back, the moment when the player has her back turned, the moment to get tight to her, the moment of an uncovered ball, of running back — anyway, there are some adjustments we need to make. I see Juliette always striving for her best, Juliette always looks for her best level, like all the players. The competitive level and competitiveness in training are extremely high.”

“We’ve been evaluating players a lot in each game — Juliette, Tamires. Juliette played the first game, then didn’t play the second, then came on at halftime in the second. So Jacque and I have been encouraging different game situations. One starts, one comes on at halftime, one starts another game, anyway. And very soon we’ll have to make some decisions and establish a clearer identity. Because one thing is playing with Juliette and another is playing with Tamires. They are players with different characteristics. But I think the competitive level is very high and not only Juliette, but the whole group has been seeking their best performance in every training session.”

Next match

Now, the Brabas return to the field in the Brasileirão only on the 20th (Monday), at 9 p.m. (Brasília time), away from home, in a match valid for the seventh round of the tournament. Before that, however, Emily Lima’s squad will travel to the United States, where they will play in the second edition of the Teal Rising Cup. Next Thursday, at 10 p.m. (Brasília time), the Brabas face Kansas City Current at CPKC Stadium.

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