Yesterday, Grant Wahl reported that the United States Women’s National Team “will face Brazil in San Jose, Calif., on April 14 and two-time world champion Germany in East Hartford, Conn., on June 6.”
Also, Nike and U.S. Soccer released the details and photos for this year’s home and away uniforms. Continue reading “USWNT Notes: Friendlies Against Brazil and Germany Scheduled?”
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”
Updates:
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:
(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”
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”
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.
For his first official tournament roster, recently installed United States Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski elected not to make any significantly surprise selections, choosing only experienced players, including 18 players from last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup squad, for the upcoming CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship.
With no retirements after last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup and all core WWC players available, except for the pregnant Alex Morgan, Andonovski chose just two players who were not in France last year: NC Courage forward Lynn Williams and Washington Spirit midfielder Andi Sullivan. Continue reading “USWNT: Roster For 2020 Olympic Qualifying Announced”
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”
On Thursday, January 9th, U.S. Soccer announced a pair of related staffing changes:
These changes follow the recent hiring of Laura Harvey as the new head coach of the U-20 USWNT after December’s surprise departure of Mark Carr, coincidentally, for the vacancy created by Potter back in November (SoonerSports.com).
Continue reading “U-23 USWNT: Matt Potter Named Head Coach; B.J. Snow Leaves U.S. Soccer”
A quick round-up of notable news since mid-December:
On the last Friday of 2019, U.S. Soccer released the roster for the United States Women’s National Team’s first camp of 2020, which will run from Sunday, January 5th to Wednesday, January 15th, and will be held in Florida. This will be the last camp before CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying, which kicks off on January 28th.
External Link: Andonovski Names 28-Player Training Camp Roster To Kick Off 2020 For The U.S. Women’s National Team (U.S. Soccer)
New USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski has called in 28 players, including 22 member of the USA’s 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup squad. Of that squad, all but Alex Morgan (pregnancy) have been named to this roster. Continue reading “USWNT: Roster Announced For Last Camp Before Olympic Qualifying”
Women's Soccer Express 