Tag: women’s soccer

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-17 Championship: Mexico to Host; Preliminary Schedule Announced

On Friday, January 31st, CONCACAF released a preliminary schedule for this year’s edition of the CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, which will be hosted by Mexico from April 18th to May 3rd (CONCACAF.com).*   Up for grabs at the tournament are three tickets to November’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in India. Continue reading “CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship: Mexico to Host; Preliminary Schedule Announced”

U-14 USGNT TIP: 2020 West Region Mini-Camp Roster Announced

The Under-14 United States Girls’ National Team is back for 2020 and back to being an annual program, after having been active only in even years since 2015.

Following changes introduced on the boys’ side in 2019 (U.S. Soccer), the new Girls’ “Under-14 Talent Identification Program” now features three regional “mini-camps” of 60 players each, for a total of 180, from which just 60 players will be called back for a national identification camp.  This change will more-than double the total number of players brought into a U-14 camp, compared to recent cycles, which had around 80 total players maximum per year. Continue reading “U-14 USGNT TIP: 2020 West Region Mini-Camp Roster Announced”

A Quick History of U.S. Soccer’s Under-14 Girls’ Programs

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”

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”

NOTES: And, Introducing… The Saint Kitts and Nevis WNT

Debuting today in their first senior CONCACAF women’s tournament is tiny Saint Kitts & Nevis (SKN), who finished first in their five-team qualifying group, which was hosted by Trinidad & Tobago.

Saint Kitts & Nevis has a population of roughly 55,000 and is the smallest independent country in the Western hemisphere (Wikipedia).

SKN’s WNT is coached by (Deborah) Jené Baclawski (Twitter profile) who is the Technical Director for the South Texas Youth Soccer Association.

The Canadian Press wire service recently published a short article on the team, with quotes from Baclawski:  Underdog St. Kitts prepares to face Canada at Olympic women’s soccer qualifier (via theglobeandmail.com).

Continue reading “NOTES: And, Introducing… The Saint Kitts and Nevis WNT”

2020 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship: Group A Preview

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”

Opponent Watch: Haiti’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020

After a six year absence from senior women’s CONCACAF final tournaments, Haiti is back, better and younger than ever.

Update (31-Jan-2020):  Haiti made late changes to their final roster, just after this article was published (Twitter):

  • Unavailable: Angeline Gustave (right knee), center back Tabita Joseph (right ankle)
  • Replaced by Gaëlle Dumas and Maudeline Moryl (both born in 2003)

The rest of this article has not been updated.

Regarding Haiti’s youth, not only does their team have the youngest average age of any squad at this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, at just 20.38 years-old, they also have the youngest “oldest player”, Johane LaForte, who does not turn 24 until late February.

The most striking age-related factoid is that every player on Haiti’s roster is younger than the youngest player on the United States Women’s National Team’s roster, Andi Sullivan, who is 24.11 year-old. Continue reading “Opponent Watch: Haiti’s Roster For CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying 2020”