With the 2025 SheBelieves Cup kicking off on Thursday, February 20th, here is a round-up of all four teams’ rosters and related articles, plus the tournament’s match schedule.
Continue reading “2025 SheBelieves Cup: Roster Round-Up, Match Schedule, and TV/Streaming Details”
Updates:
(Note: Except for the roster list and table, the names of Japan’s players will be in the Western format, with given names before family names.)
For his first matches in charge of the Japan Women’s National Team, head coach Nils Nielsen has opted for an experienced and mostly foreign-based squad that features just four players from the WE League. Of the 23 players named to Japan’s squad for the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, 19 were members of Nadeshiko Japan’s roster for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Three players, including Washington Spirit midfielder Narumi Miura, have been recalled after extended absences. Miura, who was a member of Japan’s squads for the COVID-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, returns for her first camp since September 2023. The other two players are defender Saori Takarada, who also returns for the first time since September 2023, and Yuka Momiki, whose last call up was the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Both Takarada and Momiki had stints in the NWSL, with the Washington Spirit and OL Reign, respectively.
The only other current NWSL player named to the original roster was forward Mina Tonaka of the Utah Royals. Not making the original cut this time were two North Carolina Courage midfielders, who were both members of Japan’s squad for the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup: Manaka Matsukubo and the freshly signed Shinomi Koyama.
Late on February 18th, the Japan Football Association announced that Matsukubo has been called up to replace Kiko Seike.
Both Courage players were called up for Japan’s last camp in October 2024 (jfa.jp), but remain uncapped at the senior level. Nielsen, who has only been in charge since December, has stated that for the next international window, he is planning to bring in more inexperienced players (Japanese news article), so Koyama could be called up then.
Meanwhile, the most questionable player omission from the original roster was recent Angel City signee Miyabi Moriya, especially given that the announced roster has just one player, Hikaru Kitagawa, who is primarily an outside-back. Moriya started at right outside-back in Japan’s last three matches during the 2024 Olympics after Manchester City’s Risi Shimizu suffered an ACL injury in their opening match (Man City news item). On February 18th, Moriya was called up to replace center-back Rion Ishikawa.
In addition to Shimizu, the only other player from the 2024 Summer Olympics not called up is goalkeeper Shu Ohba, who played NCAA soccer for Ole Miss (profile). In her place, the uncapped Akane Okuma, who was Japan’s starting goalkeeper at the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, returns for her second straight camp, after first being called up for Japan’s last friendly, which was in October 2024. (No camp was held during the November/December international window.)
Continue reading “2025 SheBelieves Cup: Japan roster announced — Washington Spirit’s Narumi Miura returns, Utah Royals forward Mina Tanaka also called up”February 2025: See “2025 SheBelieves Cup: Roster Round-Up, Match Schedule, and TV/Streaming Details” for the rosters of all four teams, plus updating TV/Streaming details.
In 2025, the SheBelieves Cup, a friendly tournament hosted by the United States Women’s National Team, will return to its traditional group format. Joining the hosts will be Japan, which returns for its fifth appearance, plus two debutantes: Australia and Colombia.
The tournament will be played from Thursday, February 20th to Wednesday, February 26th. All of the USWNT’s matches will be shown live on TBS and Universo, with Max and Peacock as streaming options. The matches not involving the USWNT will be televised by Universo and streamed on both Max and Peacock. The 2025 SheBelieves Cup’s six matches will be played at three venues: Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas; State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona; and Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California.
UEFA teams are not available for this window as they will be competing in Nations Leagues matches (UEFA.com).
Continue reading “USWNT: 2025 SheBelieves Cup — Teams, Schedule, and USA TV/Streaming Details Announced”While the United States Women’s National Team celebrates its gold medal performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics this international window with three friendlies, tops teams in Europe are regrouping and preparing for Women’s Euro 2025. Among them, Olympic bronze medalists Germany, under new head coach Christian Wück, takes on England in a re-match of the 2022 final. Meanwhile, reigning Women’s World Cup champions Spain, who finished fourth at the Olympics, hosts a headless Canada that will be managed “collectively” by an interim staff which includes retired player Diana Matheson.
In the USA, both matches, which will be played on Friday, October 25th, and will stream live. The England-Germany match is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EDT on the free CBS Sports Golazo Network, while Spain-Canada will stream via the paid Paramount+ app at 4:00 p.m. EDT.
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In the era of “VAR”, a goal is not a goal until the video assistant referee has their say. As NWSL fans are well aware, this can sometimes mean agonizing waits of multiple minutes for a goal to be officially affirmed or overturned by the center referee. However, this was not the case when the United States Women’s National Team’s Trinity Rodman curled her left-footed shot into the far upper corner of Japan’s goalmouth in the first quarterfinal of the women’s soccer tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics. That goal was conclusively affirmed within 80 seconds of the ball hitting the net.
The main reason why there was not too long of a wait, especially one involving the center referee jogging over to a video review monitor, is that the soccer stadiums at this year’s Olympics all have a specialized computerized system that helps the video assistant referee and her crew analyze potential offside situations. On the women’s side, this system was first used at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The other two main factors involved are the offside rule, itself, as well as how potential offside situations are handled by the refereeing crew.
Continue reading “Olympics 2024: Why Trinity Rodman’s Goal versus Japan Was Not Offside”
Saturday’s quarterfinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics did not lack drama:
On Saturday, August 3rd, the eight remaining teams in the women’s soccer tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be reduced to the four medal contenders once that day’s quarterfinals concludes.
Among the teams still standing are the United States Women’s National Team, who topped their group for only the second time at the Olympics, and will face off against Japan for the fourth time in an Olympics knockout match. Spain, the reigning Women’s World Cup champions, are looking to win their first Olympic gold medal. Meanwhile, the current gold medal holders, Canada, despite their 6 point deduction, made it through to knockout phase and will face the 2016 gold medalists, Germany. Also in the hunt are both South American sides: Brazil, who will be without Marta due to a red card suspension, and Colombia, who are hoping to advance to their first Olympic semifinal. Host France, buoyed by the goal-scoring of Marie-Antoinette Katoto, are still looking to win their first major championship.
In the United States, the only way to watch the quarterfinal matches live with English-language commentary is via streaming, either through Peacock (via subscription) or, if one has a multichannel service provider, then the NBC Sports app or NBCOlympics.com. However, all four quarterfinal matches will air live on Telemundo and Universo.
Continue reading “2024 Olympics: Final Group Standings and Quarterfinal Match-Ups”The final day of group play more-or-less went as expected, except for Marta earning a straight red for a reckless lunging kick that narrowly missed striking Spain’s Olga Carmona in the cheek.
France, thanks to Canada’s points deduction, the USA, and Spain all won their groups, while Canada, Germany, and Japan advanced as the runners-up in their respective groups. Colombia and Brazil advanced as the higher-ranked third-place teams. Australia, as the lowest third-ranked team, along with New Zealand, Zambia, and Nigeria were eliminated from the competition.
Continue reading “2024 Olympics: Match Day 3 Recap and Video Highlights”Going into the final six matches of the group stage in the women’s soccer tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympics, only the United States Women’s National Team and Spain have secured a spot in the knock-out phase. Six slots have yet to be determined and none of the other ten teams have been mathematically eliminated.
Please note that the following analysis is contingent on Canada’s 6 point deduction being upheld. FIFA’s decision has been appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and a ruling on the matter is expected on Wednesday, July 31st.
Continue reading “2024 Olympics: Match Day 3 Advancement Scenarios”The second day of group stage matches in the women’s soccer tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics was one to remember:
Women's Soccer Express 