CU20W: USA Viewing Options for the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship

Update (22-Feb-2020):  Major re-write, added section for YouTube

While all of this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship matches that involve the USA should be available unblocked via CONCACAF’s official YouTube channel, some live broadcasts of other matches have been geo-blocked in the USA.

For those trying to watch these other matches live, there are two additional options:  Concacaf Go (go.concacaf.com) and TUDNxtra.  And, if you missed a match, each match should be available for replay on YouTube (official playlist) shortly after the end of the live broadcast.

The Options:

Continue reading “CU20W: USA Viewing Options for the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship”

2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship – Final Rosters

Earlier this week, CONCACAF released the final rosters for this year’s Women’s Under-20 Championship.  Unfortunately, the rosters were only made publicly available via Issuu.com which does not allow downloads of the original PDF for documents uploaded by free accounts (and generally sucks from a usability perspective.)

Anyway, here is the full list of players as a Google Sheets file.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oOmw582dDE6XBMtWswTQZBHCFdv7jYNYmAtLPPkhBbU/edit

Continue reading “2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship – Final Rosters”

U-20 USWNT: Roster for 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship Announced

Prologue:  This has not been a normal U-20 cycle.

* * *

With Laura Harvey taking the helm of the Under-20 United States Women’s National Team, some change in player selection was to be expected, but… Continue reading “U-20 USWNT: Roster for 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship Announced”

U-20 USWNT: Provisional Roster for 2020 CONCACAF Championship Released

On Monday, February 3rd, CONCACAF released the provisional rosters (PDF) for all teams participating in the final stages of the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, giving us clues as to which players are still in the mix for new head coach Laura Harvey’s final 20-player roster, including #1 NWSL College Draft pick Sophia Smith.

The tournament, which will be hosted by the Dominican Republic and runs from February 22nd to March 8th (full schedule), will be used to decide the two – yes, just 2 – at-large qualification slots from CONCACAF for this year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica and Panama.

Continue reading “U-20 USWNT: Provisional Roster for 2020 CONCACAF Championship Released”

CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Costa Rica and Panama Out, Bermuda and Barbados In

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”

CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Subtraction Through Addition

The CONCACAF.com article started out so promising…

Following confirmation from FIFA that Costa Rica and Panama will co-host the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, in August of 2020, and that Concacaf has been awarded one additional slot…

An “additional slot”?  Awesome.

But, then came the parenthetical…

 (four in total)

Uh, that doesn’t sound good.

And, then, there was the next paragraph, that started:

The Concacaf Council has determined that Costa Rica and Panama, as host countries of the World Cup, will automatically qualify to the World Cup and will no longer participate in the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship.

Wait…  A confederation can “determine” whether the host country/countries will automatically qualify or not?  Well, that is worth a clarification.

Anyway, moving on for the moment…

The two remaining slots in the World Cup will be determined via the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship.

Well, fu…….n.  Yeah, “fun.”  That’s the word.

Oh.  And, then there’s this bit of news that was slipped in as well:

 …the Confederation announced changes to its World Cup Qualifying tournament, to be hosted in the Dominican Republic between Feb 22 – Mar 8, 2020.

Uh, that’s not what was announced back in November

So, instead of three at-large qualification slots from CONCACAF for the 2020 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, there are just two available slots, meaning that the semifinals will be must-win all-or-nothing affairs.  (Unless CONCACAF or FIFA decides to throw another curveball.)

But, hey, at least there’s another week to prepare for the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, since the tournament was pushed back a week, so that it now starts on Saturday, February 22nd instead of the 15th.

But, wait, there’s more… Continue reading “CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Subtraction Through Addition”

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-23 USWNT: Matt Potter Named Head Coach; B.J. Snow Leaves U.S. Soccer

On Thursday, January 9th, U.S. Soccer announced a pair of related staffing changes:

  1. The hiring of former University of Oklahoma women’s soccer head coach Matt Potter as the new head coach of the Under-23 United States Women’s National Team, and
  2. The departure of B.J. Snow, who most recently helmed the U-23 USWNT while also serving as the Director of Talent Identification for the USWNT.

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”

U-20 USWNT: First Camp Roster Under Laura Harvey Announced

Update (14-Jan-2020):  Stanford’s Katie Meyer is the fourth goalkeeper called-in for this camp.  U.S. Soccer’s original write-up for this roster only named three goalkeepers and noted that Harvey might add a fourth.  Meyer was a regular call-up during the 2016 U-16 and U-17 cycles (attending 6 and 7 camps, respectively), but has only had a few call-ups since the start of 2017.

Late Wednesday, U.S. Soccer released the roster for the Under-20 United States Women’s National Team’s last full camp before CONCACAF qualifying for this year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup.  This camp, which runs from January 9th to the 20th, will be the first camp helmed by recently installed head coach Laura Harvey.  Of the 25 players called in so far, at least 18 attended the Nike Friendlies camp in December, and just one of the players participated in December’s senior USWNT identification campBrianna Pinto of North Carolina.

External Link: New U-20 WNT Head Coach Laura Harvey Calls 25 Players To Pre-Qualifying Training Camp In Florida (U.S. Soccer)

Stanford’s Sophia Smith, another attendee of the USWNT identification camp, is once again unavailable due to a senior USWNT call-up.  Curiously, the other two U-20 call-ups of December’s identification camp are absent:   Center backs Naomi Girma of Stanford and Maycee Bell of North Carolina. Girma was withdrawn from the identification camp for what seemed to have been a minor injury. Continue reading “U-20 USWNT: First Camp Roster Under Laura Harvey Announced”

U-20 USWNT: Laura Harvey Hired as Head Coach

On Monday, following last month’s surprise departure of Mark Carr for a head coaching position at the University of Oklahoma, U.S. Soccer announced that now-former Utah Royals FC head coach Laura Harvey will be leading the Under-20 United States Women’s National Team.

Harvey’s first duties include overseeing the current U-20 USWNT camp, which runs from January 9th to the 20th.  After that, her first international matches as head coach will be the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship in February, which are the qualifiers for this year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup.  Harvey’s duties will also include “manag[ing] the integration and programming of the U-18 and U-19 [Women] National Teams.” Continue reading “U-20 USWNT: Laura Harvey Hired as Head Coach”