Play Like a Girl: SheBelieves, Algarve, and Cyprus Cups

It’s almost March which means it is time to get ready for the Triwizard’s Cup of women’s football once more. But, not really. Over a 9-day period in March, three (3) tournaments are taking place in Cyprus, Portugal, and the USA for 28 national women’s football teams. Which is sorta like a Triwizard-esque event. But, again, not really. :^)

Cyprus Cup
Officially, the Cyprus Cup runs February 27 – March 9 though matches are taking place March 1 – 8 only. Unlike its companion tournaments, this Cup holds a group stage to determine group positions based on points followed by one day of classification matches to determine final rankings.

The twelve invited teams are split into three (3) groups. The participating teams are as follows, along with their current FIFA ranking:

Group A
Belgium, 25; Italy, 16; Korea DPR, 10; Switzerland, 17

Group B
Austria, 24 (current champions); Korea Rep, 18; New Zealand, 19; Scotland, 21

Group C
Czech Rep, 33; Rep.of Ireland, 34; Hungary, 40; Wales, 36

There are no announced broadcasts at the moment, though there was one stream available last year for the final.

Algarve Cup
Taking place March 1 – 8 in Portugal, the Algarve Cup is in its 24th year of operation. This year’s tournament should be a hotly contested one, with top EU teams gearing up for UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 in Netherlands in July.

The twelve invited teams are split into three (3) groups for a round-robin tournament with the winner determined based on the standard points systems. The participating teams are as follows, including their FIFA ranking:

Group A
Canada, 4 (current champions); Denmark, 15; Russia, 23; Portugal, 38

Group Two
Iceland, 20; Japan, 7; Norway, 11; Spain, 14

Group Three
Australia, 6; Sweden, 8; Netherlands, 12; China PR, 13

Eurosport has broadcast this tournament in the past; a search for this year’s schedule has proven fruitless thus far.

SheBelieves Cup
Is the unofficial slogan for this year’s SheBelieves Cup, “she persisted”? If not, it really, really should be. Timely and extremely relevant when it comes to women’s football. I highly encourage anyone able to attend any of these games to consider some signage.

Four of the top 5 FIFA-ranked teams are involved again this year: France (3), England (5), Germany (2), and the USA (1). This tournament is also a round robin, with the winner determined based on the standard points system.

Games are taking place in Chester, PA (March 1); Harrison, NJ (March 4); and Washington DC (March 7). Tickets for all the games are available through USSoccer.com.

It looks like Fox Sports will be airing the USA games only. French broadcasters D17 and Canal + Sport along with the BBC picked up all or some of the other games last year. Hopefully they will do the same this year.

If anyone is going to any of these tournament, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment below or connect on Twitter @hbandsandhbreak.

-hopechaser