2022 SheBelieves Cup

Well, these are some very different opponents than previous tournaments. But, I'm kind of surprised we're getting even 1 continental European team willing to travel that far with where we are in the COVID pandemic (speaking of which, I'm not sure we should be moving stadiums; I'd personally rather see it stay at just one). On the soccer side, there's a lot of competition with other tournaments now, too.

Anyway, history lesson for today: if like me, you were wondering, "Has the USWNT ever played the Czech Republic before?" Yes the USWNT has, but the last time was in January 2000 at the Australia Cup when the US took a B/C team to the tournament and won the match 8-1. It was one of the 3 matches that Lauren Gregg coached. The USWNT also once played the old Czechoslovakia in 1988 in the group stage of the FIFA Invitational that year, which was a precursor to the first WWC. In the 1988 game, the USWNT and Czechoslovakia drew 0-0. The Czech Republic's recent results suggest though that this team won't be the same as the team played decades ago.

 

The Czech’s should still be considered tomato can territory; they’ve only won 1 of their last 8 games, a win over low rated Cypress. Most their players come from the two amateur clubs based in Prague, Slavia & Sparta. Their most popular player, Svitkova, scores like 1 goal an season for bottom dwellers, West Ham over in England.
The Czech’s failed to qualify for the upcoming 16 team Euros/most likely wouldn’t qualify for the World Cup either(as their currently 3rd in their current group qualifiers)

Iceland has several of their players on pro clubs throughout Europe, whether their actually given pro salaries is another story as nobody particularly stands out for them/their most famous player, Brynjarsdottir, retired a few year back. The most annoying part is their ridiculous small population(250k). We outnumber them over 1000 to 1. It’s hard to want to cheer against them(ir at least for me).

no introduction for New Zealand, we slaughtered them at the Olympics 6-2 (our only game where we played like our former selves)

 

They also have young FW Andrea Staskova, that you should somehow remember from recent Juventus vs Wolfsburg clashes...

Lol, are you serious? Dagny Brynjarsdottir just had a maternity leave in 2018, when she gave birth to her son Brynjar (named after his grandfather, I suppose), but she's fully active and she had her latest caps with Iceland NT as recently as in October and November 2021, in the WWC 2023 qualifier matches vs Czech Republic and Cyprus (and she scored one goal to each!).

Get up to date, @hotjam2!

 

This lineup for the three friendlies is OK. Although playing all these matches at home makes them of less value than some travel would bring. But it is the way we have always done things so it must be correct, right?

 

Well, this is the seventh she believes cup and the USWNT has gone to the Algarve cup 20 times, so, no.

 

They’re playing at Carson? Why not Banc? Whelp beggars can’t be choosers I hope my triple vax card gets me a ticket to a live USWNT soccer match for the first time since August 2019.

 

Should have play all the games in both stadiums the Banc and Dignity Health stadium. Don’t have to travel much. Next time in WICC they should use both of those stadiums. Surprised they picked Frisco.

 

Where friendlies get played only matters for revenue. For quality of play the matches could just as well be played on a half way decent high school field. For me it is only the quality of play that matters. I care not at all about who goes to the matches. In spite of what people think the crowds really matter very little. Much of the time players on the field hear nothing but noise from the fans and the can actually play better on quite fields with few people watching live.

But I know going to matches has very little to do with soccer. It is for social interaction and the soccer match (or and other sport for that matter) is incidental. I did not ever play at a top level but I did play American football before over 10,000 a few times and I know I received no boost or let down from the crowd.

I felt about most fans the same way I do about people that debate the military without ever serving. They are simply trying to live through other's glory.

 

I go to both college and NWSL games, and I know a lot of other people who do, and they go for soccer. The social interaction is fun, but that is not why they go.

And, I played soccer, so whatever your military statement means as applied to soccer, it does not apply to me.

And, try telling the Portland Thorns that the crowds do not matter. They will tell you that you do not know what you are talking about.

 

maybe Carson got picked due to its historic content? Frisco feels like an soccer hubbub; got an soccer designated stadium/it’s home to FC Dallas & then that area hosts national elite youth tournaments. Checking info on Frisco; 170K population with nearly a quarter being Asian. Housing costs 75% more than Texas average. So take it an very college educated, middle to upper class suburban town within the Dallas metro = all usual check marks for growth for American woso. But if USSF was more cool, they would of picked Austin(that’s where all the Texas hipsters hang out)

If I remember the Algarve Cup final was played in front of a few hundred spectators. They even canceled the title game one year due to bad weather. Made women’s soccer look so subpar. The SBC with it’s 4 top ranked teams & way bigger crowds was a step in the right direction, but now have seen it’s glory years(2016-18) fade away. I think the big mistake was; first year the 2 games were in balmy Orlando & Tampa and party animal town like Nashville. But then the USSF kept switching to unglamorous & colder places like Philly(or was it Hoboken or make them criss cross the country. So that did get the ire of the Euro bigwigs.

 

Which has nothing to do with my response to fanoffutbol whether she believes cup is the way things has always been done, which was what my response you quoted was about.
Playing she believes is not the norm for the uswnt over its history, just at the last 6 years, and for good reasons.

and fanoffutbol’s concern about fewer points in the World ranking by playing this year’s teams at home isn’t of much concern. The USA is over 30 points in front right now, and we won’t get a big boost in points by playing these teams at any venue. With the front runners playing low ranked teams in the Euro Qualifiers and otherwise beating up on each other, they aren’t likely to get huge boosts.

The shine has gone off the event for the better ranked teams because the USA had the bad form to beat them the last few cups and ruin their chances to rise in the ranking. England, France, Germany, Brasil, and Canada have all won only 33% of their matches in the She Believes Tourneys, Japan only 16%. There just isn’t much incentive for them to come back and drop ranking points again. They aren’t stupid, They can do the maths.

The only team with a positive W/L ratio in she believes history besides the USA (72%j is Spain which won 67%% of its matches, beating England and Japan and a gaining second place finish in its only appearance. Maybe they decided to quit while they were ahead.

but attendance in the hundreds at the European venues could be a pretty good reason for the rise of She Beleieves, I agree. , though the most recent cup only averaged 2500, so nobody got rich off gate percentage during the pandemic.

To be fair, I don’t think fan attendance was even encouraged at the Algarve. Most years you couldn’t even buy tickets to most matches ahead of time, and some matches were closed door. I remember posts about sneaking into some matches. The Algarve was played at preseason training facilities mostly built for Euro teams to get ready for their league seasons. They weren’t at major cities. Here’s the stadium the 2014 and 2017 finals were played in. Some high school venues are bigger.

 

I went to Algarve Cup in 2012 and in 2017 and most matches (all the ones I attended to, at least, if I remember well) were admission-free.

By the way, despite the low-attendances (or, better, because of them!), I liked very much the general atmosphere. It was the ideal setting to meet in person the stars of the women's game after the matches and to freely chat with them or to get autographs and photo-opportunities.

 

I like attending games/tournaments in person even if television coverage will have close ups and replays that catch every bit of detail going on when fouls are called and such. Sometimes when I'm at a match, I'm so caught up in the atmosphere with a bunch of other fans that I don't catch everything that's going on but I guess that's normal for big stadiums. The biggest let down is when you see a USWNT player score a goal and you're cheering and high-fiving everybody next to you until you realize they called it off 30 seconds ago...Then everybody boos. I'M LOOKING AT YOU ALEX MORGAN! Miss offside queen.

When I go to Wallis-Annenberg stadium for the UCLA women's soccer games, its much more intimate and I can literally sit behind the bench and hear everything the coach is saying/doing. After the match, you can even take selfies with the coach and players if they are available, they seem more happy to do it after a win rather than a loss.

I've given up trying to get USWNT players autographs after games, it's a bit of a crap shoot because you might have good seats on the sides but if they choose the opposite side, you're screwed, they won't ever get to you as they only do autographs for about 20 minutes then bounce. I was never able to get Abby Wambach's autograph because back in the day, she was "the star" and would only sign autographs for the VIP fans.

The most random signature I ever got was from Hope Solo. It was back in 2009 when I had season tickets to LA Sol games back when WPS existed. They were playing St. Louis Athletica and after the game I was sitting directly behind the goal net and held my WPS ball and jokingly shouted "Hey Hope! What's up?" thinking she didn't hear me and sure enough, she turned around and walked up to me and immediately signed my ball.

 

doubt if they decided to duck us; France went 1-1-1 with the US and out scored us 5-3 if you added all the goal together. The main problem was the exhausting, cross country traveling they had to do as the venues were changed for every game & they had to go right back to their league games right after their last SBC match.

and it probably also was an case of monkey see, monkey do, as they saw the potential of an cash cow and now both England & France are hosting their own tournaments

You sir, are no friend of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi & WAWA’s(the best darn gas station breakfast I’ve ever eaten!)

 

Obviously, since as the name indcates the Algarve Cup is played in Algarve and that area do not have any major cities or for that matters hardly anything that can be called cities (Faro being the biggest settlement with 40 000 in the "city" proper).

 

By the way, I wanted to add to my previous post that this has always been another big element of appeal of the Algarve Cup to me: Faro is a charming little town and the Algarve region at the end of the winter/beginning of the spring uses to be an excellent place to visit, both for its natural and human landscapes (except those years that were haunted by pouring rain, as 2013 if I am not wrong, but I always magically managed to skip them and to only see the rain on TV! )

 

Speaking of So Fine.
Tobin says hello !!!!

 

Still think Rodman should be playing in SBC to get the experience. But can’t go wrong with the other forwards.

 

Rodman will be a training player in the lead-up to SheBelieves.

-Vlatko on Rodman: "She did well in camp. She was very competitive. Her mindset fits well in it. She's really doing good in the league, but the national team is a completely different animal. We want to give her a chance to slowly adjust to the system."
-Sam Mewis is still recovering from injury, and not yet fully fit.
-And on some veterans not making this roster:

Here's the full answer from Vlatko — very clear this is the window he wants to use for evaluation and development, and that the next generation has earned that chance. #USWNT https://t.co/vYZ9eKbIVc pic.twitter.com/8HBk9zy6MF

— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) February 3, 2022

 

Czech Republic's roster:

🇨🇿 Ženy A: Nominace @ceskarepre_cz na #SheBelievesCup #ceskarepre #holkytaky pic.twitter.com/8qUskIK4ID

— ženský fotbal (@zenyfotbal) February 2, 2022

 

Just like her dad, got the feeling Trinity is very independent, which can often be a coach’s worst nightmare. Surprised though that Vlatko is only going with only 5 forwards/wingers, makes you wonder if he’s dropping the 4-3-3