FIFA Women's World Cup

The Scotland women’s national team made history on Tuesday. A 2-1 victory over Albania saw it lock up the top spot in Group 2 and secure its place in the World Cup finals next summer for the first time ever.

Scotland’s WWC debut was made possible thanks to a little help from Poland. In one of the more surprising results of this qualifying series, Poland held 18th-ranked Switzerland to a 0-0 draw. A Swiss win would have put it in first to automatically qualify, but with points dropped, opportunity awaited Scotland and they seized the moment. 

Japan won the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup with a 3-1 rout of Spain on Friday in France, avenging an earlier loss in impressive fashion. Japan scored the game’s first three goals, including a scorcher from Hinata Miyazawa in the first half. 

Spain defeated Japan 1-0 in Group C play, the Spanish ladies taking first place in a group of death that also included the United States. The two met again in Vannes, France, with the tournament on the line.

In the final of the U-20 Women's World Cup, Japan showed it was the best in the world in this age group.

A U.S. national soccer team being knocked out at the group stage of a major tournament is a headline that we don't often associate with the women’s side, but today produced an outcome not many in the soccer world could've predicted. The U.S. U-20 women’s national team saw its journey at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup come to a shocking end before it really even got started. 

STANDINGS // CLASSEMENT

The 2018 Tournament of Nations is set to get under way on July 26. The competition consists of a series of friendly games between four of the world’s top women’s national teams. Like last summer, this year’s edition will feature the national teams of Australia (ranked 8th by FIFA), Brazil (7th), Japan (6th) and the hosts, the United States (1st).

Yesterday, USWNT coach Jill Ellis released her preliminary list of 25 players for the tournament.

Last weekend, Brazil secured their seventh Copa America Femenina title and direct qualification to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup after winning all seven of their matches while scoring 31 goals and conceding only two. This wasn’t a surprise, but a real feel-good story surrounds the second-place finishers at the competition, hosts Chile.

“The football I grew up playing is no longer there. Today, all players care about are their cars, their shoes with their names on, and their image. While for me, the only thing that counted was football. Nothing else.” -Miroslav Klose

Football is under attack. It’s a sentiment that, regardless of how much it resonates with you, is often expressed and passionately argued. Whatever the reason, be it the influx of money, the unsporting concentration of talent or the diminished draw of the international game, there’s cause for cynicism. 

We’re about 16 months away from the start of the 2019 Women's World Cup in France and FIFA released the official match schedule for the event on Thursday. The opening match will be played at the Parc de Princes in Paris, home of Paris Saint-Germain. Both semifinals and the final will be played at the Stade de Lyon. While both those venues are great, it’s hard to shake the feeling France is selling itself short with its stadium selection.

The U.S. women keep accomplishing what the U.S. men cannot. On Friday in Ato Bodon Stadium, the exact same location of the USMNT’s capitulation to Trinidad and Tobago to miss out on the 2018 World Cup three months ago, the U-20 USWNT booked its trip to the 2018 U-20 Women’s World Cup with a win over Haiti. 

Less than a year after being hired by the Canadian Soccer Association, Ecuadorian manager Octavio Zambrano has been replaced by the hugely successful coach of the Canadian women’s team, 42-year-old Englishman John Herdman. Former Herdman assistant Kenneth Heiner-Møller will now take charge of the side ranked fifth in the world with the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup just 17 months away.

In UEFA Women’s World Cup qualifying there are a lot of routs. Half of the 10 matches played Tuesday involved scorelines of 3-0 or worse (most were worse, much worse), including Germany’s 11-0 thrashing of Faroe Islands. Scotland’s match against Albania was no different but for one feature: none of those other lopsided affairs had a goal this pretty.