UNDER-23 WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM
Head Coach:
Bill Irwin
Major Competition: Nordic Cup (cancelled for 2009)
Eligibility:
Players born on or after January 1, 1986
Key Events:
U-23 Four Nations Tournament in La Manga
2008 International Record:
8-1-1 (Overall Record: 11-1-2)
No Nordic, But Still
After being run as an Under-21 program since 1998, the USA’s oldest youth national team moved to Under-23 in 2008. The change was in response to FIFA moving its oldest youth world championship for women from Under-19s to Under-20s, as well as a change in the Nordic Cup – the main event for this age group – which becomes a U-23 event, also in part due to the change in the FIFA tournament. However, the Nordic Cup will take a hiatus in 2009 after being staged for the past 19 years. The competition, which has been organized annually by one of the Nordic countries, is expected to return next summer.
The roll of the U-23s in the overall development of U.S. WNT players will undergo some change in 2009 with the start of the new women’s professional league (the WPS). Many of the players who were being kept active and in the mix for the full team by competing with the U-23s will now be playing in the league. Therefore, U.S. head coach Bill Irwin will focus on calling up the professionals in the early part of the year before turning his attention to college-based players for the remainder of the spring and into the summer, as that time period falls during the heart of the WPS season.
The U.S. Under-21/U-23 Women’s National Team, which has been active since 1989 (and was run as a U-20 program until 1998), has been consistently effective in helping prepare players for the step up to the full National Team. The vast majority of current Women’s National Team pool players have competed for the U-21s or U-23s. The U-21s have often featured “overage” players in training camps and for the Nordic Cup tournament, but now all players who are age-eligible for the U-23s in 2008 must have been born on or after January 1, 1986. The U-21s, and now the U-23s, serve a valuable role in helping bridge the large gap between college soccer and the full National Team, but now will have a valuable partner in that area in the WPS.
