Nov/Dec matches - Nov 28 and Dec 1

Wow, Italy gets a two-header with USWNT! I guess that's part of the reward of making the semifinals of the Euro: you're now considered a legitimate opponent by top National Teams.
I am aware that USA often clash with mid-tier teams also, as Colombia or China, who are even lower than Italy in the rankings, and not just with top-10ish ones; anyway it was a lot that Italy and USA weren't meeting, to the point that I don't actually remember their last clash (the last one I distinctly remember is the play-off to access the WWC 2011, but I don't think it can be the last time they met, can it be? ).

Anyway: despite their progress, I am not sure Italy can be at USA level; I am quite sure their 10 positions of difference in FIFA's rankings will show. Maybe, though, with a very focused team-defense performance, at least a draw could be within my country's reach.

 

The two games in November 2010 (the playoff for the last 2011 WWC berth) were indeed the last meetings between the USWNT and Italy. It's been awhile!

EDIT to add: The announcement on the USSF website also includes the nice historical note that these will be the last matches to close out the USWNT's 40th year in existence, and Italy was obviously the USWNT's very first opponent in their first match in 1985.

 

@blissett Good news/Bad news
The good news is that there will still be experimentation going on as there is quite a while before the USA plays an important match so the USA may field a slightly weaker team than they otherwise would.
The bad news is that there are a number of the "weaker" players that are very good and getting rapidly better in the NWSL and those players may be "hungry" to impress and therefore play at the top of their game so the team may not be packed with veterans but it could be packed with future players that are even better.

I would not wish to handicap these matches as they are:
1. Friendlies.
2. Will not be filled with the vets. At least on the USA side.
3. Will be filled with a lot of unpredictable players.
4. A number of the Italians will be really wanting to show something on the international stage.

There are a number of additional points that are nearly totally unpredictable and could drastically impact the matches.

It will be "interesting" in both the good and the bad meanings of that word.

It is probable that the USA will control these matches but exactly what will happen could very well be the improbable.
But i will say that if we are done experimenting at 'keeper and play our clear #1 (Tullis-Joyce) the matches will be low scoring if they are close. But I think the #2 place is very much up for grabs and Tullis-Joyce is getting plenty of playing time at Man U so there may even be experimentation at keeper.

 

Wow, so it was indeed 15 exact years that these teams weren't meeting: it's a lot of time! I wasn't sure about how well my memory was serving me, but it looks like I should give it a little more credit.

Also, very interesting news about the celebration of USWNT's 40th anniversary with the same opponent they had met back then.

 

I don't expect much by these clashes from Italy in terms of final score. I just expect them to gain a lot of "Experience Points" (if I am allow some D&D jargon ).

 

A G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S glorious day, I was hoping for another European swing to provide me the motivation to get my aging Czechia bones across the pond but I'm not complaining about closing out the year in the Sunshine State.

​

Those bureaucrats in Switzerland have again placed a limit of two matches for this window. I plan to bring the hierarchy at FIFA to justice at the International Court of Justice as they are limiting the Human Race access to Complete and Total Awesomeness. Clearly, an unforgivable crime against humanity.

Who's with me - - - lets march on Zurich - - -
Three Match Windows! Three Match Windows! Three Match Windows!
Three Match Windows! Three Match Windows! Three Match Windows!
Three Match Windows! Three Match Windows! Three Match Windows!

 

Exact is right as it's 15 years almost to the day (off by one day as the last meeting was on Nov 27, 2010).

I do expect a close game, but the US hopefully to pull out the win. The historical record for the USWNT against Italy is 10-4-1 with many of those games only having a 1 or 2 goal margin. All four of those losses against Italy were also games in Italy, so maybe for Italy to have the best chance, they should have hosted the games. Here's the record:
Aug. 18, 1985: 0-1 L in Jesolo, Italy
July 26, 1986: 0-1 L in Jesolo, Italy
July 24, 1988: 1-2 L in Rimini, Italy
June 15, 1993: 5-0 W in Mansfield, Ohio
June 19, 1993: 1-0 W in Columbus, Ohio
April 11, 1995: 3-0 W in Poissy, France
June 8, 1997: 2-0 W in Washington, D.C.
July 7, 2000: 4-1 W in Central Islip, N.Y.
March 7, 2001: 0-1 L in Rieti, Italy
Oct. 6, 2002: 4-0 W in Cary, N.C.
Oct. 22, 2003: 2-2 T in Kansas City, Mo.
March 7, 2008: 2-0 W in Alvor, Portugal
June 19, 2008: 2-0 W in Suwon, South Korea
Nov. 20, 2010: 1-0 W in Padova, Italy (2011 WWC playoff)
Nov. 27, 2010: 1-0 W in Bridgeview, Ill. (2011 WWC playoff)

Since she's recently retired, the biggest memory for me of those last meetings between the US and Italy for me is a young Alex Morgan in her first year on the team, coming on as a sub and in one of her first touches of the game scoring that crucial goal in the away portion of the playoff games in the dying minutes of the match.

 

I found the highlights from that game! Jump to 3:40 to see the goal:



For the second of those playoff matches (the home portion of the playoff), the full match is actually on YouTube as it was one of the replays that they showed during COVID lockdowns with Amy Rodriguez and Nicole Barnhart doing the watch-along:



Not that what happened 15 years ago will have any bearing on the games this November, but it's fun to look back at those last meetings between the teams, especially for any posters here who weren't following woso back then.

 

I notice that three of Italy's four wins were in the '80s, so beating the US actually looks like a thing from another era.

Also, I read that those first three games were played in August and July on typical beach-towns as Jesolo and Rimini (in the '80s, when I was a child to teen, I used myself to pass the summer vacations in a place near Rimini): well-knowing my country, I suspect that it happened beacause at the time women's football was seen as the funny summer-show oddity, as compared to men's football, that was seen as the "serious thing".

 

In the 1980s, I think that wasn't just Italy; that was really everywhere. All of the USWNT games played on home soil in their first 6 or so years of existence were in Blaine, Minnesota, as a part of what was really a youth soccer festival called the USA Cup, and the WNT games were just a sideshow alongside the much larger youth tournament. Those games only had a few hundred maybe there to watch (and I'd guess a lot of those were family and youth players there to play their own games). The USWNT didn't have any home friendlies outside of those games in MN until right before the 1991 WWC. (As a side note, the USA Cup soccer festival still exists and is the largest international youth soccer tournament in the western hemisphere. In 1985, it drew 78 teams from around the world and now it draws about 1200 teams)

 

I think Italy got off to a good start when WoSo wasn’t big thing. (Like, before the first wc in 91) Iirc, for a lonnnng time the top two for most international goals were Italian. I think when Hamm got the record she surpassed an Italian. That is all subject to my sketchy memory.

I think this is a fantastic match-up. Wish they were in Italy.

Italy was in great form at the euros. We’re still piecing together our squad. Wdnt be surprised if we lost, or particularly disappointed

 

Not many legends in that starting line up. But Cheney, Morgan, and Lilly on the bench

 

This isn't going to make you feel more hopeful, but also that 4th loss to Italy in 2001 was with essentially a youth team. That game was a part of the USWNT's trip to the Algarve that year and was the year that the USWNT sent basically a youth team so that all the veterans could stay with their WUSA teams.

In any case, if I were to make a prediction (not that I'm good at them), I'd still predict a US win but a close one as I think Italy will be a tough defense for the US to break down.

 

Because we talked about how long it had been since we played Italy, I'm going to quote an article here that @soccernutter posted in the News and Media thread. The article about how USSF matches are scheduled contains some interesting details on the Italy friendlies. Here's the bit about the Italy matches, but the whole article is well worth the read:

I would assume that that first choice of opponent was one of the teams involved in the Nations League Finals.

 

I would of personally assumed that Euro champs, England, would of been first choice(they were free as they’re eliminated already in the Nations League)

another top choice would of been Japan as their players are currently massively blowing away at both the NWSL & WSL leagues(the practically unknown NC, Matsukobo has now better combined stats than any American in the NWSL)

 

@hotjam2 Matsukubo isn't practically unknown in the US (maybe Europe). NC loaned her July 2023 and transferred her the following year, so she's been at NC for two and a half seasons. She's been lauded by the commentators every NC game I've watched this season at least. She won the Silver Ball at the 2024 U20s leading Japan to second place. Most Japanese players are fully appreciated as highest quality when they leave their country to play abroad. So much so that there are like 16 or so players in the WSL--we've got maybe six in NWSL so we take what we can get and are lucky to do so.

You know we can't have it both ways, we either welcome foreign players to our domestic league or we rail against it. I prefer to welcome them, what has kept NWSL behind historically is too many domestic players filling-out the roster of teams just 'cause we can't get enough foreign players. Without foreign players, the games would be almost unwatchable! Sorry. So great that she's accomplished so much this season that no American can match her stats, so what. We are in the midst of a sea change in US women's soccer, finally replenishing all the old glorified vets with a new and rising generation of youth who are going to redefine the US player in the world of women's soccer.

 

Regarding the scheduling of friendlies, I hope that we have the foresight to somehow schedule games in Brazil before the World Cup. I remember Klinnsman did that in 2013 before the 2014 WC in Brazil. Helped us get familiar with the venues and hotel and travel arrangements.

 

Couldn't we have scheduled the Italy games in Italy? Way more challenging.

 

I kinda meant Matsukubo is just the tip of the Iceberg. The three J starters at an recent Angel City match dominated the highlights; they created & practically took all the shots/Tanaka now surging at Utah/last week, Man City upset CL champs Arsenal with three starting J players, one of which scored the game winner/Bayern’s Tanikawa now starts regularly over German NT’s. So their t much everywhere & anywhere—-whereas the US seems to wants to be stuck in 2nd gear. AS of now, Japan’s got a better team than us

 

I agree with what you said above. But it shouldn't surprise nor upset the US that this is so. Japan were emerging the years before their WC victory in 2011 and haven't looked back. They obviously know how to develop their players. They have, historically, learned from the best footballing nations (Spain and Brazil) the necessary technical skills to compete at the highest level and filled in the gaps with learning from US and other Europeans how to keep up with changes.

We've played them well a few times in recent years, but as you noted they took us apart last February. Also they embarrassed Spain 4-0 at the last WC, though historically Spain tends to beat them. So, yeah I totally agree Japan is one of the perhaps most under-rated national power because their foundation is so strong and they have got players all over the footballing world so nothing should catch them unawares--unless we really reformulate a triple-headed attacking monster like at the Olympics.

PS another league where Japanese players are more prevalent than in the US is Sweden.

 

I feel like this sparked some discussion, but people are commenting without reading the article about scheduling (It's in the News and Media thread, but I also linked it in my post). Posters here should definitely read it, because it helps address some of the complaints in this forum about why the USWNT play certain opponents and in some stadiums over and over again.

The USWNT have also prioritized scheduling matches in countries where they'll play major tournaments, and I have no doubt that they'll continue to do that where it is possible scheduling-wise and when the federation can actually host them. It's just not always feasible (as the article hints at why, and I commented on it in the news and media thread). The USWNT played in Brazil as well before the 2016 Olympics (but they had to be scheduled in 2014 to work around the lead-up to the 2015 WWC). The team played in Europe before the 2019 WWC; they had a trip to New Zealand before the 2023 WWC, etc.

 

The Swedish league has lost its luster over the years, so anyone that shines in it, usually gets picked up by a richer WSL & NWSL club by the following year—-Chawinga scored 35 goals in her one season over there. Right now 18 year old Felicia Schroeder is blowing up the league, another one to look at is 21 year old Wallengram , so arch nemesis Sweden(4-1-1 vs the US since 2011 in major tournaments) has plenty of upcoming players to deal with.
From what I’ve seen, Sweden might not spend as much at the pro level, but their youth training & playing facilities are pretty much modern & upscale, sort of akin to what Texas spend on their high school football program(as compared to the ECLN that still use decades old/outdated soccer fields)