24th February - 3rd March 2010 in Portugal Current FIFA World Rankings in parentheses GROUP A Germany (2) Denmark (9) China (12) Finland (16) GROUP B USA (1) Sweden (4) Norway (7) Iceland (17) GROUP C Romania (36) Austria (37) Portugal (40) Faroe Islands (61) With Faroe Islands' participation, this will be the first time ever that all 6 Nordic nations will compete.
Algarve Cup 2010 Group A: 24-02-2010 Germany - Denmark 24-02-2010 Finland - China 26-02-2010 Germany - Finland 26-02-2010 Denmark - China 01-03-2010 Germany - China 01-03-2010 Denmark - Finland link: www.dfb.de (FA Germany) Group B: 24-02-2010 USA - Iceland 24-02-2010 Sweden - Norway 26-02-2010 Iceland - Sweden 26-02-2010 USA - Norway 01-03-2010 Iceland - Norway 01-03-2010 USA - Sweden link: www.ksi.is (FA Iceland) Group C: info will follow as soon as possible
At some point it would be nice if the tourney was expanded by another group. Keep the top 3 as contenders, then still have the lower-ranked teams in the fourth group.
Dunno. Don`t you think it would blow out the proportions for a mere "preparation tourney"? There is still the Cyprus Cup for other teams in need of a quality opposition. I`d assume they`d rather expand that one.
True. But it would be kinda cool if they expanded it once every four years, in between the Euros and World Cup. Because the only thing the teams are really preparing for next year are WCQs. (I guess I'm just not ready for the void that will be next year, internationally.)
i really think the Group C "tier 2" group should be removed and all 12 teams are divided evenly. And I'll second that it should be expanded to 16 teams, but not until after 2011 since the 2015 WWC will now be at 24 teams.
That will not happen until Portugal feel they can challenger the top 20 in the game. But probably rather shortly after that. Group C was created to give Portugal (that after all is supplying the fields for Algarve) opponents they have at least a chance against (they played with the big girls Sweden, Norway, US etc the first years of Algarve and that wasn't much fun for anyone).
Excellent point. We Americans sometimes forget that this tourny is one of those "wipe the winter dust off" with competitive games situations. We generally haven't had a league for players to develop (unlike Europe). And the USA WNT has with cause, imo felt that if they don't go all out and try to win every time then the US Fed won't feel the need to continue to support them at the same (or higher) level. That and there is generally little CONCACAF competition so a chance to play top teams has to be taken seriously.
To say nothing of the fact that USA WNT players get paid a little extra for every win they get.......nothing like a little performance incentive pay to further motivate a desire to win (not that they really need any more incentive).
Group C : 24.02.2010 – Portugal vs Faroe Island – Romania vs Austria 26.02.2010 – Portugal vs Romania – Austria vs Faroe Island 01.03.2010 – Portugal vs Austria – Faroe Island vs Romania http://www.football.fo/index.asp?id=&news={7897E031-76A2-4F9C-B599-B1CEF537B3B0}
Everywhere I've looked, it says "to be decided". Year after year, their organisational tardiness makes it way too much hassle to arrange a trip.
You'll be lucky if any of the matches get broadcast. Period. At one time Eurosport broadcast the tourney, but then last year, the only TV was on a German channel (and the German matches only, IIRC -- hell, now that I think about it, I'm not so sure they went through with it) and I think a Portuguese station. Either way, we were stuck watching matchtracker.
German TV showed the German matches last year. This year, from the look of it, nothing. Blame the Olympics, and probably the men's matches in the second week.
Germany are playing a friendly against Argentina on 3 March, and I think I saw another match but I can't find it right now. Let's say you can keep your TV on all day and more or less just watch the Olympics in one channel or another if you feel like it.
So the Winter Olympics must be bigger in Europe than America right? Although the opening ceremony got 68 million viewers in America the interest in the games is low if you read all the article and polls taken in America. Most don't care about obscure sports like mogul skiing and loosers!! LOL...I mean lugers. I personally like the hockey and will even watch some of the women's U.S. vs. China game at 2 PM ct today on USA network. I'll watch the men's hockey as well and some of the skiing and skating as well and a few minutes of some other stuff.
Anyone know when the official schedule normally comes out? In terms of locations and times. My first time in Portugal!
I think the Portuguese organisers might have broken their record: venues have now been announced over a week in advance! Mind you, a couple of years back, they changed some times and venues after announcing the "finalised" schedule. Good luck to anyone venturing there! You're braver than I am.
seriously bummed out there are no streams of any of the matches. at least, nothing i have found. booooo!