U15 USGNT – 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.

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-15 USWYNT: Roster for second camp of cycle released, 14 players return, 3 apparent first-timers

On Thursday, November 14th, the second camp of the 2024-25 cycle for the Under-15 United States Women’s Youth National Team got underway in Chula Vista, California. The camp, which is being held concurrently with a U-16 USWYNT camp, runs from the 14th to Wednesday, November 20th.

Head coach Ciara Crinion has called in 24 players, including 14 players from the previous camp as well as three players who are apparently attending their first U.S. youth WNT camp. One of the players from the September U-15 camp, midfielder Loradana Paletta, who was named to the roster for the concurrent U-16 USWYNT camp.

For this cycle, the primary birth year for the U-15 USWYNT is 2010. One notable player with a 2010 birth date not at this camp is NJ/NY Gotham FC forward Mak Whitham, who was also called up to the concurrent U-16 USWYNT camp.

One of the players attending this camp, forward Stella Spitzer, currently plays for the Carolina Ascent of the new USL Super League on an academy contract.

U-15 WYNT: 24 Players Called In for First Camp of New Cycle

On Friday, U.S. Soccer announced that the next cycle of the United States Under-15 Women’s Youth National Team will get underway with a domestic camp that starts on Sunday, September 8th, and runs through Friday, September 13th. The camp will be held in Fayetteville, Georgia.

Of the 24 players named by head coach Ciara Crinion, all but one have 2010 birth years. The lone exception is midfielder Loradana Paletta, who was born in 2011 and was a member of the USA’s squad that won last month’s Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship.

One of the players, forward Stella Spitzer, is currently with a USL Super League team, Carolina Ascent FC. All of the remaining players are on youth club teams, with most (19, according to U.S. Soccer) associated with the ECNL.

U-15 WYNT: The USA Wins the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship

For the fourth time out of four tries, the USA are champions of the Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship. In this year’s edition of the tournament, the U.S. Under-15 Women’s Youth National Team defeated Mexico 3-nil in the championship match after advancing from the semifinals by besting Canada 4:2 in a penalty shootout following a 1:1 draw in regulation.

USA midfielder Caroline Swann was named the Best Player of the tournament, while forward Carolina Reyna was the high scorer, with 6 goals.

Read on for recaps of the championship match, the USA’s semifinal against Canada, and the USA’s final group match, a 13-nil victory over Haiti. (The USA’s first two group stage matches, a 11-nill win over Jamaica and a 3-nil victory over the host Costa Rica, were recapped in an early post.)

U-15 WYNT: The USA Defeats Jamaica 11-nil and Costa Rica 3-nil at the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship

In its first group stage match at the 2024 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship, the United States Under-15 Women’s Youth National Team had a spectacular opening half, scoring 9 of their 11 goals against Jamaica, including a 4-goal hat-trick by forward Carolina Reyna.

The U-15 WYNT followed up that win by soundly defeating host Costa Rica 3-nil in both teams’ second group stage match. Carolina Reyna once again had the game-winning goal.

Thus, after two matches, the U-15 WYNT sit on 6 points and are guaranteed to advance to the semifinals of the tournament, as no more than one other team in Group A, either Costa Rica or Jamaica, can also reach 6 points since both play each other on the final match day of group play.

In the semifinals, the USA will face one of the top two teams in Group B: Canada or Mexico.

U-15 USGNT: 34 Players Called In For First Camp of 2020; Six ‘New’ Names

The Under-15 United States Girls’ National Team is currently holding its first camp of 2020. For the camp, which runs from Monday, March 2nd, to Sunday, March 8th, 34 players, all born in 2005, have been called up. All but six of those players previously attended last October’s talent identification camp.

Continue reading “U-15 USGNT: 34 Players Called In For First Camp of 2020; Six ‘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”

U-15 USGNT: 59 Players Called In For Talent ID Camp

On Wednesday, U.S. Soccer released the roster for an Under-15 Girls’ National Team talent identification camp which is currently underway at U.S. Soccer’s National Development Center in Kansas.* A total of 59 players, all born in 2005, are attending the camp, which is being led by U.S. Soccer Director of (Girls’) Talent Identification Mirelle van Rijbroek.

*U.S. Soccer’s roster write-up was published online Wednesday afternoon, but backdated to Sunday, the 6th.

At least thirteen of the players attended a U-14 GNT camp in 2018, including the four 2005’ers who were on the USA’s 2018 CONCACAF Girls’ U-15 Championship roster: Olivia Moultrie, Maggie Taitano, Gisele Thompson, and Amelia Van Zanten. (For that tournament, the USA sent a U-14 team that consisted of players born in 2004 and 2005.) Moultrie, Taitano, and Thompson also attended the only U-16 USGNT camp so far this year, which was held in the Netherlands, back in June (U.S. Soccer). Continue reading “U-15 USGNT: 59 Players Called In For Talent ID Camp”