130 wins in 139 games, a treble, and a quadruple—in every sense, Jonatan Giráldez dominated at FC Barcelona Femení. The Spanish tactician leading a top European side to the pinnacle of the women’s game only reinforces his status as one of the greatest managers. Yet, would it surprise you if we said that Giráldez found Europe less ‘competitive‘ compared to the NWSL?
Already sensing that your mouth is wide open in amazement—but yes, that’s how it is for him. It was just last summer that the 33-year-old joined the Washington Spirit. Considering his experience as little yet vast. That’s because, success almost came within his reach as he led the Spirit to a second-place finish in the NWSL regular season with 56 points, just behind Orlando Pride, before narrowly falling to them again in the Championship final.
So it would be safe to say that by now, Giraldez must be aware of the coaching differences in America compared to Europe. While he believes the distinction is vast, NWSL has the greater edge. Speaking about the league during an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Giraldez said, “Only 25-30% of the games here are won by a difference of two goals.”
“The rest of the games, there’s only one goal difference. That means that the league is very competitive. So this is very difficult if you compare it with my past with Barcelona in Spain because most of the games we won 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, easy, and in Europe other games too, but the level of tactics was very, very high. Here the level of the player is high too but everything is related to entertainment,” explained the Spaniard.
(This is a developing story…)
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