Just because it’s the end of the year, that doesn’t mean the action in the world of women’s soccer has stopped.

Over the last two posts, I have been reviewing the league champions crowned in 2025 throughout the Americas. First, I covered the leagues in North and Central America. Then I surveyed the leagues in South America. Of course, there were a handful of leagues still in action at the time of my posting, so I wanted to follow up on them this week.

Newell’s Old Boys vs Belgrano
Full Match
(All highlights taken from this vid)

The 2025 league season was split into two, with Newell’s Old Boys winning the first tournament and Belgrano winning the second tournament. To determine the overall season champion and participant in the 2026 Copa Libertadores, the two sides met for the Trofeo de Campeonas.

Despite having a great opening tournament, Newell’s had since lost their primary goal scorer, in Mariana Larroquette, so they came into the match as underdogs. Accordingly, Belgrano were the dominant team throughout the match. They created a number of chances, but they could not score. In the end, the match would be decided on penalties.

The star of the penalties shootout was Belgrano’s goalkeeper, Augustina Sanchez. She makes two saves in the shootout.

After the second save, she thinks she’s won it, but the ref reminds her that Belgrano needs at one more conversion to seal it. So, it’s time for Belgrano’s 4th penalty taker, Augustina Sanchez.

The keeper steps up and buries a rocket of a shot into the upper corner, winning the Trofeo de Campeonas for Belgrano.

Newell’s Old Boys 0-0 Belgrano (Belgrano win on penalties, 4-2)

Alianza FC vs CD Municipal Limeño
Match Highlights (Highlights below taken from broadcast on AloudSports TV)

Alianza and Limeño have made it a habit of competing in El Salvador’s league finals of late, having met in both finals of the 2024/25, and now a third straight with the opening final of the 2025/26 season.

Unlike the previous two finals, Limeño would be far more competitive in this fixture. Throughout the first half, Limeño had the better of play and forced multiple diving saves from Alianza’s keeper. They would finally take the lead in the 26’ on a header from Kendy Morales.

But before the half was out, Alianza would equalize on a golazo from Genesis Carpio in the 38’.

All the hype in the buildup focused on Paola Calderon, she of the bicycle kick goal in the previous final. In the Apertura season, she scored 42 goals in 16 matches, so expectations were high for her in this final.

Despite the late equalizer, however, Limeño would continue to have the edge on play in the second half. They had better possession and created more chances. Alianza would get forward, but they were struggling to make their offensive production dangerous.

But Paola Calderon would come through for Alianza, just not with the flair of the earlier final. In the 81’, a ball over the top bounced between a Limeño defender and the keeper. Miscommunication leads to the defender attempting to clear but mis-hitting the ball over the approaching keeper. Calderon pounces on the mis-hit clearances and happily touches it into the net to give her side the 2-1 lead.

Alianza would hold on to their lead and take home their 5th consecutive league title and 11th overall.

Alianza FC 2-1 CD Municipal Limeño

UNAN Managua vs Real Esteli
(Full Match)

The final of the opening round of the 2025/26 season saw Real Esteli, dominant in recent years, take on UNAN Managua, where were dominant for a good decade prior to Esteli’s rise.

UNAN got about a good a start as they could ask for, winning a penalty in the first minute and converting for the early lead. They would hold that lead through the first half. Real Esteli would turn that match around in the second half, scoring two and controlling throughout.

I’ve still struggled to find details about the Nicaraguan league, especially over the last three years. But this is at least three straight titles for Real Esteli, having won the 2024 Apertura, 2025 Clausura, and this title.

UNAN Managua 1-2 Real Esteli

Napoles FC vs Sagitun Girlz FC
Photos of Match

The final of the PWLB came down to the two teams that dominated the regular season. I don’t have highlights, but the winning goal came late. In the 87’ Roshanny Narvaez received the ball in the box, cut a defender, and placed her shot past another defender into the net.

Napoles FC would score a second in stoppage time to end all doubt. It is Napoles FC’s first title.

Napoles FC 2-0 Sagitun Girlz FC

When the NWSL rejected the contract signed between the Washington Spirit and Trinity Rodman [LINK], the league quickly set about developing a change to the roster/salary cap rules to allow for the contract to be approved. That change was announced by NWSL on December 23, and it was been met with a combination of criticism and bewilderment.

The crux of the policy allows certain players to be considered “High Impact Players” or HIP. Via such players, a team can exceed the leagues salary cap by $1 million, where only 12% of the HIP contracts are applied to calculating a teams overall salary cap. The upshot is that teams can offer larger contacts to key players to remain competitive against growing foreign investment in women’s soccer. At the same time, the overall limit of $1 million over the cap keeps new HIP status from being a complete workaround that allows one team just shelling out a bunch of HIP contracts and eating the costs. Whether or not one likes this kind of rule, it does seem to adhere to the basic objectives of allowing deeper investment in players while limiting salary expenses in a still-growing league and continue to have the parody-advantages that can come with salary-capped leagues.

But a the truly bizarre element of the rule arose with the criteria for how a player can qualify as a High Impact Player. The NWSL outlined this in the announcement:

When this first came out, my initial thought was: “what a bizarre set of criteria'“. It’s just rife for not properly identifying the right players. An organization that focuses on athlete marketability? A number of yearly rankings primarily voted on by journalists, the majority of whom are located in Europe?

But then, while folding clothes that night, it hit me. Perhaps I was slow to this, but none of these criteria are in the control of the league, centrally, nor the clubs, individually, except for the End-of-Season awards and some of the rankings that include players and front-office staff as voters. Even then, that control is merely secondary influence. In effect, the NWSL has decided to allow players that meet certain criteria to be eligible for a special contract designation, then handed away all power to decide which players meet that eligibility.

Consider two rules in other leagues that fall in the same ballpark as HIP: the Franchise Tag in NFL and the Designated Player Rule in MLS. Both are rules aimed at circumventing roster/contract rules. The former circumventing free agency rules, and the latter salary cap rules. Significantly, the entity that initiates these rules are the respective franchises, themselves. Any player is, ostensibly, eligible for the policy, the individual teams apply when and where they see fit. We can offer criticisms of these rules, but they seem to genuinely start from the position of empowering the people who build rosters.

Far from empowering the actual roster-builders within the league (the General Managers and Directors of Soccer Operations) NWSL’s new HIP policy looks to a variety of non-league entities and relies on their decisions about factors that have nothing to do with NWSL club compensation and roster building. As this Bluesky thread from Danny Page notes:

Based on the current eligibility criteria, Sam Kerr is not eligible for HIP. As the discussion in the thread noted, that’s likely because she’s had recent injuries that have kept her off many of the lists you’d expect her to be on. But that really drives home the silliness of the whole thing. Farming out contract eligibility rules to a series of rankings and awards that have nothing to do with NWSL roster construction is just bonkers.

It is very difficult to fathom how the league got here. The most charitable answer (and the most likely) is that they rushed the decision without really putting it through the grinder. They found a series of lists that approximate the kinds of qualities that define a High Impact Player and ran with that. The lists probably included the names of players they’d most likely expect to be in a similar situation as Trinity Rodman in upcoming years, so they figured it solved their immediate problem and likely covered upcoming issues. But they were always thinking of it as a quick fix for a Trinity Rodman problem and didn’t actually troubleshoot it as a genuine policy. The result seems to be that the league looks a bit incompetent (nothing new) and will either have to go back to the drawing board or let the rule run for a year and work an update at a later date.

The NWSL Players Association released a statement opposing the new rule.

There are plenty of good writeups about the rule out there. I’ll link a few:

Abigail Segel at The Equalizer
Justin Horneker at TalkinSoccer
Expected Own Goals Podcast
Leslie Ryder with a good video

Very sad news out of Chile as it appears Santiago Morning, a club based in the Chilean capital, are planning on shuttering their women’s side, arguing financial struggles. The issues facing the club actually arise from the men’s side, who were relegated to the Segunda Division at the end of the 2025 season. Despite its name, the Segunda Division is the third tier of the Chilean soccer pyramid.

An important factor in Santiago Morning’s men getting relegated was being docked points twice (see here and here) for financial irregularities. Now being in the third division, the club is no longer obligated to maintain a full women’s side. In light of the financial struggles at the club, its director, Luis Faundez, has argued that the closing of the women’s team is justified because they are only a financial drain. Players and coaching staff for the club counter that the decision is “a stain” and the situation is the result of the leadership’s mismanagement.

The Santiago Morning women’s team is one of the more successful in Chile. The women’s division has long been dominated by Colo-Colo, but Santiago Morning rank second in total titles, with three. They’ve also been a club that have helped produce some of Chile’s top talent, including 2025 season MVP and Golden Boot winner, Mary Valencia.

There has been no official announcement from the club, so it is still possible that the women’s team will remain. However, the club have had at least 10 players depart already, so it’s hard to see the club participating in the 2026 season at this point. The current reporting notes that the club plans to maintain the U-16 and U-19 girls sides, so if the club does keep it’s full team, they could potentially fill the roster with youth players. Perhaps a better than nothing solution for fans angered at the possibility of the women’s side shuttering, but that would be a small and rather insulting attempt to maintain the club after the backlash.

The Vamos Bohemias instagram account has a nice little history of the women’s side.

The 2026 season may be a bust, but hopefully the club’s leadership can get their collective heads out of their asses and right the ship, not just for the women’s side, but for the club as a whole. The women’s team may be the first to go, but the future does not look bright for the men’s side, either.

Sorry to end on such a downer. For next week’s post, I plan to look ahead at some of the action coming up in women’s soccer to start 2026.

I hope everyone is a having a wonderful December holiday season. I wish you all the best in the new year.