U-19 USWNT – Women's Soccer Express

USWYNTs: Vanessa Mann hired as U-15 head coach; U-18, U-20, and U-23 positions expected to be “filled in the coming weeks”

On Monday, U.S. Soccer announced that former Utah Royals assistant coach Vanessa Mann is the new full-time head coach of the Under-15 Women’s Youth National Team.

In the same press release, U.S. Soccer also provided details about other women’s youth national team head coaching positions.

Most notably, the federation will switch to alternating head-coaching cycles for the Under-17 WYNT. After this year’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, Katie Schoepfer, who is the current head coach of the U-17s, will switch to the Under-16 WYNT and stay with that age group (2010 birth year) through the 2027 FIFA U-17 WWC. Meanwhile, Ciara Crinion, who is now the head coach for the U-16s, will move up with the 2009 birth years in the second half of this year to the Under-17 WYNT.

U.S. Soccer also announced that “full-time head coaching positions for the U.S. U-18 WNT, U.S. U-20 WNT and U.S. U-23 WNT [will] likely being filled in the coming weeks”. The other current youth head coach is Carrie Kveton, who is in charge of the Under-19 WYNT. The U-19s are preparing to qualify for the 2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup.

U-19 USWYNT: Three NWSL pros called up for the first domestic camp of 2025

With Concacaf qualifying for the 2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup less than two months away, the Under-19 United States Women’s Youth National Team and its Under-18 counterpart, will hold what will probably be their last camps before head coach Carrie Kveton selects her squad for the 2025 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship.

Unlike the February camp, which only had players who were born in 2006, this camp features three players with 2007 birth years. All three are midfielders who competed in the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup squad and are current NWSL professionals: Melanie Barcenas of the San Diego Wave, Kennedy Fuller of Angel City, and Ainsley McCammon of the Seattle Reign.

Two other current NWSL pros who also competed at the 2024 FIFA U-17 WWC, forward Mary Long and outside-back Katie Scott, both of the Kansas City Current, were named to the concurrent U-18 USWYNT camp, along with five other members of the USA’s squad at the 2024 FIFA U-17 WWC.

Curiously absent from both camps is the only other current NWSL pro who was on the USA’s squad at last year’s FIFA U-17 WWC: San Diego Wave center-back Trinity Armstrong.

U-19 USWYNT: Draw Results and Schedule for the 2025 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship

To qualify for the 2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the United States Under-19 Women’s Youth National Team will need to either finish first or second in a four-team round-robin group that also includes Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and Guyana.

The USA’s qualifying path was confirmed on Wednesday, March 26, when Concacaf held its draw for the 2025 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship, which despite its name, will be an Under-19 event.

The full results of that draw:

Group A: United States, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Guyana
Group B: Mexico, Canada, Panama, Nicaragua

For reference, these were the pots for the draw (with Concacaf ranking points in parentheses):

Pot 1: USA (3683), Mexico (3536)
Pot 2: Canada (3417), Costa Rica (2261)
Pot 3: Puerto Rico (1620), Panama (1278)
Pot 4: Guyana (1221), Nicaragua (953)

In the draw, the USA avoided Canada but was grouped with the host, Costa Rica, which means that the USA will have one less rest day for their semifinal, compared to their opponent in that match.

U-19 USWYNT: 20 Players called up for friendly tournament in Spain

With just a few months to go until the Concacaf qualifying tournament for the 2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the United States Under-19 Women’s Youth National Team is holding its first camp of the calendar year and its second camp of the annual cycle, following one in October 2024.

Head coach Carrie Kveton has called up 20 players, all born in 2006, for a friendly tournament that will be hosted by Spain and that will also feature the U-19 WNTs of England and the Netherlands. (Links to each opponent’s roster and quick discussions of those rosters are included at the end of this post.)

The USA’s roster includes just one professional, Miri O’Donell, who plays for Sporting CP in Portugal. Age-eligible NWSL players such as Jordyn Bugg and Emeri Adames, both of the Seattle Reign, who played in last year’s U-20 WWC, were not called into the camp. The other 2006 player from that roster, Claire Hutton, has been called up to the full USWNT for this month’s SheBelieves Cup.

Of the remaining 19 players, 13 played NCAA Division I soccer last fall, including Notre Dame’s Izzy Engle, who scored 19 goals during her freshman season. Engle’s tally, which did not involve any penalty kick goals, was only one behind MAC Hermann trophy winner Kate Faase (UNC profile), who had 20 goals, including three penalty kicks conversions, and was tied with Ohio State’s Kailyn Dudukovich (OSU profile), who had two penalty kick conversions.

The other six players on the roster are now college students after enrolling in January. Among those six are two players from the USA’s squad for last year’s U-20 WWC: Goalkeeper Caroline Birkel, now of Stanford, and midfielder Addison Halpern, now of the University of Virginia. A third player, defender Reese Klein, now of Clemson, was a pre-tournament alternate for the 2024 U-20 WWC. Klein played for Fort Lauderdale United of the new USL Super League via an amateur contract during the fall of 2024.

Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang pledges to give $30 million over five years to U.S. Soccer in support of women’s soccer development

On November 19th, in a joint press conference with U.S. Soccer, Michele Kang, majority owner of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, announced that she has pledged to give a total of $30 million over the next five years to U.S. Soccer. Kang’s pledged gift has three stated purposes:

First, to double the number of youth women’s national team camps.
Second, to ramp up women’s youth talent identification by expanding U.S. Soccer’s digital talent identification platform.
Third, to double the number of licensed female coaches and female referees.

Beyond the stated purposes of the pledged gift, there were not much details about how the $30 million will be spent.

The first stated purpose of “doubl[ing] the number of” women’s youth “national team camps” from their current level is noteworthy because the number of WYNT camps held in 2024 is about half the number of camps compared to several years ago.

U-19 WYNT: First camp of new cycle gets underway in Florida — Dash’s Zoe Matthews called in

With the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in the books and the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup nearing its conclusion, the focus for the 2006 and 2007 birth years transitions to qualifying for the next U-20 WWC, and so the new two-year cycle begins with a domestic camp in West Palm Beach, Florida, that began on Thursday, October 24th, and runs through October 30th.

Since NCAA soccer is nearing the end of its regular season, head coach Carrie Kveton, has not called in any current collegiate players, nor has she called any age-eligible NWSL players from the recent U-20 WWC roster. As most of the 24 players are still in high school, a majority of the players, 15 in all, have 2007 birth years, while just nine of the 24 players were born in 2006, the lower cut-off year for this current one-year U-19 cycle. The 2007 birth year is also the lower cut-off year for the present U-17 WWC, so between the unavailability of players presently competing in the Dominican Republic and current college players, the selection philosophy for this roster is much more about exploring and expanding the pool of players for the next U-20 WWC (and beyond), rather than focusing on a primary pool of players.

The most notable player called into this camp is Houston Dash’s recent U-18 signing, 6’2″ midfielder Zoe Matthews, who is listed as a defender on this roster. Matthews is the only NWSL player called in and one of three professionals. The other pro players are forward Miri O’Donnell, who joined Sporting Clube de Portugal in late September, and goalkeeper Charlotte Burge, who signed with Carolina Ascent of the new USL Super League.

U-19 USWNT: Roster For 2020 La Manga Tournament Announced, Two “New” Names

In March, the Under-19 United States Women’s National Team will be back in action for the first time since 2018, as 23 players – fourteen born in 2001 and nine born in 2002 –have been called up for a friendly U-19 tournament at the La Manga resort in Spain where the USA will play their age counterparts from England, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

For this camp, the U-19 USWNT will be led by current Houston Dash assistant head coach Twila Kaufman (Dash profile), who was previously the head coach at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis profile). Continue reading “U-19 USWNT: Roster For 2020 La Manga Tournament Announced, Two “New” Names”

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”