Monthly Archives: April 2012

CONCACAF WU-17: Group B Preview – USA, Mexico, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago

This year, the United States finds itself grouped with a North American opponent for the first time at a CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship. That opponent, Mexico, features eleven players who live in the United States, including two players, Jenny Chiu and Cynthia Pineda, who have been in USWNT youth camps.

The third team in the group is Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), who have a few veterans returning from the 2010 Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which T&T hosted. The Bahamas is the final team in the group and are the lone debutantes at this tournament. In fact, this is the first time that this small Caribbean nation has qualified for any final phase of a CONCACAF tournament, men’s or women’s. Continue reading →

CONCACAF WU-17: Group A Preview – Canada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama

Should the USA advance to the knock-out stage of the 2012 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, they will face at least of one of the four teams from Group A, which are Canada, Guatemala, Jamaica, and Panama. If the USA wins their group, then they will face the second-place team from the above four, which will probably be the hosts Guatemala. Although Panama, who have a number of players who competed in the recent CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, which it hosted, and Jamaica, which has recently bolstered its roster with six foreign based players (five from Canada and one from the US), could also claim the second spot. Continue reading →

U-17 USWNT: Regarding the Probable Starting Line-Up

In a previous post on the U-17 USWNT’s final roster for the CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, I summarized the team’s likely preferred line-up in their normal 4-3-3 formation. This current post is a more in-depth discussion of that line-up, along with some background on how the line-up has evolved over the current cycle. Continue reading →

CONCACAF WU-17: Team Rosters (Will Be Updated)

As rosters for the 2012 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship become available, they will be added to this post.

Known final rosters: USA, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala.

Final rosters not yet available: Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago.

For the United States Under-17 Women’s National Team’s roster, see this older post, which links to detailed player profiles. For Mexico’s roster, see this post.

Continue reading →

CONCACAF WU-17: Mexico’s Final Roster (2012)

Earlier today (Friday, April 27th), the USA’s final group stage opponent, Mexico, released its final roster for the CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, which begins on May 2nd. Of the 20 players rostered, 11 play for American club teams, including 10 who were born in the United States.

From the previous roster, six player were cut, including five who played for American club teams. The six players cut were Elisa Martin (goalkeeper), Stephanie Alcazar (defender), Maria Solis (defender), Paola Urbieta (defender), Anahie Duran (midfielder), and Micaela Estrada (midfielder). Continue reading →

Olympics: Women’s Soccer Tournament Groups, With Schedule

The draw for the soccer tournaments at the 2012 London Olympics was held earlier today. The groups are as follows:

Group E: Great Britain (E1), New Zealand (E2), Cameroon (E3), Brazil (E4)
Group F: Japan (F1), Canada (F2), Sweden (F3), South Africa (F4)
Group G: USA (G1), France (G2), Colombia (G3), North Korea (G4)

For the USA, this means that they will play France first, then Colombia, and finally North Korea.

Continue reading →

Olympics: About the African Teams, Cameroon and South Africa

The 2012 Olympic women’s soccer tournament will feature two new teams from Africa, Cameroon and South Africa, as this is the first time that Nigeria did not qualify for the Olympics, and the first time that Africa has two whole spots in the final field. Having never qualified for a Women’s World Cup, these two teams are also new to the world stage, and thus, unfamiliar to most fans of women’s soccer.

Continue reading →

U-20 USWNT: April 2012 Friendlies Versus China’s U-20 WNT

In its first training camp since winning the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championhip, the United States Women’s National Team played two international friendlies versus China’s U-20 WNT. In the first match, on April 12th, the USA scored four second-half goals in a 4:1 victory. On April 15th, in the second match, the USA won 3:0.

Only match reports from US Soccer and TopDrawerSoccer.com are available in-depth sources for these two matches, so this post is mostly a filtered summary of those accounts.

Continue reading →

U-20 USWNT: Possible Opponent Highlights, Asian U-20 WWC Qualifiers

For the upcoming Under-20 Women’s World Cup, four teams qualified from Asia: Japan (hosts) plus China, North Korea, and South Korea. As there are only four groups of four in the U-20 WWC, these four Asian teams will probably be in the same pot for the draw, so the USA will likely have one of these teams in its group.

The following YouTube videos are official highlights from Asia’s qualifying tournament for the U-20 WWC which was the 2011 edition of the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship, and the final phase was held in October 2011  (details, the-afc.com). Continue reading →