RD Welch

USWNT: The USA Will Play the Netherlands in December

On Wednesday, U.S. Soccer and the KNVB announced that the United States Women’s National Team will face the Netherlands WNT on Tuesday, December 3rd, in The Hague, Netherlands. The match will take place at ADO Den Haag Stadium, which opened in 2007 and has a capacity of 15,000 (Wikipedia).

The Netherlands friendly is scheduled to kick off at 2:45 p.m. Eastern and will be televised on TNT and truTV with English-language commentary. The match will also be shown on Universo with Spanish-language commentary. Streaming options include Max (subscription required) and NBC.com (Spanish-language; requires linking one’s TV service provider account).

This will be the final match for the USWNT in 2024 and will be the second friendly of the year’s last international window. A few days earlier, on November 30th, the USWNT will take on the Lionesses of England at Wembley Stadium.

The Netherlands and England are two of the nine teams that have already qualified for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025, which will be hosted by Switzerland. Twenty-eight teams are still in the hunt for the remaining seven slots. (Wikipedia)

Trivia: The Hague, Netherlands, is the birthplace of current England head coach Sarina Wiegman, who managed ADO Den Haag’s women’s team for seven seasons. (Wikipedia)

U.S. Soccer Press Release: U.S. Women’s National Team Will Face The Netherlands in The Hague on Dec. 3 to Finish 2024 Schedule

KNVB Press Release: Oranje sluit jaar af met oefenwedstrijden tegen China en USA

U-17 WYNT: Roster Announced for 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup

For the first time, the United States Under-17 Women’s Youth National Team will have currently enrolled NCAA players when it takes the field at this month’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in the Dominican Republic. That fact alone would make the roster announced by U.S. Soccer on Tuesday (ussoccer.com) groundbreaking. However, more remarkably, the roster selected by head coach Katie Schoepfer also includes current professionals who play for teams in the National Women’s Soccer League. In addition to the full professionals, the roster also includes players who are associated with USL Super League teams via amateur contracts.

The list of players not included is notable as well. Only one of the five forwards who were on the USA’s qualifying roster earlier this year for the Concacaf U-17 Women’s Championship has been named to the USA’s U-17 WWC roster. The four absent players were responsible for 13 of the USA’s 32 goals scored during that tournament.

NWSL Referee Assignments: October 4 to 6, 2024

Friday, October 4th:

Dash vs. Red Stars: Ekaterina Koroleva (VAR: Danielle Chesky)
Reign vs. Angel City: Matt Thompson (VAR: Laura Rodriguez)

Saturday, October 5th:

Courage vs. Wave: Melinda Homa (VAR: Corbyn May)
Gotham vs. Bay FC: Sergii Demianchuk (VAR: Kevin Broadley)
Racing vs. Current: Matthew Corrigan (VAR: Brad Jensen)
Thorns vs. Royals: Rebecca Pagan (VAR: Ekaterina Koroleva)

Sunday, October 6th:

Pride vs. Spirit: Danielle Chesky (VAR: Abdou Ndiaye)

Source: PRO

Concacaf takes step backward with qualifying format for the 2027 Women’s World Cup and 2028 Olympics

In mid-September, Concacaf published their plans for how women’s national teams in the region will qualify for the next FIFA Women’s World Cup and Summer Olympics. Instead of a traditional tournament with round-robin groups and a knockout phase, the final phase of qualifying will consist only of a knockout competition for the eight qualified teams. The four losing teams from the opening quarterfinals will then compete for Concacaf’s play-in spot(s).

The format change means that for the final eight teams, just one game will decide whether each gets an automatic slot into the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Brazil. A single loss in the quarterfinal stage also means elimination from qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The two highest-ranked teams in Concacaf, which will almost certainly be the United States and Canada, will have direct entry to the quarterfinal stage, so those two teams will only need to win a single match in order to qualify for the 2027 WWC. This is ridiculously lower than the minimum number of matches that the highest-ranked teams in Concacaf have traditionally been required to play. It is also embarrassingly lower than the number of qualifying matches that top teams in other confederations are required to play in order to earn a WWC slot.

Additionally, the simplified format reduces the likelihood that the best teams from Concacaf will qualify for the next WWC and Olympics. Although a loss in the quarterfinals does not eliminate a team from qualifying for the WWC, the best team(s) from the repechage have the additional burden of competing in an inter-confederation play-in tournament, which could see them face competitive teams from Europe and Asia.

NWSL Referee Assignments: September 27 to 29, 2024

Friday, September 27th:

Angel City vs. Spirit: Alyssa Nichols (VAR: Elijio Arreguin)

Saturday, September 28th:

Current vs. Gotham: Ekaterina Koroleva (VAR: Shawn Tehini)
Royals vs. Racing: Alexandra Billeter (VAR: Corbyn May)
Pride vs. Dash: Iryna Petrunok (VAR: Danielle Chesky)
Wave vs. Thorns: Elijio Arreguin (VAR: Kevin Broadley)

Sunday, September 29th:

Red Stars vs. Courage: Ricardo Fierro (VAR: Laura Rodriguez)
Reign vs. Bay FC: Elton Garcia (VAR: Alyssa Nichols)

Source: PRO

U-20 WWC 2024: Korea DPR wins third title, Bronze Ball goes to USA’s Ally Sentnor, Silver Ball awarded to Japan’s Manaka Matsukubo

On Sunday, Korea DPR joined the USA and Germany in the three-time winners’ club of the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup by winning the final of the 2024 edition. Korea DPR won the match 1-nil on a goal from Choe Il Son, who also took home the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot.

Individual awards summary:

Korea DPR’s Choe Il Son won both the Golden Ball, as the overall best player, and the Golden Boot, as the player with the most goals scored (6 total).
Two NWSL players won the other ‘Ball’ trophies: The USA’s Ally Sentnor was awarded the Bronze Ball, and Japan’s Manaka Matsukubo received the Silver Ball.
Goalkeeper Femke Liefting of the Netherlands was given the Golden Glove.
Brazil’s Vendito received the Silver Boot, edging out Japan’s Maya Hijikata, who took home the Bronze Boot. Both players had 5 goals and 1 assist, but Hijikata played more minutes. (Brazil was eliminated in the quarterfinals.)

U-17 WYNT: A New Cycle Begins Before the Old Cycle Ends — September 2024 Camp Roster

With the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup transitioning to an annual tournament starting in 2025, the next cycle’s United States Under-17 Women’s Youth National Team is holding its first camp this week while the current cycle is in its final stages of preparation for the 2024 U-17 WWC, which begins in mid-October.

Twenty-four players, all with 2008 birth years, have been called into this camp, which runs from Sunday, September 22nd, to Saturday, September 28th, and will be held in Fayetteville, Georgia.

Of the 24 players, 17 are scheduled to graduate high school in 2026, while 6 players are set to graduate in 2027. One player, defender Pearl Cecil, will graduate a year ahead of schedule in 2025 and is a verbal commit for the University of Virginia.

In addition to Cecil, fourteen other players at this camp have known verbal commitments to play NCAA soccer. Four schools have a pair of verbal commits at this camp: Florida State, Notre Dame, Penn State, and Stanford.

U-20 WWC 2024: The USA claims bronze with a 2:1 victory over the Netherlands in the third-place match

After falling to Korea DPR in the semifinals of the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the United States U-20 Women’s Youth National Team will leave Colombia on a positive note following their extra-time victory over the Netherlands in the third-place match.

U-20 WWC 2024: Kick-Off Times, TV and Streaming Details for the Third-Place Match and Final of the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup — USA vs. Netherlands and Korea DPR vs. Japan

The 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup concludes this weekend with the Third-Place Match, featuring the United States Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team and the Netherlands, on Saturday, September 21st, and then the final on Sunday, September 22nd, between Japan and Korea DPR. Both matches kick off at 5:00 p.m. EDT.

Update: The Third-Place Match is being shown by Universo. It can also be watched via the Telemundo Deportes live stream, which can be accessed through the NBC Sports app and the NBC.com website (direct link).

The Third-Place Match will also be shown live on FOX Soccer Plus, but that is a premium channel which is typically available either a la carte or bundled in a sports tier.

Sunday’s final will be shown live on both FOX Sports 2 and Universo.

NWSL Referee Assignments: September 20 to 23, 2024

Friday, September 20th:

Current vs. Spirit: Matt Thompson (VAR: Kevin Broadley)
Bay FC vs. Pride: Brad Jensen (VAR: Shawn Tehini)

Saturday, September 21st:

Racing vs. Courage: Adorae Monroy (VAR: Shawn Tehini)
Dash vs. Reign: Jamie Padilla (VAR: Kevin Broadley)
Red Stars vs. Wave: Danielle Chesky (VAR: Corbyn May)

Sunday, September 22nd:

Gotham vs. Royals: Eric Tattersall (VAR: Brad Jensen)

Monday, September 23rd:

Angel City vs. Thorns: Joshua Encarnacion (VAR: Greg Dopka)

Source: PRO