It’s June 2004, and England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has just confirmed his squad for EURO 2004 in Portugal. The 23-man team is highlighted by 18-year-old Everton sensation Wayne Rooney. Aston Villa forward Darius Vassell, although an injury doubt, has been named in the squad at the expense of 21-year-old Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe.
Legendary Italian women’s international Patrizia Panico is set to make history as the first woman to coach an Italian men's national team. Panico will take charge of two friendlies for Italy’s under-16 side against Germany.
USMNT manager Bruce Arena has announced his 24-man squad for vital World Cup qualifiers against Honduras and Panama at the end of March. This represented the first opportunity for Arena to include European-based talent, but it’s clear that he’s also given a fair shake to the MLS players that impressed during January camp.
Sweden’s national women’s team will no longer display their names on the back of their football shirts, but don’t worry the new jerseys will not disappoint.
Ooh. Yikes.
The USWNT's worst home defeat ever, worst defeat overall since 2007, first time losing back to back matches since 2000, everything's the worst, is what we're trying to say.
The good news: the SheBelieves Cup is a made up friendly tournament and objectively does not matter.
Brazil will travel to Montevideo, Uruguay for a clash between the top two sides in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying without David Luiz, the Chelsea center half and captain of Brazil’s 7-1 capitulation to Germany once again omitted from Tite’s latest squad announcement.
Luiz has been in great form for club this season, helping Chelsea to the top of the Premier League table with a defense that’s allowed only 19 goals in 26 matches. However, Luiz hasn’t appeared for Brazil since last March, and Tite has ignored him since being placed in charge of the Seleção last June.
The USWNT won their first game of 2016 with a 1-0 win over a tough German side. Lynn Williams scored the lone goal, but the real story of the match was USWNT manager Jill Ellis continuing to experiment with a back three.
Jerome Valcke, the Dick Cheney to Sepp Blatter's George W. Bush, is appealing against his 10-year ban from footballing activities for various ethics violations.
The Court for Arbitration in Sport will handle Valcke's case, which is hopefully denied because Valcke is about as scummy as they come.
I do not want Jerome Valcke back in this game. He's done enough. Not that the current administration is all sunshine and roses, but FIFA will never get cleaned up if they let people like Valcke back in the picture.
While the entire 2017 calendar for the USWNT is still unknown, it’s fair to say that the SheBelieves Cup will serve as their biggest and toughest competition of the year. With all four participating nations ranked in the top five of the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, the tournament will prove to be a marquee event.
UWSNT coach Jill Ellis released the 23-player roster for the Cup that will kick off on Wednesday, March 1 at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania.
The United States U-20 team defeated a Mexican U-20 side that hadn’t lost a match since 2009 on Monday in the classification stage of the 2017 CONCACAF U-20 Championship.
The loss for Mexico means that they’ll need a result against El Salvador on March 1 to qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea. If Mexico were to lose or draw that match, the US would clinch their spot before even playing their final classification match against El Salvador on March 3.