Update (04-Mar-2020): Sonia Walk is a Boston College commit for 2020. (Twitter)
Here’s a hint: All three age-eligible players have a total of 61 senior caps for Canada.
Here’s another hint: All three players were on Canada’s roster for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Oh, and there’s a schedule change, too.
So, it seems that CONCACAF has quietly pushed back the start of this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship a week, so that the tournament now starts on February 22nd, instead of February 15th.
That detail went unhighlighted in a January 13th article posted on CONCACAF.com, titled “Concacaf Announces Changes to the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship,” which confirmed that the co-hosts of this year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, Costa Rica and Panama, would both have automatic bids, and, alas, that only two at-large qualifications slots would be available for the rest of CONCACAF. Continue reading “CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Costa Rica and Panama Out, Bermuda and Barbados In”
See CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Costa Rica and Panama Out, Bermuda and Barbados In for current schedule and bracket details.
Update (31-Jan-2020): THIS ARTICLE IS NO LONGER CURRENT FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:
Update (20-Dec-2019): FIFA has confirmed that Costa Rica and Panama will be joint hosts for this cycle’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which will be held in August 2020 (FIFA.com). Not yet confirmed is how this will affect qualifying in CONCACAF. Absent exceptional circumstances, the most likely result is that the number of open qualification slots will be reduced to 2, as Costa Rica and Panama will be given the host slot plus 1 slot from CONCACAF’s allocation. Another uncertain wrinkle is whether Costa Rica and Panama will be participating in this CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, as they are currently assigned to Group D (with Mexico) and Group F (with Haiti), respectively. Given the timing of this announcement, right before the end-of-the-year holiday break, it is possible that these qualifying matters may not be resolved until January 2020.
On Tuesday, CONCACAF confirmed that the Dominican Republic will be hosting the confederation’s final qualifying tournament for next year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup. (CONCACAF.com) As things currently stand, CONCACAF has three open qualifying slots, though that could change depending on who actually ends up hosting the U-20 WWC in 2020.
The qualifying tournament, which is officially known as the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, is scheduled for February 15, 2020 to March 1, 2020, and in a departure from past tournaments, will feature twenty teams instead of the usual eight. The tournament will have a Group Stage involving the top sixteen U-20 women’s national teams, based on historical rankings (CONCACAF.com). Those sixteen teams will be divided into four standard round-robin groups of four. The top three teams in each group will advance to the knock-out stage.
The knock-out stage will start with a Round of Sixteen that includes the twelve advancing teams from the Group Stage, plus four teams from a preliminary qualifying stage for teams outside the top sixteen. (Wikipedia has a decent summary article on the preliminary qualifying stage.) After the Round of Sixteen, the knockout round will proceed normally, with a Final to determine the champion and a Third Place match.
Continue reading “2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Host, Dates, and Knock-Out Bracket Confirmed”
On Tuesday, Canada Soccer released head coach John Herdman’s roster of 27 players for the Canada Women’s National Team’s final camp of 2012* — and first of 2015 Women’s World Cup cycle. The roster contains twelve players born after 1990, including five from Canada’s most recent Under-20 WNT and four more from its Under-17 WNT, along with three other players born after 1990. Only twelve members of Canada’s Bronze Medal winning Olympic team have been called up, as the players on that team who played overseas or in college were given the camp off. The training camp will last nine days and run from Wednesday, December 12th to the 20th (a Thursday). Its main purposes, according to Herdman will be to “provide baseline testing as well as serve as an identification camp as we launch our new quadrennial cycle in 2013.” Continue reading “Canada: December 2012 Camp Roster – Youth Movement Gets An Early Start”
On the final day of group play at the 2012 Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the marquee match-up, between the United States and Germany, was anything but a thriller, as the USA’s defensive lapses and lack of attacking prowess was punished by the Germans in a 0:3 loss. In the other Group D match, China only managed a 1:0 win over Ghana, so even though the United States and China were tied on points, the USA advanced to the quarterfinals via a better goal differential.
In Group C, Norway defeated Argentina 4:1 while Canada lost 1:2 to North Korea. Norway, on a goalkeeping error, let in an 82nd minute Argentine goal to make the score 2:1, but a goal by Andrine Hegerberg three minutes later restored the Norwegian’s two goal advantage.
On Friday, August 31st, Germany will face Norway in the earlier quarterfinal (3:00 a.m. EDT), while the United States will play North Korea in the later one (6:30 a.m. EDT). Both matches will be televised live on ESPNU. Continue reading “U-20 WWC: Match Day 6 – USA Loses But Still Advances, Canada Eliminated”
On the fourth day of group play at the 2012 Under-20 Women’s World Cup, two of the favorites, the United States and Germany each struggled against teams easily dispatched by the other squad in the opening matches of Group D. The USA, in a lackluster performance, could only manage a 1:1 draw with China, while Germany needed a stoppage time goal from late sub Lina Magull to pull out a 1:0 win over Ghana. In Group C action, Norway edged out Canada 2:1, while North Korea pummeled Argentina 9:0. Continue reading “U-20 WWC: Match Day 4 – USA Only Gets a Draw, Germany Ekes Out a Win, Canada Falls to Norway”
Action continued in the 2012 Under-20 Women’s World Cup on Monday, with favorites United States and Germany both posting 4:0 wins, while Canada cruised and then coasted over Argentina and North Korea defeated Norway. With the USA’s and Germany’s equivalent wins, the two teams are even in the Group D table. Continue reading “U-20 WWC: Match Day 2 – USA and Germany Tied Atop Group D, Canada With An Easy Win”
In this year’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup, Canada got a manageable grouping as their only tough opponent in Group C is North Korea. The least challenging team should be Argentina, who have never made it out of the group stage in its two prior U-20 Women’s World Cups, or in any senior FIFA tournaments. Norway will not be an easy opponent, but Canada should be up to the challenge. Continue reading “2012 Under-20 Women’s World Cup: Group C – Preview Notes (Argentina, Canada, North Korea, Norway)”
The Under-20 Women’s World Cup is just around the corner. The first match kicks-off Sunday, August 19th, at 2:00 a.m. EDT when Brazil clashes with Italy. Host Japan’s first match, versus Mexico, is actually the last one on Sunday, with a start time of 6:20 a.m. EDT. On Monday, the USA and Canada play their first matches, against Ghana (3:00 a.m. EDT) and Argentina (6:00 a.m.), respectively. (Full Schedule on FIFA.com)
The following is a quick summary of the TV and online options for those in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
During the second week of July, a handful of Women’s Under-20 friendlies were contested, including matches that separately involved Mexico and Canada, plus Germany, who will be the United States’ final group opponent in August’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup.
Mexico traveled to Argentina and beat the hosts in two friendlies, by 1:0 and 3:1 margins. Canada is in Europe and played Italy on Saturday, winning 3:0.
On Sunday, Germany hosted Norway and defeated the guests 5:0, which was slightly better than the 7:1 drubbing Germany gave the Norwegians in last year’s UEFA Women’s U-19 Championship final, but much worse than the two sides’ 1:1 draw in a friendly at La Manga earlier this year. Continue reading “U-20 WWC: Mid-July Friendly Results, Plus Notes on Germany’s Friendly”
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