News of Note: U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year Awards… The USWNT’s December 15th Match Will Be Televised… North Carolina Wins Its 22nd National Title… Twelve Teams To Compete in the 2013 Cyprus Cup.
U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year Awards: On Monday, U.S. Soccer announced the winners of its fan-decided female athlete of the year awards. Alex Morgan was named the Female Athlete of the Year, while U-20 captain and Bronze Ball winner Julie Johnston was named the Young Female Athlete of the Year.
USWNT’s December 15th Match Will Be Televised: The final Fan Tribute Tour match, on December 15th, versus China, will be televised live on NBC Sports Network, starting at 7:00 p.m. ET (USSoccer.com). Of the other two matches against China, it appears that only the December 12th match (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX Soccer) will also be televised. U.S. Soccer does not list any television information for the December 8th match in Detroit (1:30 p.m. ET), nor is the match listed on TitanTV.com, FOX Soccer’s schedule, or Universal Sports’ schedule. Online streaming via USSoccer.com remains a distinct possibility, especially with the federation’s tendency to announce such things at the last moment.
North Carolina Wins Its 22nd National Title: On Sunday, the University of North Carolina defeated Penn State by a score of 4 to 1 in the championship match of the College Cup. That win marks the program’s 21st NCAA national title. (They also have one AIAW Championship, in 1981.) United States U-20 WNT stand-out forward Kealia Ohai scored UNC’s opening goal in the 2nd minute, a powerful right-footed strike that clipped the underside of the crossbar. In the 19th minute, another U.S. U-20 WNT player, Taylor Schram, equalized for Penn State. 48 seconds after half-time, walk-on defender Hanna Gardener headed in the game-winning goal for UNC on a corner kick. Carolina would go on to add two insurance goals: another on a corner kick (Satara Murray, 64′) and a standing volley by Ranee Premji (75′) off a Crystal Dunn assist. See Also: NCAA highlights, box score, NCAA.com write-up, UNC write-up with longer highlight video and post-game interviews.
Twelve Teams To Compete in the 2013 Cyprus Cup: The tournament’s website now list the teams that will participate in next year’s edition of the friendly tournament, which runs from March 4th to the 14th (current FIFA rankings in parentheses):
- Group A: England (#8), Italy (#10), New Zealand (#21), Scotland (#22)
- Group B: Canada (#7), Netherlands (#14), Finland (#18), Switzerland (#25)
- Group C: South Korea (#15), R. of Ireland (#4), Northern Ireland (#53), South Africa (#56)
(For the Algarve Cup, an official or semi-official confirmation of the nations participating is not yet readily available, but according to the NSCAA’s website, at least the following eight teams will be involved: the United States, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, China, and Portugal.)
Canada WNT December Camp: Canada Soccer will announce the details, including the roster, for the team’s December camp, today (Tuesday, December 4th) at noon ET (via Melissa Tan / @HarJournalist).
Women's Soccer Express 