Comments about the results against England, changed shape and lineup during the tournament, etc., bring up an interesting question. What is the purpose of this kind of event for a U-23 team? Is winning what counts most, or are the coaches focusing on something else? Does the WNT coach have any say in how the U-23s, or U-20s and younger U- teams, approach their games? I honestly don't know the answers to these questions, so I'm wondering what others think.
I think it changes from year to year depending on where the competition pressure is. I think the focus right now is on the full National, the U20's, and the U17's. They have an Olympics and two World Cups coming up (The Algarve is also full National this year). soon they will be gearing up to be in the best competition form they can be by summer or fall. The Full National's Algarve squad will be interesting, since I think it will be the Olympic squad except for maybe 2 or 3 players The U18's and U23's are the two spots right now where ussoccer can experiment more with players who aren't quite as well established. Those rosters will be a lot more flexible, and winning won't be the first goal, as much as player development. They don't really have major competitions in this cycle.
Well, the u18's, no. That was just created for "tweeners" between the u17 and u20 teams. But there have always been YNT's that are created more for development than major competitions.. Recently there were u19 and u21 teams that didn't participate in major competitions, Then the u19's did and the u20's didn't etc. etc. The u23's had both an Algarve cup and a World Cup a couple years ago. I read somewhere that a long term goal of FIFA is to make the Olympic teams u23, as they are for the men.
This recent discussion gives all the more reasons why the US needs a women's professional league. There are a ton of players who need to be able to play regularly at a high level. In order to do that, they need to be able to make a living doing it. Then, some of these U-? gyrations wouldn't be so necessary just to keep the players in form.
your right - forced me to actually check. there odd number world championship was the u-19's in 2002 It'll happen to you too, when you get old.
So many team changes over the years: It used to be the U-16s, U-18s and U-21s. The U-18s became the U-19s for the 2002 and 2004 world championships, and is now the U-20s. The former U-21s had one purpose- the Nordic Cup. It seems that until a couple years ago, the team was only formed in June-July for the tournament- then more recently it has camps and is now the U-23 still for the Nordic. Been talk about the Olympics changing the women age to the Mens. Then a U-17 was added (has a world championship) and there is now a U-18 team this year. The US Soccer site doe not list a U-16 team unless that became the U-17s.
Yeah, it's pretty hard to keep it all straight. this is the first u17 year, but according to the FIFA site, it appears they will do it every 2 or 3 years. The u20's will happen every 2 years. The Pan Am's may go to u23, as may the Olympics. The Algarve and four Nations seem to keep changing. All those FIFA cronies have to do SOMETHING on their junkets....
Announced at the Scottish Football Association site: http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scotland_squad_news.cfm?squadid=2&curpageid=862
It seems that Tony Dicicco is taking the preparation of his team quite seriously so as to win it all come November U20 WC in Chile. It reads as a good plan to me.
I'm a bit confused here. It seems all the teams in the tournament will be full National teams except the USA team. Canada calls it's game with Scotland a friendly, so it appears some teams will play for the cup and some won't, or perhaps the Canada/Scotland game won't count towards international play. Anybody know how it's set up?
Canada is not in Scotland's group, hence their game is an additional friendly, not part of the Cup. Presumably the teams in the two groups will be matched up against one another according to order of finish in the group games.
what they call it does not matter. if it's not fifa sponsored, it's a friendly. and this is not a fifa sponsored tournament.
Cyprus Cup is like a "mini Algarve Cup" , with 3 teams in each group . Russia , Canada and Japan in group 1 and USA U20 , Netherlands and Scotland in group 2. Canada and Scotland will play a additional match on March 10 that dont count in Cyprus Cup. Finals will be on March 12. http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/media/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=3051
Cyprus Women’s Cup 2008 There is a post but for some reason it isn't showing under Latest News on the U-20 WNT page. U.S. Under-20 Women Defeat Scotland Women's National Team, 2-1
Re: Cyprus Women’s Cup 2008 It seems that the Russian girls beat the U.S. U20 by 2-0. This would be a crossover friendly game as the two are in different groups.
U.S. U-20s beat Netherlands 2-0. No details on goals at knvb.nl. This sets up a rematch of the Pan Am Games semi-final with Canada for the Cyprus Cup Mar. 12.
Canada beat US U20's 3-2 today for the Cyprus Cup. Canada's squad was made up of 1/2 senior team players and the other half younger U-20 players. Should be a great U20 World Cup in Chile this coming November.
I am sure it will be a great W.C. But both teams the U.S. and Canada have to qualify first before they can book their tickets to Chile.