With tough games following one after the other, there has been little chance for respite between important European ties
There is often discussion and debate, friendly and fiery, over which league tops the rest in terms of competitive balance, investment and the quality of the product on the pitch. In many ways these are abstract discussions to which we will never really have a clear answer. That is in part because women’s football is not a static beast but a living, breathing creature with its development constantly in flux and uneven, which means finding a fair barometer is close to impossible.
Some, mainly in the US and prompted by frustrations at the lack of US or US-based players in the Guardian top 100 female footballers, pointed recently to the success of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns over Lyon in this summer’s Women’s International Champions Cup to champion the US league’s superiority over European leagues. The reigning European champions, Barcelona, were beaten there by their predecessors, Lyon, and the Thorns progressed to the final against Lyon having beaten Houston Dash on penalties. Except that is a friendly tournament, played in the middle of the US season but in the European pre-season, and far from a true competitive test between the continents.
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