Things that happened last week (October 7th-13th):
- Five teams qualified for next year’s CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship
- The NWSL regular season is in the books: Play-offs begin next Sunday
- A U-15 USGNT Talent ID Camp was held in Kansas City
- Women’s Euro Qualifying: October Window Recap
CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying
Over the October international window, teams from the Caribbean and Central American regions of CONCACAF competed in a preliminary group stage to see which teams would qualify for the final stage of Olympic qualifying.
Key Facts and Notables:
- Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, and Saint Kitts & Nevis all qualified for next year’s CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship
- They join the United States, Canada, and Mexico in the eight-team qualification tournament
- The final tournament, which will be hosted by the United States, is scheduled for January 28th to February 9th (per the Washington Post‘s Steven Goff – Twitter)
- Panama, who finished fourth in WWC qualifying last year, return for their second Olympic qualifying tournament (first appearance: 2004)
- Debuting in their first senior CONCACAF women’s tournament is tiny Saint Kitts & Nevis (SKN), who finished first in their five-team group, which was hosted by Trinidad & Tobago. (Highlights of the TRI-SKN match, below)
- Saint Kitts & Nevis has a population of roughly 55,000 and is the smallest independent country in the Western hemisphere (Wikipedia)
- SKN’s WNT is coached by (Deborah) Jené Baclawski (Twitter profile) who is the Technical Director for the South Texas Youth Soccer Association
- At least half of their qualifying roster (Facebook) consists of players who grew up in the USA or Canada, including at least four players with NCAA D1 experience: goalkeeper Kyra Dickinson (Howard), Arielle Fernandez (Pitt), Phoenetia Browne (Columbia/Texas), and Brittney Lawrence (Oral Roberts)
- At least two players currently play in Europe: Phoenetia Browne (Åland United – Finland, previously with UWCL team Olimpia Cluj of Romania) and Brittney Lawrence (Skoftebyns IF – Sweden)
- Filling out the qualifying roster were a handful of U-20 and U-17 players, including at least two who were on SKN’s U-15 GNT in 2018
Read: 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship: Draw Speculation
U-15 USGNT Talent Identification Camp Held In Kansas City
Last week, 59 players, all born in 2005, attended a talent identification camp at the National Development Center in Kansas City, Kansas.
Key Facts and Notables:
- At least thirteen of the players attended a U-14 GNT camp in 2018, including the four 2005’ers who were on the USA’s 2018 CONCACAF Girls’ U-15 Championship roster: Olivia Moultrie, Maggie Taitano, Gisele Thompson, and Amelia Van Zanten.
- At least four players have older sisters with USA youth national team experience
- The camp was led by U.S. Soccer Director of (Girls’) Talent Identification Mirelle van Rijbroek
- Supporting van Rijbroek at the camp were “U-17 WNT head coach Tracey Kevins and the three Girls’ Talent Identification Managers: Katie Cole (Central Region), Diane Drake (East) and Marieke Laurens (West)”
Read: U-15 USGNT: 59 Players Called In For Talent ID Camp
The 2019 NWSL Regular Season is in the Books
Play-Offs Begin Next Sunday
On Saturday, the last regular season matches of the 2019 season were played.
Key Facts and Notables:
- The Orland0-Reign 2:2 draw meant that Reign FC finished fourth in the standings, with the Portland Thorns FC in third.
- Thus, for the play-off semifinals, Reign FC will travel to North Carolina to play the Courage, while the Portland Thorns will travel to Chicago to play the Red Stars.
- With 18 goals this year, Sam Kerr is the Golden Boot winner for the third season in a row.
- All three play-off matches will be televised live on ESPN2 (semifinals) and ESPN (final/championship). Schedule:
Sunday, October 20th (ESPN2)
1:30 PM EDT – North Carolina Courage vs. Reign FC
3:30 PM EDT – Chicago Red Stars vs. Portland Thorns FC
Sunday, October 27th (ESPN)
3:30 PM EDT – Championship Match
Women’s Euro Qualifying
Qualifying for the 2021 Women’s Euro continued during the October international window.
Meanwhile, host England continued their preparations by playing two friendlies, a 1:2 home loss to Brazil and an 0:1 away victory at Portugal, which snapped a five-match winless streak (highlights and summaries of both matches are in the link, below).
Key Facts and Notables:
- France and Spain begun their qualification campaigns
- The Republic of Ireland earned an important 3:2 home win over Ukraine as both teams vie for the Group I runner-up spot behind Germany
- The Netherlands won both their matches this window, including a 2:0 home victory over the next-strongest team in their group, Russia.
- Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Spain each won two matches as well
Read and Watch: Women’s Euro 2021 Qualifying: October 2019 Group Stage Window Recap and Highlights
International Friendlies
Northern neighbor Canada traveled to Japan for a friendly and a closed-door scrimmage during the international window. Japan won the public match 4:0.
France also won their home friendly against Iceland 4-nil. Eugénie Le Sommer scored twice in that match and added a third against Kazakhstan. She now sits at 80 career international goals, one behind Marinette Pichon.
Watch: October 2019 International Window – Notable Friendlies Highlights
Previously:
From October 1st to the 8th, a U-18 USWNT camp was held in Bradenton, Florida. That camp, led by U-20 USWNT head coach Mark Carr, consisted of 39 players, which is a significantly larger number of attendees. For the full roster, with NCAA verbal commit information, see U-18 USWNT: October 2019 Camp Roster – 39 Players, 10 First-Timers.
For notes on and links to the rosters of players called up by the top teams (Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Canada, Japan, et cetera) for the October window, see Roster Round-Up: October 2019 International Window.
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