Category: Opposition Research

Posts on the USWNT’s upcoming opponents, its key rivals (Brazil, Germany, Japan, and Sweden), its neighbors (Canada and Mexico). For posts about youth WNT opponents, please see the Under-xx category.

2020 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship: Group A Preview

The United States Women’s National Team will, almost certainly, win their group.

What is far from certain is which of the other teams will finish as the runner-up in Group A of this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, thus earning a chance to play for a spot at this year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo via an all-or-nothing semifinal against the top team from Group B.

Continue reading “2020 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship: Group A Preview”

Opponent Watch: Haiti’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020

After a six year absence from senior women’s CONCACAF final tournaments, Haiti is back, better and younger than ever.

Update (31-Jan-2020):  Haiti made late changes to their final roster, just after this article was published (Twitter):

  • Unavailable: Angeline Gustave (right knee), center back Tabita Joseph (right ankle)
  • Replaced by Gaëlle Dumas and Maudeline Moryl (both born in 2003)

The rest of this article has not been updated.

Regarding Haiti’s youth, not only does their team have the youngest average age of any squad at this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, at just 20.38 years-old, they also have the youngest “oldest player”, Johane LaForte, who does not turn 24 until late February.

The most striking age-related factoid is that every player on Haiti’s roster is younger than the youngest player on the United States Women’s National Team’s roster, Andi Sullivan, who is 24.11 year-old. Continue reading “Opponent Watch: Haiti’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020”

CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying: Birth Year Distribution and Comparison Charts

As seen on Twitter, here’s a quick post with charts showing the birth year distribution for each team’s rosters at this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship.

First up is a stacked bar chart showing the overall distribution, with each team represented by a unique color. Teams are roughly in order of oldest to youngest, based on each squad’s average and median age.

Continue reading “CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying: Birth Year Distribution and Comparison Charts”

2020 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship: USA TV Schedule Announced (Finally!)

After extended negotiations between CONCACAF and FOX Sports for a multi-year and multi-event deal (FOXSports.com), on Monday, FOX Sports announced their airing schedule for the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, which starts on Tuesday, January 28th (a/k/a, “the next day”).

Every match of the tournament will be aired live by a FOX Sports network:  FOX Sports 1 (FS1), FOX Sports 2 (FS2), or FOX Soccer Plus.

Continue reading “2020 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship: USA TV Schedule Announced (Finally!)”

Neighbor Watch: Canada’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020

And, the award for the most consistent team roster goes to… Canada.

All twenty players on Canada’s roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship were members of their 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup squad, including every player who featured on-field for Canada in France.

Canada, who earned Bronze Medals in 2012 and 2016, will be hoping to qualify for its fourth-straight Summer Olympics.  Veteran forward Christine Sinclair is also hoping to make her fourth Olympics, while eyeing the career international goals record that is currently held by USWNT legend Abby Wambach. Continue reading “Neighbor Watch: Canada’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020”

Opponent Watch: Panama’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020 – Where Are The Goal-Scorers?

Panama, who was a penalty shoot-out away from qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, will be without five of their top six five goal-scorers over the past two calendar years for the upcoming CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, where they are grouped with the United States Women’s National Team in Group A.  Panama will also be without the head coach who guided them to the cusp of WWC qualification, Victor Suarez, who was sacked by Panama’s FA after last summer’s Pan-American Games, where Panama only managed to score a single goal in open play.

Continue reading “Opponent Watch: Panama’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020 – Where Are The Goal-Scorers?”

Opponent Watch: Costa Rica’s Roster for 2020 Olympic Qualifying

When the United States Women’s National Team finishes the group stage of this year’s CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament against Costa Rica, they will likely face a line-up quite similar to the one that they faced last November, in the two sides’ most recent match-up.  Of the 20 players on Costa Rica’s published roster for that friendly, head coach Amelia Valverde has retained 17 for the qualifying roster, including all 13 players who featured in that match (U.S. Soccer match report). Continue reading “Opponent Watch: Costa Rica’s Roster for 2020 Olympic Qualifying”

Neighbor Watch: Mexico’s Roster for 2020 Olympic Qualifying Announced

After failing to qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Mexico faces a steep uphill challenge as it tries to qualify for the women’s soccer tournament at this year’s Summer Olympic in Tokyo. With just two slots available at the upcoming CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualification Championship, Mexico must first finish in the top half of Group B, which also includes two WWC squads, Canada and Jamaica, along with debutante minnow Saint Kitts & Nevis.  Should Mexico get out of the group, most likely in the runner-up spot, behind a solid Canada team, Mexico’s opponent in the all-or-nothing semifinal will be the reigning world champions, the United States Women’s National Team (absent a shock result in Group A). Continue reading “Neighbor Watch: Mexico’s Roster for 2020 Olympic Qualifying Announced”

Finally! U.S. Soccer Officially Announces 2020 SheBelieves Cup Teams and Schedule

Today, U.S. Soccer finally confirmed the teams and venues for the 2020 edition of the SheBelieves Cup, which will be hosted by the United States Women’s National Team.  The other three teams will be England, Japan, and first-time participant Spain.

The Cup’s matches will be played on Thursday, March 5th; Sunday, March 8th; and Wednesday, March 11th.  All USWNT matches will be televised live via ESPN channels (English language) and TUDN (Spanish language).  Tickets officially go on sale on Friday, January 17th, although there will be a Visa cardholder “pre-sale” on Thursday, January 16th. Continue reading “Finally! U.S. Soccer Officially Announces 2020 SheBelieves Cup Teams and Schedule”

2020 SheBelieves Cup: England Confirmed, But Germany, France, and Brazil Have Other Plans

Update (13-Jan-2020):  U.S. Soccer has finally published the schedule for this year’s SheBelieves Cup.  The fourth team will be Spain.  Full details, here.

Update (05-Jan-2020):  On December 20th, the JFA published preliminary calendars for their national teams, confirming Japan‘s participation in this year’s tournament.  The identity of the final team has yet-to-be officially confirmed.

Although the teams for the 2020 edition of the SheBelieves Cup have yet to be officially announced, we do have a very good idea of which teams will not be competing against the host, the United States Women’s National Team.

That is because the fields for two other friendly tournaments which will be held during the same international window, the Algarve Cup, as well as a new four-team tournament hosted by France, were both officially confirmed last week.

Also, earlier in November, the FA confirmed that England (#5T) will once again be participating in the SheBelieves Cup.  That nugget was buried in the FA’s press release about their hiring of former USWNT high performance coach Dawn Scott.

Continue reading “2020 SheBelieves Cup: England Confirmed, But Germany, France, and Brazil Have Other Plans”