Rival Watch – Page 3 – Women's Soccer Express

2024 Olympics: Match Day 1 Recap and Video Highlights

The first day of group play in the women’s soccer tournament at the 2024 Summer Olympic saw no upsets, with all six matches ending in victories for the higher-ranked teams.

The USWNT had one of the easiest matches, thanks to a strong first half where Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson combined for three goals, with Swanson bagging a brace by scoring goals just 66 seconds apart (OptaJack x.com post). A VAR-upgraded 30th minute red card shown to Pauline Zulu reduced Zambia to 10 players. While the USWNT was unable to extend the lead after the red card, their defense did hold the speedy Barbra Banda and Zambia scoreless.

2024 Olympics: DroneGate! Canada Caught Spying on New Zealand Practices

On Tuesday, July 23rd, news broke that an unnamed “staff member” for the Canadian Women’s National Team was caught using a camera drone to surveil a closed-door practice of the New Zealand Women’s National Team.

A day later, several more facts have come to light about this incident, but a number of key questions remain unanswered.

Roster Round-Up: March 2020 International Window

The first full international window of 2020 is upon us. Most active women’s national teams will be participating in friendly tournaments, such as the SheBelieves Cup, the Algarve Cup the noveau Tournoi de France, and others. Meanwhile, six national teams, including the Matildas of Australia, will be playing in Olympic qualifying play-offs. Over in UEFA, some teams will continue their qualifying campaigns for the 2021 Women’s Euro.

Here is a special extended edition Roster Round-Up, organized by friendly tournament. The usual teams are covered in summary detail, while links are provided to the rosters of other notable teams. Continue reading “Roster Round-Up: March 2020 International Window”

Opponent Watch: Japan Calls In 25 Players Ahead of the SheBelieves Cup

Update (15-Feb-2020): Midfielder Hasegawa Yui (age 23, 42 caps) and Hayashi Honoka (age 21, 1 cap) were withdrawn before the camp started due to unspecified injuries. No replacement players will be called in. (jfa.jp)

Update (25-Feb-2020): Hasegawa’s injury was quite minor, as she has been named to Japan’s SheBelieves Cup squad. All but three players, defender Seike Kiko, midfielder Hayashi Honoka, and forward Ueki Riko, from this original camp roster have been named to Japan’s SheBelieves Cup squad. As expected, Kumagai Saki, who plays for Olympique Lyonnais in France has also been named to Japan’s roster for the tournament. (jfa.jp)

Update (01-Mar-2020): Forward Kobayashi Rikako has been withdrawn due to injury. Ueki Riko has been recalled as Kobayashi’s replacement. (jfa.jp)

(This article follows Japanese name customs: Family names are listed first, followed by the given name.)

Ahead of next month’s SheBelieves Cup, Japan has called in 25 domestic-based players for a six-day training camp that runs from Friday, February 14th to Wednesday, February 19th. As this camp is outside of a FIFA window, team captain Kumagai Saki, who plays for Olympique Lyonnais in France, has not been included, but is expected to be on the roster for the SheBelieves Cup.

Continue reading “Opponent Watch: Japan Calls In 25 Players Ahead of the SheBelieves Cup”

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”

Women’s Euro 2021 Qualifying: November 2019 Group Stage Window Recap and Highlights

UEFA Women's Euro logo

The year’s final qualifying matches for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 ended in disappointment for the Republic of Ireland and Portugal, who both saw late equalizers dash their hopes of full points, as well as Spain and Wales, who were each held to scoreless draws. Top contenders, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Austria all finish the year on full points, as all are yet to concede a draw or lost.

Qualifying for the 2021 Women’s Euro, which will be hosted by England, resumes in March 2020, although most of the top contenders do not restart their qualifying campaigns until April 2020.

England, was also in action this window, playing two friendlies: First, hosting Germany at Wembley in front of a home attendance record of 77,768 on Saturday, and then an away friendly at the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

Continue reading “Women’s Euro 2021 Qualifying: November 2019 Group Stage Window Recap and Highlights”

Roster Round-Up: November 2019 International Window

A (belated) round-up of rosters for top national teams who will be playing (or have played) during the November international window, whether in friendlies or Women’s Euro qualifiers.

Roster covered in this article:

CONCACAF: Canada
CONMEBOL: Brazil
AFC: Australia, Japan
UEFA: England, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Norway

The rosters for the United States and Sweden are analyzed in separate articles:

For Costa Rica roster analysis, see Opponent Watch: Costa Rica’s Roster and Depth Chart for November 2019 Friendly

Continue reading “Roster Round-Up: November 2019 International Window”

Opponent Watch: Sweden’s Roster for the November 2019 Friendly

On Thursday, November 7th, the United States Women’s National Team will play their first match under new head coach Vlatko Andonovski when they face Sweden, who finished third at the 2019 Women’s World Cup. This will be the 40th match all-time versus Sweden. Last month, Sweden announced a travel roster of 23 players (SvFF), though that roster has since been reduced to 21 as Linda Sembrant suffered a contusion during a club match (SvFF), while Caroline Seger was withdrawn for unspecified recovery reasons (SvFF).

Continue reading “Opponent Watch: Sweden’s Roster for the November 2019 Friendly”

Women’s Euro 2021 Qualifying: October 2019 Group Stage Window Recap and Highlights

UEFA Women's Euro logo

Qualifying for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 continued this month, with no significant surprise results among the top teams. That said, the October window was not without drama:

In Group A, the Netherlands needed a 78th minute goal to separate themselves from Slovenia. Elsewhere, Kazakhstan held expected Group G winner France scoreless for over 55 minutes. And, in Group B, minnow Malta kept Italy off the scoresheet for even longer, at almost 70 minutes.

But the match of the window was the Republic of Ireland’s 3:2 victory over Ukraine, which saw Ukraine equalize at 2:2 just fifteen minutes after Ireland took a 2-nil lead. The tie did not last for long, as a deflected blocked shot led to a decisive own goal in favor of the home team.

Host England was also in action, playing two friendlies, losing to Brazil in Middlesbrough and defeating Portugal 1:0 on the road. The victory against Portugal snapped a five-game winless streak that stretched back to the Lionesses semifinal loss to the United States in this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. Continue reading “Women’s Euro 2021 Qualifying: October 2019 Group Stage Window Recap and Highlights”

October 2019 International Window – Notable Friendlies Highlights

Not much to read here, just a short collection of highlights videos for notable friendlies played during the October international window.

Videos include France-Iceland, Poland-Brazil, Japan-Canada, and both USA-Korea Republic matches. Continue reading “October 2019 International Window – Notable Friendlies Highlights”