A World Cup year for the U.S. women’s national team is about to begin in earnest at the SheBelieves Cup.
Following two blowout friendly wins in January over a New Zealand team ranked 24th in the world that was far from full strength, the United States will take on three top-11 opponents over the next week. Canada, Japan, and Brazil represent something of a resumption of the type of challenge the Americans faced in the fall against Europe’s elite. Concerns about the state of the program after three losses in a row for the first time since 1993 – to England and Spain abroad, then Germany in Florida – still linger despite the win over Germany to conclude 2022.
With Europe leading the charge, it looks like the world is really and finally catching up to the United States. Ahead of an opportunity to three-peat at the World Cup this summer for the first time ever, here’s how Vlatko Andonovski’s team is reacting to the evolving world around them.
