The Chile women's national football team represents Chile in international women's football. It is administered by the Federación de Fútbol de Chile and is a member of CONMEBOL. Chile were close to qualification for the FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991, 1995 and 2011 and later finally made the Finals for the first time in 2019. Chile is, along with Brazil, one of the two teams to never fail to qualify for the Copa América Femenina. Chile's friendlies are frequently played against Argentina, who is a traditional rival. The team is currently coached by José Letelier and is captained by goalkeeper Christiane Endler.
As well as many South American nations, women's football is somewhat under shadow of men's football. Chile, for qualifying to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France, marked itself as the fifth nation in the CONMEBOL to have both men's and women's teams qualify for senior FIFA tournaments. Chile is one of only three Spanish-speaking countries to have won a game in the Women's World Cup.
Chile is one of the first participants in the Copa América Femenina, when it did in the inaugural 1991 edition, alongside Brazil and Venezuela. Chile lost 1–6 to the Brazilian hosts and won 1–0 over Venezuela, thus failed to qualify for the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup. Chile then entered an era of decline in fortunes, only winning third place in 1995 and 2010.
Following the failure to qualify for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Chile women's team had become inactive for three years, before the team was able to return in May 2017 for a friendly against Peru, won by Chile 12–0. This marked the revival of Chile in women's football fortune, and following the 2018 Copa América Femenina as hosts, Chile rode to eventual second place with fan attendance of Chile's games nearly full, which also confirmed Chile a place in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, the first FIFA Women's World Cup in Chile's women's football history, and was seen with joys among Chilean supporters after its men's counterparts failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and accusations of discrimination based on gender toward female footballers.[2][3]
Chile was drawn into the group F of the 2019 Women's World Cup, sharing group with two very powerful women's forces, world champions United States and Sweden, alongside Southeast Asian opponent and 2015 edition debutant Thailand. Sitting in a totally too difficult group, Chile nonetheless demonstrated brave performances against Sweden and the United States but could not gain a single point, losing 0–2 to Sweden and 0–3 to the United States respectively, or scoring a single goal.[4][5] Chile's last match, however, was a crucial meeting against Thailand, whose fighting spirits were even more demoralised following two devastating losses to the United States and Sweden earlier. Chile salvaged with a historic 2–0 triumph over Thailand, but the penalty miss in late minutes by Francisca Lara saw Chile eliminated from the World Cup due to inferior goal differences with Nigeria, which later progressed.[6]
Chile then took part in the 2020 Summer Olympics thanked to beating Cameroon in the playoff, but facing stronger opponents Great Britain, Canada and hosts Japan, the Chileans could not gain even just a draw, though not without putting strong fights as Chile's losses weren't as heavy as expected.[7][8][9]
Team image
Nicknames
The Chile women's national football team has been known or nicknamed as "La Roja Femenina (The Feminine Red)".
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