We then review the inaugural regular season for the Super League, which saw an exciting final day, with three teams vying for two playoff spots still available at that point. We finally look at Bhutan’s WNT, as they start their first AFC qualifying campaign this month for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup/ 2027 WWC in a very interesting group against Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Singapore.
Ethiopian and D.C. Power Loza Abera Interview
Ethiopian international forward Loza Abera (27) has made an impact in her first season playing in America with D.C. Power in the inaugural season of the USL Super League. She has also played in Europe in Malta and Sweden as well as for clubs in Ethiopia. She recently talked exclusively with TribalFootball.com.
Loza Abera talked about coming to America to play professionally in the States: “The impression in coming here is a lot for me. When I was a kid, I was dreaming of moments like this, and when I joined the D.C. Power, I’m living my dream.”
She also discussed her role in showing a path to professional football for girls and women in Ethiopia “for the next generation.” Loza Abera is truly a trailblazer for Ethiopian women players. She started playing for the national team as an 18-year-old and has scored 39 goals in 31 matches. Of the current Ethiopian national team players, she is one of only three players with clubs abroad, with two forwards: Aregash Kalsa (21) and Ariet Odong (20), playing in Tanzania with Yanga Princesses. We have talked in the past about Tanzania being a major importer of talent, including a number of players from Kenya (see: The Week in Women's Football: Man City mega spending; why everyone heading to Tanzania; UCL draw - Tribal Football).
Abera has not only shown that Ethiopian players have the talent to play in Europe and America, but she has also taken on an active role in helping other players from Ethiopia go abroad to play: “I’m playing abroad; (it) is a big thing not only for me but for other players. This opportunity (for me) opens a great opportunity for Ethiopian players. I have been working with some agents to open opportunities for players (to go) abroad—maybe Europe, maybe here, to see more players from Ethiopia play abroad. I want to work with agents, clubs, (and others) to help. Ethiopian players will want the system to give opportunities to play abroad. That system will come.”
Loza Abera has scored five goals in 23 matches this season in the Super League, with 10 starts, with all her goals coming in the Spring season. She came on at halftime of D.C.’s home game against Dallas Trinity on May 8, with the Power trailing 2-0. She lit an incredible comeback for the Power with a 54th minute goal to start the process. After a goal by Susanna Fitch (26)—who has played in Czech Republic, Iceland and Italy after a college career at Virginia Commonwealth University—in the 63rd minute tied the match, Abera scored again in the 95th minute for a dramatic winning goal. It was an important win for the seventh place Power, as Dallas Trinity has been solidly in the top four all season, and ultimately clinched a playoff spot in the last regular season round.
She talked about that win: “I came on in the second half. I was concentrating. I said to myself ‘I have to focus, to concentrate (and was) determined to score to help my team.’ In that game, you saw our energy, our passion; we trusted each other as a team to get the points.”
D.C. has struggled all season to score, compiling only 24 goals in 28 games as the lowest scoring side in the eight team league, but Abera’s recent goalscoring run—she also scored in the Power’s 1-1 tie on May 20 against Ft. Lauderdale and in their 3-3 tie at Lexington on May 31—has moved her to second on the team in scoring behind American forward Gianna Gorley, who had seven goals in 14 games (she started the season with Ft. Lauderdale). Abera’s scoring streak is an encouraging sign for the club as they consolidate ahead of year two, which starts in August. Loza is on a two year contract through the 2025-26 season.
Abera has been a scorer wherever she has played. In Malta she won the Women’s Premier League title with Birkirkara in 2019-20 and was the top scorer in the league with 30 goals in 12 matches, seven goals more than Malta international forward Buguja Haley of Mgarr United, who played in Orlando with the Pride in 2022-23 and is in her second season with Inter Milan in Italy. That season, Birkirkara went undefeated in the league and also won the Maltese Women’s Super Cup.
Abera also won a second tier Elitettan title in Sweden with Kingsbacka DFF in 2018, scoring three times in eight games, helping the club move up to the top tier Damallsvenskan for the first time. She is the all-time leading scorer in the Ethiopian Women’s Premier League, wining the Golden Boot seven times (once was a joint title) and won three league titles with Dedebit, three with CBE SA (Commercial Bank of Ethiopia) of Addis Ababa and one with Adama City in 2018-19.
At the national team level, Ethiopia advanced to the second stage earlier this year by advancing past Uganda on penalties in the first round and now face Tanzania in October in two legs, with the winner advancing to the 2026 African Women’s Cup of Nations. Ethiopia defeated Uganda 5-4 on penalties after a 2-2 deadlock over two legs. In the first leg on February 21 in Kampala, the home team won 2-0 with two goals in second half injury time. In the return leg five days later in Addis Ababa, Etsegenet Girma—who plays at home for Hawassa Ketema in Addis Ababa—scored a 96th minute goal for Ethiopia to tie the match just as her side was on the verge of being eliminated.
Abera talked about the chance that her country has to qualify for the African finals while staying alive in the 2027 WWC Qualifying: “Tanzania’s team is a very competitive team, a great team; the Tanzanian league is also a great league… We know each other and a lot of times we play each other (in the past)… We are focusing and we are working hard with coaches and working on Tanzania’s technical schemes. I hope in October we will qualify for the African Cup of Nations.”
Tanzania eliminated Equatorial Guinea 4-2 on aggregate in their first round matchup.
Qualifying for the next Women’s African Cup of Nations would help Ethiopia’s development program for women’s football. Abera explains: “We have only CAF club competitions and Africa Cup of Nations (matches). We do not have a lot of game or international opportunities. It is difficult to get players to play abroad. If we can qualify for the African Cup of Nations in October against Tanzania, that would be a great opportunity for us.”
By besting Tanzania and qualifying for the 2026 Women’s African Cup of Nations finals, that would certainly help raise the visibility of the players: “for international agents, scouts and clubs to see our players.” Zambia’s star Barbra Banda’s (Orlando Pride) and Cameroon’s Ajara Nchout Njoya (Al Qadsiah of Saudi Arabia) agent—Anton Maksimov of Bulgaria—has been a regular at the Women’s African Cup of Nations since 2008 and has been bringing and promoting players to clubs in Europe, America and China for years.
With Morocco hosting the next two African Cup of Nations tournaments (2025 and 2026) after their phenomenal success in 2022 when they first staged the event and then made the Round of 16 in their debut Women’s World Cup in 2023 in Australia/New Zealand, we expect to see even more agents and media attend the African Championships from all over the world.
Abera did say that Ethiopia’s women’s league is a professional league with 12 clubs and competitive: “We play with dedication and (the league) is very good. We are seeing a lot of players in our league but we want more (international) clubs, more scouts, more management (to) work with Ethiopian clubs and players to get opportunities to play abroad. The national league is fairly good. We want to work hard to improve the league.” Their solid national league is a very good sign for Ethiopia, with the league running from October to April as each team plays two games against every other team in the league, which is a good number of games for local players.
Loza Abera is an example of the top class imports that the USL Super League has brought to the U.S. for their first year, adding over 150 new professional footballing jobs in America. She has not only had an impact with D.C. Power but is a beacon for Ethiopian players at home, while actively trying to help other players to join clubs abroad. If the national team qualifies for the 2026 African Women’s Cup of Nations Finals later this year, that will be another boost to her efforts and the game at home.
2025 USL Super League Spring Regular Season Wrap-Up
Carolina Ascent (13-9-6—48 points—First)
The Ascent advanced up the table in the Spring season with one loss in their last ten matches, including seven wins and two ties, to take the Super League Player’s Shield as the regular season champion. The Ascent led the league in goals scored with 45 and had the best team defense in the league with 24. American Mia Corbin (27) finished second in the league in goals with 12 in 28 games, with 27 starts. She was a key element in the Ascent’s rise to take the regular season title, as she scored nine goals in the Spring season.
She came on the club’s radar by scoring eight goals in 22 games for Brisbane Roar in 2023-24. American-born Israeli international midfielder Eli (Beard) Hutchinson (28), who we interviewed last fall (see: The Week in Women's Football: Eli Beard exclusive; previewing inaugural USL Super League season - TribalFootball.com) finished with five goals, as did American Audrey Harding (26), who played in the NWSL with the Washington Spirit and in Sweden with KIF Orebro. Harding played collegiately at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.
Tampa Bay Sun (12-10-6—46 points—Second)
Tampa Bay’s only blemishes in the Spring were home and away losses to Spokane Zephyr (2-1 and 3-2 respectively), which ultimately cost the Sun the Player’s Shield title. Danish youth international (who won one senior cap in 2021) Cecilie Fløe (23) was hugely impactful in her first season abroad, finishing with 11 goals for the third highest total in the league; she could push her way back in the frame for national team duty with her form in the U.S.
She went to high school in the States for two years and was recruited to play with Southern Methodist University in Dallas/Ft. Worth, but decided to turn pro at home with Koge. English youth international Natasha Flint (28) contributed nine goals to the team’s 42 goals on the season, tied with Dallas and second only to Carolina, who had 44 goals.
American Carlee Giammona (24) finished with seven goals in 28 games, after scoring eight goals in 11 matches last season with Glasgow City in Scotland. Giammona played at the University of Alabama, Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and with Tigres UANL in Monterrey in Mexico. This experienced team will be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs (hosting Dallas Trinity on June 7 in a semifinal) and in year two, which starts in August.
Dallas Trinity (12-7-9 W-D-L—43 points—Third)
Going into the final game of the regular season, no one foresaw that the Trinity was sitting outside of the playoff picture, one point behind the Zephyr and United, as they had been consistently a top four side all season. Like Tampa, they built a very experienced club but three consecutive losses in Rounds 25-27 (all away from home) against Tampa Bay (1-0), D.C. Power (3-2) and Ft. Lauderdale (1-0), left fans very nervous if they would make the playoffs. They defeated Carolina 2-1on May 31 in their last match—with the latter scoring their single goal in the 93rd minute—to finish third and secure a semifinal clash with Tampa away from home.
Allie Thornton (27)—who has played with clubs in France—won the Golden Boot with 13 goals, one ahead of Carolina’s Mia Corbin with 12. Dallas’s team offense was tied for second best in the league (with Tampa Bay Sun) with 42 goals, three behind league leaders Carolina Ascent. Goalkeeper Madison White (23)—who played at Texas Tech University and was on loan this season from the NWSL’s Racing Louisville—tied with Spokane’s Hope Hisey for the most shutouts in the league with nine for the third best team defense in the league with 30 goals allowed, behind only Carolina (24) and Tampa Bay (28).
Chioma Ubogagu (32), finished second on the Trinity for goals with six. Ubogagu is from England but has played collegiately at Stanford University and four years in the NWSL with Houston and Orlando, joined Dallas after two seasons in London at Tottenham Hotspur and prior to that, spending one season with Real Madrid.
Fort Lauderdale United SC (11-9--8—42 points—Tied for Fourth)
The final regular season game of the regular season could not have had more drama—Ft. Lauderdale at Spokane, with the teams tied on points for the last two playoff spots but Dallas was a point behind and hosting regular season champions Carolina at home an hour before United’s kickoff. United made the playoffs with a 1-1 tie in front of an Eastern Washington crowd of 3,596.
Addy McCain (26), who played three seasons with Kansas City and Chicago in the NWSL, finished tied for fourth in the league in scoring with ten goals (with Spokane’s Bosnia and Herzegovina international Emina Ekic), while Jasmin Hamid (23)—who played previously with Hacken in Gothenburg, Sweden—had nine goals. Anele Komani (26), who qualifies to play for South Africa, played in ten matches this season. Raised in London, she played at the University of West Alabama and then abroad with Kdz Ereglispor in Turkey, Hapeol Petah Tikva in Israel, Clube De Albergaria in Portugal and Chelsea at home in England.
American goalkeeper Cosette Morche (27) finished in a tie with fellow American Meagan McClelland of Carolina for the second most shutouts in the league with six in 22 games. Morche played collegiately at Texas A&M and then the University of Louisiana-Lafayette before playing in Sweden, France and Spain prior to joining United.
United’s two players from Tonga—twin sisters and defenders from Utah Daviana Vaka (23) (who played at BYU and the University of Florida) and Laveni Vaka (23)—who played her entire career at Brigham Young University—combined to play in 18 games, all starts for Laveni.
Spokane Zephyr (11-9-8—42 points—Tied for Fourth)
The final two spots in the playoffs came down to three teams—Spokane and Ft. Lauderdale, both on 41 points but the Zephyr had a +5 goal difference to +2 for Lauderdale and the two teams faced each other in Spokane in the final game of the regular season on May 31 (while Dallas Trinity sat in fifth on 40 points and also played on May 31 but at home to Carolina). Unfortunately for the Zephyr, ties in the standings are broken by the results in the two team’s regular season matches, with United winning one game and had two ties against the Zephyr.
The fact that Spokane was in this position with a chance to clinch a playoff spot from the last game seemed unfathomable at the start of the Spring season as they were bottom of the league. They stuck by their coaching staff—unlike Lexington and D.C., the teams immediate ahead of them—and what a wonderful decision that turned out to be as Jo Johnson’s team buzzed through the Spring season with a 9-3-2 (W-D-L) record. Hope Hisey, who started the season on the bench, was phenomenal in the spring and led the league in saves with 70 and had 9 shutouts—tied with Dallas’ Madison White. Bosnia and Herzegovina international Emina Ekic scored seven goals in the spring—with three braces—and finished tied for fourth in the league with ten goals. She also added six assists, tied for second in the league with Chi Ubogagu of Dallas, and one behind Puerto Rican international midfielder Jill Aguilera (27) of the Carolina Ascent.
Ekic did not participate in the April and May/June Nations League games for B&H, which was a huge boost to Spokane. Ally Cook’s acquisition in the Spring on loan from the NWSL Chicago Stars was a huge acquisition, contributing six goals in 14 games and one assist for a team that struggled to score in the fall. The Zephyr finished a fourth best in team offense with 37 goals and fourth in defense with 32 goals allowed.
Emina Ekić was appreciative of the support from the city of Spokane throughout the season, saying after the final regular season match against Ft. Lauderdale: “The energy of the city is amazing, and it’s truly awesome to see, rain, shine, hail, there are always seats filled in the stadium, and you can’t say that for other teams in this league (see Brooklyn in particular, below). So big shoutout and thank you to them, because without them, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Zephyr FC team captain Taylor Aylmer (26), who scored four goals this season and played in the NWSL and Finland after college at Rutgers University in New Jersey, added: “You know, it was a new position to be in, and it was a lot of fun, to be honest. They (the fans) bring a lot of light and just good energy. I’m really proud of how our group has grown—individually as people, as players, and then as a collective. I think we’ve seen that shift in the spring in how we contribute to this team and build a positive team culture. I'm really proud of what we’ve created here.”
Spokane must find a successor to Johnson as she surprisingly announced that she would resign at the end of the season to return to Tulsa, Oklahoma and college coaching. She left a young family behind to coach in the Pacific Northwest. A team statement said: “Coach Johnson played a pivotal role in launching Zephyr FC, leading the club through its debut season with unmatched dedication, professionalism, and vision. Under her leadership, the team has established a competitive foundation, and a strong cultural identity built on unity and excellence.”
Team co-owner and President Katie Harnetiaux said: “We are grateful for everything Coach Johnson has brought to Spokane Zephyr FC—her leadership, her vision, and her belief in what this club can be. She’s helped lay a foundation that will support this club for years to come. Her impact will be felt long after the final whistle of this season.” Johnson said about her decision: “It’s been an extraordinary journey launching this club with such a committed group of players, staff, and fans. While the decision to leave wasn’t easy, it’s the right time for me to return home and refocus on family. That said, I’m fully committed to finishing what we started — and we intend to win the league before I return to Tulsa.”
Brooklyn FC (10-9-9—39 points—Sixth)
Brooklyn FC finished three points out of the playoffs, ending one of the more bizarre women’s professional football season stories that we have covered in some time. Despite leading the league at the end of the Fall season by six points in the table, it has been a terrible spring and this organization should rethink a lot of things ahead of the 2025-26 season later this summer. They won one game—a 4-1 win in Ft. Lauderdale on May 3, lost seven and tied seven since their two week trip to Italy in late February. One media analyst half joked to me that the team couldn’t re-focus on the league after “their holiday in Italy” which is harsh, but their fall from the top spot was a huge surprise and unprecedented.
During this short off-season before their second season, this side, with only three imports from Europe: French-raised Moroccan international midfielder Salma Almani (35), who we interviewed a few months ago (see: The Week in Women's Football: Exclusive with Brooklyn FC defender Amani; Hayes questions; examining SheBelieves Cup - TribalFootball.com), forwards Luana Grabias of Brazil (25) and Kess Elmore of England (26)—Puerto Rican international Sydney Martinez grew up in the States—should look to bring in more imports as they can roster up to seven imports in the league. American forward Jessica Garziano (24), who scored 22 goals in 90 games at St. John’s University in New York State, led the team with six goals, with Grabias second with five goals.
There are so many areas of concerns with this team. They couldn’t play at their Maimonides Park minor league baseball stadium home in iconic Coney Island (which seats 7,000 fans and is a brilliant setting on the boardwalk at the waterfront) until the spring season because of issues with the artificial turf installed for soccer; when they did, they did not win any games, going 0-4-3 (W-D-L). In the fall, they had to play at Colombia University’s Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium in Upper Manhattan; they didn’t win any games there either.
That didn’t help their attendance figures and they were last in the league with a reported average of 1,286 (with the league average about double that amount at 2,487), with their highest gate of 2,830 coming for a late season game versus Tampa Bay on March 29. Watching the games, those numbers must include season ticket holders and pre-sales, as the crowds looked as small as many internationals in Oceania Confederation’s island nations. Their marketing can’t be any clearer than their operations planning. This is a problem that needs to be fixed immediately this summer, since they play nine of their fourteen 2025-26 season matches at home in the fall. Of course, it would help if they finally win a game at home.
Their defense, so resolute in the fall with six shutouts and only eight goals allowed in 14 games, fell apart in the spring, conceding 26 goals in 14 games, including a 6-0 loss to Dallas and 5-0 loss to Carolina. After the Carolina Ascent loss away on April 24—which took their winless streak to nine games as they scored only four goals and allowed 21 for a stunning -17 goal difference—the club released head coach Jessica Silva, who was on a two year contract. Overall, she finished a respectable 8-5-8 record, but the plunge in the standings and out of the playoffs was likely the last straw.
Brooklyn FC’s approach to interim coaches is another problem for the side. After naming college assistant Fabio Barrios as interim head coach—Barros has years of experience as a college assistant and was most recently St. Bonaventure University's Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator, following stints with Mount St. Mary’s and Saint Peter’s University—we never saw him and his name has been purged from the club’s website. Sporting Director Kevin Tenjo—who was born in New York, raised in Colombia and played professionally for the New York Cosmos from 2016-2020 and won the Copa Sudamericana title with Santa Fe in Colombia in 2015—stepped in as the team’s interim head coach for the last five regular season games, going 1-1-3.
He has a busy job at the club in the off-season as he is also managing the addition of a USL Championship (second division) side in Brooklyn, which was delayed a year and will start in 2026. Jessica Silva actually was the team’s second head coach, as Kristen Sample—who has been a goalkeeping coach in Portugal with Boavista and played in England with Durham University and in Ireland with Raheny United. She won a national Community College title in 2007 with the Community College of Baltimore County—Catonsville, winning the MVP title for the championship and was an All-American player at that level. She led the side while “bureaucratic issues” were being sorted at the league and federation level in terms of getting permission to sign Silva. Gee, maybe BFC should have started that work earlier, perhaps? According to the Hudson River Blue, when Silva finally arrive, Sample left, which is another puzzler.
Personally, I think Jessica Silva wasn’t the issue but the organization seemed to be doing things on the fly, plus some players seemed to fade in their performance as the team progressed through the spring schedule. According to sources, many players are finished with the chaos around the club’s organizational problems and are frantically trying to find other clubs. TribalFootball.com has reached out to Jessica Silva and hope to have her thoughts in a future column. Silva was the first Canadian coach to receive a UEFA A License in France.
She grew up in Montreal and, after graduating from McGill University, she went to France’s US Orléans to be their head of academy and development and assistant coach to the first team. She later joined French club FC Metz, where she was the sporting director and head coach of its women’s program, competing in the first and second divisions. She has also been an assistant coach for Canada’s U-15, U-17, and U-20 women’s national teams.
We hope that Brooklyn FC can refocus their management and build a team that resembles that from the Fall season and can draw crowds to epic Coney Island. If not, this team will continue to be a black mark on the Super League.
DC Power (5-9-14—23 points—Seventh)
D.C. Power was bottom of the league in team scoring with 24 goals and desperately needs to add a veteran scorer in the off-season. American Gianna Gourley (24) has been a rare bright spot, scoring seven goals in 14 games since her transfer from Fort Lauderdale during the winter break, with a brace coming in their last game of the season—a 3-3 tie on the road in Kentucky. Another player to build around is Loza Abera Geinore (27) of Ethiopia (see our interview above), who finished with five goals, all coming in the spring; she had ten starts in 23 appearances across the 2024-25 season.
Morgan Aquino of Australia in goal had five shutouts and has another year on her contract; she made some amazing saves during the season to keep the low scoring side in games (see more in our interview with Aquino late in the Fall Season: The Week in Women's Football: A-League preview P1; exclusive chat with Morgan Aquino - TribalFootball.com).
Playing in the District at Audi Field, which the NWSL Spirit has firmly made its home and has been very competitive the last few seasons, is holding the team back and their season average attendance of 1,698 was ahead of only Lexington (1,531) and Brooklyn (1,286). The team should consider moving to a suburban site in Maryland or Virginia.
Lexington SC (4-6-18—18 points—Eighth)
A mid-season coaching change in early March did not help to change Lexington SC’s difficult first season when interim head coach Sam Stockley (47), who is a native of England, took over on March 1 after Mike Dickey was released in February. Lexington earned one point in their last nine games, which sealed their place at the foot of the table. This is another team that needs to refresh their internationals as their three Colombian youth internationals only played in 13 games combined (out of a possible 42 games in the spring season) with one goal. Defender Na-Yeong Shin (25) of Korea Republic played in 19 games while New Zealand international midfielder Grace Wisnewski (22) played in 13 games (with one goal).
This was a very young team—with all of the squad members 25 years or younger except for three forwards, two midfielders and two goalkeeper. They had three teenagers on the roster—two from Colombia, but they uncovered a real find in 17-year-old American defender Emma Johnson, who played in 14 matches and started five. The team scored 29 goals, ahead only of D.C. Power (with 24) but their defense needs a lot of work, as they allowed 62 goals in 2024-25, 21 goals more than second from bottom D.C. Power, who allowed 41. Look for almost a complete revamp in the offseason for Lexington.
American forward Madison Parsons (24) led the club with six goals. She played at Cal State-Chico in northern California and for Yuba FC in the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL)—a fourth tier amateur league—from 2023-24, becoming the club’s leading goal scorer. She then made the move to CDA—based in Chico in northern California, also in the UPSL—and was team captain before signing with Lexington SC after open tryouts. American Marykate McGuire (25)—a U.S. youth international who played at Duke and the University of Mississippi—and Swedish defender Sydney Shepherd (25), both finished with four goals and American forward Hannah Richardson (24) had three tallies.
Richardson played at the University of Kentucky and played one season at HB Koge in Denmark. Madison Parsons, Madison Perez and Shea Moyer all tied for fourth in the league with five assists each. Moyer (26), a U.S. youth international, played at Penn State U. and then in Israel, Iceland and Turkey from 2021-24 before returning to the U.S. to play in the Super League. Perez, who played with the U.S. at multiple youth levels through the U-20 team, played at Cal State-Long Beach but gave up her senior year to play professionally and join Lexington.
Bhutan will start their first FIFA WWC Qualifying Tournament against Iran and three other sides this summer.
Bhutan will face Iran and three other sides in the 2027 WWC Qualifiers later this year, which is their first attempt ever to make a senior global finals in women’s football. Bhutan’s WNT lost two friendlies in July 2024 to Bangladesh (5-1) and (4-2) at home. They then advanced to the semifinals of the South Asia Football Federation Women’s Championship, after tying Nepal (0-0), defeating Sri Lanka (4-1) and then blasting the Maldives 13-0. They lost to Bangladesh 7-1 in the semifinals last October.
This year, Bhutan have home friendlies scheduled against Malaysia and Hong Kong in June ahead of AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers against Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Singapore in late June/early July of 2025 in Amman, Jordan. The Women’s Asian Cup doubles as the FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament for the region. Bhutan is ranked number 39th out of 41 sides in Asia—with an additional three unranked: Qatar, Kuwait and Afghanistan—and 171st out of 196 globally with 8 unranked—the three in Asia along with Chad, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania and Sudan). Bhutan will play IR Iran (12th in Asia—68th in the world), Jordan (14th and 74th), Lebanon (26th and 131st) and Singapore (30th and 139th) in Group A. Only the group winner will advance to the continental finals in Australia next year.
The favorites of this group have to be Iran and Jordan, who have made the last two Asian finals respectively, but there could be surprises in this group. We have featured Jordan’s WNT earlier this year and they are adding talent from their vast diaspora, including Australian-born Wellington Phoenix defender Tiana Jaber: (see: The Week in Women's Football: A-League review; exclusive with Tiana Jaber on Lebanon call - TribalFootball.com). In their international history, Bhutan have defeated Jordan in their sole meeting, lost two games to Lebanon and have yet to play Iran and Singapore. Bharain has a 7-3-20 (W-D-L) record in their 28 internationals since 2010.
As far as Bhutan is concerned, they had brought in an experienced Oceania Women’s National Teams’ head coach in Nicola Demaine of England. Demaine joined Bhutan in 2024 for her third WNT job, after Samoa (2018-19) and PNG (2021-23). We interviewed her in 2022 during the Oceania Women’s Nations Cup—which doubled as the 2023 WWC Qualifying tournament for the region—which Papua New Guinea won for the first time, and this reporter communicated with her during and after the tournament (see: The Week in Women's Football: OFC Women’s Nations Cup review; - Tribal Football). Surprisingly, PNG replaced her before the FIFA Intercontinental Playoffs in early 2023 in New Zealand with another coach (The Week in Women's Football: WC Playoffs; Riley explains Panama choice; PNG appoint ex-Man City defender Prior - Tribal Football) and failed to qualify for the 2023 WWC Finals in Australia/New Zealand. She is an experienced coach and good on Bhutan for bringing her on ahead of these qualifiers. Unfortunately, they recently released her for reasons that seem more political than strategic with a coach from Korea Republic.
Sonam Choden (22), one of just two professional female players from the nation, was recently featured by FIFA.com. She explained that: “We are a country with a small population and maybe much of the world doesn’t even know that Bhutan exists and we want to change that. I’m proud to say that I’m Bhutanese and that, even with this small number of people, we are able to compete with much bigger nations and that’s what we want to show.”
Choden was part of the very first generation to play football for her national team and made her international debut in 2016 as a 14-year-old. She explained: “It was only in 2015 that the federation opened an academy and the players started to train regularly, and I was in that very first batch. There were only 19 girls back then. Now I think that number is up into the 60’s.”
Choden joined Kickstart FC of India in March for a few months of this year for the Karnataka Women’s League side in Bangalore, in the southeastern part of the country, from her Bhutanese side RTC Women’s FC. She told FIFA.com: “It was a whole new experience, the competition level was really high and I realised that there are still many things I need to improve. The Indian players’ mentality was high and physically they were very strong, much better than Bhutan. All the players would go 100 per cent every day and the league was really competitive. When I was there in India, I thought that I should go back to Bhutan, work hard on the things that I was lacking and then look to continue my professional career, either in India or elsewhere.”
In this season’s Asian Women’s Champions League at the group stage, Bhutan’s champion Royal Thimphu College of Bhutan hosted Group D and fell to Bam Khatoon of Iran, who won the group and made the Quarterfinals. RTC used three internationals from Bangladesh (see: The Week in Women's Football: Review of AFC Champions League; exclusive with Cloepfil about new book - TribalFootball.com).
TribalFootball.com will follow Bhutan’s group and the other ties for the Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers later this month for our readers.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey