Villarreal Women: First team win, plus updates on other main sides.

Finally, Villarreal women got their first league match. The rival was Levante B in a match played on Saturday 24 at 12:00 AM in the Ciudad Deportiva Miralcamp.

The first line-up of the post Aixa era was with Elena de Toro on the net (signing from Funda Albacete), Paula Arce (from Levante B), Cristina Diaz, Sara Medina, Sheila Guijarro, Sara Martinez (from Levante B), Bea Prades, Maria Cienfuegos (from Oviedo), Lara Mata, Alba Lopez and Irene Miguelez. On the bench would wait goalie Maria San Juan, Yolanda Palomino, Laura Royo, Salma Paralluelo, Mariela Coronel (from Granada), Rubí Soto (from Chivas) and Kareylen Capdevila (from Yaracuyanos). In total, four new signings started with another three waiting on the bench with Coronal and Rubí getting to debut also with the yellow. Due to COVID-19 and lack of sources for the match, it’s very difficult to talk at length about it. Sheila Guijarro scored on the 44th.

As this was the jornada 2 of the league, and the first two matches of SPAR (against Valencia B and newly promoted UD Aldaia) being postponed, it’s a bit difficult to have a clear picture of how the league will turn out. Funda Albacete, one of the teams to be called a top team in this grouping got a hard fought tie against newly promoted Joventut Almassora (linked team to Castellón so there will be that derby for Villarreal). Next match is away at Gran Canaria against SPAR on November 1 at 12:00 local time.

For their part, Villarreal B played their second match of the season, in this case a hard loss against Discóbolo-La Torre (from Valencia) losing 7-3, already trailing 3-1 at halftime getting the first goal against at the 4th minute of play. Their first match was a win against Levante C with a 2-0 win. All in all, their goalscoring table is a tied on one goal with Marta Querol and Thais Martinez (scorers against Levante C), and Tere Ibañez, Vera Rico and an own goal (from the Discóbolo match).

Another team that have also played for the second time, and still doesn’t know the win, is Villarreal C on their (re)debut in Autonómica after getting promoted after being one of the best seconds in Primera regional due to renounces from El Rumbo and Juventud Manisense of their spot in the league. On their first league match, they tied 3-3 against Alqueries. Elisa Barberan, Andrea Gonzalez and Natalia Miro scored on that match were they were always behind except with the 3-2. Their second match was against newly promoted Miramar and they also got a draw, in this case 1-1. At the 10th mark, Ana Pallares scored the first goal for Villarreal and with eight minutes left on the clock for the end, Miramar scored the equaliser. While not the great start, it’s good to still be unbeaten even if they don’t know the win yet

For the ones that may be a bit lost about the women pyramid: Villarreal is playing in Reto Iberdrola (2nd level), Villarreal B in Primera Nacional (3rd level) and Villarreal C in Autonómica (4th level). A good sign that women football is improving for Villarreal.