For its second mini-camp of the year, the United States Under-14 Girls’ National Team Talent Identification Program has called in 62 players, all based in the Central Region and all born in 2006. Regional Talent Identification Managers Katie Cole, Marieke Laurens and Diane Drake will be in charge of the event, which will run from Wednesday, March 4th to Sunday, March 8th, and will be held in the Dallas, Texas area. Continue reading “U-14 USGNT TIP: 2020 Central Region Mini-Camp Roster Announced”
Category: U-14 USGNT
U-14 USGNT TIP: 2020 West Region Mini-Camp Roster Announced
The Under-14 United States Girls’ National Team is back for 2020 and back to being an annual program, after having been active only in even years since 2015.
Following changes introduced on the boys’ side in 2019 (U.S. Soccer), the new Girls’ “Under-14 Talent Identification Program” now features three regional “mini-camps” of 60 players each, for a total of 180, from which just 60 players will be called back for a national identification camp. This change will more-than double the total number of players brought into a U-14 camp, compared to recent cycles, which had around 80 total players maximum per year. Continue reading “U-14 USGNT TIP: 2020 West Region Mini-Camp Roster Announced”
A Quick History of U.S. Soccer’s Under-14 Girls’ Programs
With U.S. Soccer now officially launching a new version of its development program for Under-14 Girls, it is useful to put those changes into context.
Prior to 1999, the youngest age-level for U.S. Soccer’s female youth teams, was the Under-16 Women’s National Team, which appears to have been established in 1996. (Danielle Slaton, Abby Wambach, and Hope Solo are all listed as members of the U-16 team in 1996 per their media guide biographies.) Before that, the only youth USWNT was the original Under-20 USWNT, which began in 1989 (if not earlier, as a U-19 program) and exists to this day as the U-23 USWNT, having adjusted its maximum age level twice.
U.S. Soccer’s first Under-14 Girls’ program began in 1999, as part of the federation’s Under-14 National Development Program, which started two years earlier, on the boys’ side. Participants of that first girls’ camp included Heather O’Reilly, Lindsay Tarpley, Becky Sauerbrunn and Ashlyn Harris. Continue reading “A Quick History of U.S. Soccer’s Under-14 Girls’ Programs”
Youth USWNTs: 2020 Calendar Update – Camps, Trips, and Tournaments
Updates:
- 05-Feb-2020: U-17 USWNT – Added details for CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship
- 11-Feb-2020: U-23 USWNT – Added details for Portland Thorns Spring Invitational
- 17-Feb-2020: Minor updates/clarifications
- 02-Mar-2020: Added March U-15 USGNT camp entry
- 13-MAR-2020: U.S. SOCCER HAS CANCELLED MOST YNT CAMPS THROUGH THE END OF APRIL, DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS. (U.S. SOCCER)
- NO NEWS ABOUT THE CONCACAF WOMEN’S UNDER-17 CHAMPIONSHIP, WHICH IS SCHEDULED TO START ON APRIL 18TH IN MEXICO.
While U.S. Soccer’s dysfunctional website* does not often include much information about future youth team camps and/or matches, that is not the case with a number of other associations’ websites. In addition, youth USWNTs regular participate in annual friendly tournaments at the La Manga Club in Spain, which regularly publishes online its upcoming schedule of hosted matches.
*A subject for a future post. Or three…
So, after much browsing and searching…
…Here are some things that were news to me:
- Confirmation that a USA team is scheduled to participate in the April U-23 WNT friendly tournament at La Manga Club in Spain.
- News that the USA will be sending a GNT to the annual soccer tournament in Montaigu, France. The USA will be in a four-team U-16 GNT mini-tournament with France, Japan, and Norway.
- A June U-15 USGNT camp or trip involving the U-15 GNTs of Germany and the Netherlands.
- The host and dates of this year’s U-23 WNT Nordic Tournament: Norway, September 14th to the 22nd. (USA participation not confirmed.)
- Also, the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, which was originally scheduled to start on Saturday, February 15th, was quietly pushed back to February 22nd.
(Update 02-Feb-2020): Clarified the descriptions of the U-14 events.
In addition, a U-14 Girls identification regional mini-camp roster with dates for two more regional mini-camps plus a normal national U-14 USGNT identification camp was published on Thursday, which gives a good picture of what that age group is doing up through late May.
Continue reading “Youth USWNTs: 2020 Calendar Update – Camps, Trips, and Tournaments”
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