Women’s Soccer Round Up: The international break is in full flow

The international break has come once again in the world of women’s football and while those in the CONCACAF region played in friendlies, those in Europe began their European Championship qualifiers.

The 2024 SheBelieves Cup kicks off with a USWNT victory

After a surprise start by Japan, who scored early against the USWNT in their first game at the SheBelieves Cup, it was Jaedyn Shaw who once again shone for the USWNT as she not only scored the equaliser, but continued to be a key aspect of the USWNT’ tactical plan to win the game.

Shaw has been a revelation since she first started her professional career in the National Women’s Soccer League with San Diego Wave FC, and has carried that form over on the international stage; providing the spark that the USWNT had missed at last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. Shaw is still young and still developing as a player, but as we noted here at AllForXI, the sky is the limit for her.

In the other game at the SheBelieves Cup, Canada needed penalties to defeat Brazil after the game ended at 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes, It sets up another clash between the USWNT and Canada, in the tournament final, while Japan and Brazil will play in the third-place match.

The controversy and the fall out of Korbin Albert’s recent social media posts

Speaking of the USWNT, it hasn’t been a great last two weeks for Korbin Albert. The day that she was set to start for Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, recent social media posts surfaced of her seemingly denouncing the LGBT,Q+ community, mainly due to her Christian faith. Albert quickly removed all traces of those posts from her social media platforms but the damage was done. Former USWNT star Megan Rapinoe posted a response to this information, and then posted another response to Albert’s apology; which was then reposted by Becky Sauerbrunn, Lynn Williams and more.

Lindsey Horan and Alex Morgan spoke to media for the first time since all of this happened before the USWNT’s first match at the SheBelieves Cup.

Korbin Albert did not start the game against Japan and received a mixed reaction when she was substituted on in the second half, neither was the No. 15 jersey (Rapinoe’s former jersey) taken from her. It seems as though U.S. Soccer feel that Albert’s apology was enough and that while they continue to shield her from any media interactions, she is still very much a part of their plans going forward.

European qualifiers provide a slew of storylines

As European nations used this international break to begin qualifiers for next year’s UEFA Women’s European Championships, there were some surprising results heading into today’s round of matches. Spain made light work of Belgium, England and Sweden drew, Wales put on a performance against Croatia and Italy put in an impressive display against the Netherlands.

Spain continue to showcase themselves as the best team in Europe, and possibly still the world. They will look to build on their 7-0 win against Belgium when they face Czechia later today. Sweden will look to try and dent France’s good start when they face each other while England will look to rectify the draw against Sweden with a better performance against the Republic of Ireland. More importantly though, the Netherlands must be better against Norway than they were against Italy. It won’t be easy but in order to not fall further away from qualification, they need to get a win later today.