WNT Faces England in Nashville as SBC Continues

TheUSA opened the 2019 SheBelieves Cup with a 2-2 draw with Japan on Feb. 27 in Chester, Pa., while England defeated Brazil, 2-1 , in the tournament’s first match of the day. That sets up an important clash for the USA against England on March 2 (3:30 CT on Fox) as the tournament moves to Nashville, Tenn., where Japan will face Brazil in the first match of the doubleheader (1 p.m. CT on ussoccer.com).

2019 Game Lineups || 2019 Statistics

2019 SheBelieves Cup Standings

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts.
England	1	1	0	0	2	1	1	3
Japan	1	0	0	1	2	2	0	1
United States	1	0	0	1	2	2	0	1
Brazil	1	0	1	0	1	2	0	0

U.S. WNT ROSTER BY POSITION: 2019 SHEBELIEVES CUP (CAPS/GOALS)

GOALKEEPERS (3): 21- Adrianna Franch (Portland Thorns FC; 0/0), 24- Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride; 19/0), 1- Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 41/0)
DEFENDERS (8): 7- Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage; 33/0), 12- Tierna Davidson (Chicago Red Stars; 15/1); 19- Crystal Dunn (NC Courage; 78/24), 22-Emily Fox (UNC; 3/0), 5- Kelley O’Hara (Utah Royals FC; 113/2); 4- Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 151/0), 14- Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 27/0), 2- Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC; 29/0)
MIDFIELDERS (5): 8- Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 75/18); 16- Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 22/6), 3- Samantha Mewis (NC Courage; 43/8), 6- Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 11/0), 25- McCall Zerboni (NC Courage; 8/0)
FORWARDS (7): 17- Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC; 144/25); 10- Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 267/105), 20- Jessica McDonald (NC Courage; 5/1), 13- Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 156/99), 23- Christen Press (Utah Royals FC; 109/47), 11- Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit; 46/13), 15- Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC; 147/42)

STORYLINES

2019 SheBelieves Cup Schedule

Date	Match-Up	Kickoff	Venue	TV
March 2	Brazil vs. Japan	1 p.m. CT	Nissan Stadium; Nashville, Tenn.	ussoccer.com
March 2	USA vs. England	3:30 p.m. CT	Nissan Stadium; Nashville, Tenn.	FOX
March 5	Japan vs. England	5:15 p.m. ET	Raymond James Stadium; Tampa, Fla.	ussoccer.com
March 5	USA vs. Brazil	8 p.m. ET	Raymond James Stadium; Tampa, Fla.	FS1

SheBelieves Cup Format: The SheBelieves Cup tournament format will be the same as the first three years. The winner will be based on total points (three for a win, one for a draw), with the first tie-breaker being overall goal difference, followed by goals scored, then head-to-head result. If teams are still tied, the next tie-breaker will be the Fair Play ranking. Each Team is allowed six substitutes per game.

USA vs. England: The USA is 10-4-1 all-time against England. The last four meetings between the teams have been 1-0 results, three wins for the USA and one for England. The most recent meeting came at the 2018 SheBelieves Cup with the lone goal coming when a Megan Rapinoe cross hit off defender Millie Bright and off goalkeeper Karen Bardsley before spinning into the net. The USA beat England 1-0 on Feb. 13, 2015, in Milton Keynes, England with the lone goal coming from an Alex Morgan header and at the 2016 SheBelieves Cup in Tampa, Fla, on a brilliant goal from Crystal Dunn. The USA has nine players on its roster that played in last year’s meeting with England at the SheBelieves Cup, including nine that started, while England has 12, including eight who started. U.S. defender Dunn, who played her last match with Chelsea on Feb. 24, 2018, in a 2-2 tie with Manchester City, will be reunited with several of her teammates during this tournament.

100 Goals Watch: After scoring against Japan on Feb. 27 in Chester, Alex Morgan – the 2018 U.S. Soccer Player of the Year, now has 99 goals and at age 29 sits in sole possession of seventh place on the USA’s all-time goal scoring list. She has scored 26 goals over her last 29 WNT matches through the end of 2017 and 2018 and into 2019. With her hat trick against Japan on July 26, 2018, the fourth of her career, Morgan is now tied with Michelle Akers in third place all-time in multi-goal games (26) behind Abby Wambach (45) and Mia Hamm (38). She has 22 career two-goal games. Morgan has scored against 28 different countries and in 11 different countries. Since the start of 2014, Alex Morgan has scored eight goals against Japan, tied for the most goals any WNT player has against any opponent in that time.

SheBelieves Cup Promotes Message of Empowerment : SheBelieves started as a hashtag in 2015 leading up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup when the U.S. Women’s National Team shared a call to action for young women to set high goals and work to be the best on the field, or in their chosen field, whether it was academics, the arts, finance, technology or wherever their interests led them. In 2016, U.S. Soccer started an elite four-team women’s international tournament and named it the SheBelieves Cup. Since then, the tournament and the message have grown. With the support of U.S. Soccer, its partners, the fans and the players, SheBelieves has succeeded to make an impact beyond the soccer field.

Countdown to the Cup: The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cupwill be the eighth consecutive World Cup appearance for the USA, which has appeared in each of the previous seven tournaments that have been contested and won in 1991, 1999 and 2015. The USA is one of six countries to qualify for all eight Women’s World Cups along with Brazil, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Nigeria. The tournament will be held from June 7-July 7 in nine cities in France. The USA’s Draw and placement in Group F gave the USA venues that are all within a two-hour drive of each other, with the opening game taking place in Reims, followed by Paris and then Le Havre. The “Countdown to the Cup” will take the WNT to all four times zones in the continental United States, giving fans across the country a chance to cheer the team on to France.

COUNTDOWN TO THE CUP
Date	Opponent	Kickoff	Venue; City
March 2	England – SheBelieves Cup	3:30 p.m. CT	Nissan Stadium; Nashville, Tenn.
March 5	Brazil – SheBelieves Cup	8 p.m. ET	Raymond James Stadium; Tampa, Fla.
April 4	Australia	7 p.m. MT	Dick’s Sporting Goods Park; Commerce City, Colo.
April 7	Belgium	6 p.m. PT	Banc of California Stadium; Los Angeles, Calif.
May 12	South Africa – Send-Off Series, Presented by Volpi Foods	1:30 p.m. PT	Levi’s Stadium; Santa Clara, Calif.
May 16	New Zealand – Send-Off Series, Presented by Volpi Foods	7 p.m. CT	Busch Stadium; St. Louis, Mo.
May 26	Mexico – Send-Off Series, Presented by Volpi Foods	12 p.m. ET	Red Bull Arena; Harrison, N.J.
2019 FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
June 11	Thailand - 2019 WWC	3 p.m. ET	Auguste Delaune Stadium; Reims, France
June 16	Chile – 2019 WWC	12 p.m. ET	Parc des Princes; Paris, France
June 20	Sweden – 2010 WWC	3 p.m. ET	Stade Océane; Le Havre, France

USA Brings SheBelieves Cup to Nashville: The U.S. is unbeaten in its three all-time games in Nashville dating back to the first match in 2004 at what is now Nissan Stadium. Two of those games were 1-0 wins – over Canada in 2004 and France in 2016 – along with a 3-1 win over Scotland on Feb. 13 that was Tom Sermanni’s second game as head coach.

New Rules Get Test Run at SheBelieves Cup: In preparation for the 2019 SheBelieves Cup and the road to the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, U.S. Soccer requested and received approval from the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to implement three changes to the Laws of the Game during the tournament.

The 133rd AGM of The IFAB will be held in Aberdeen, Scotland on March 2, 2019. At this event it is very likely that the following changes (as well as additional changes that are being proposed for ratification) will be approved to the Laws of the Game for 2019/20 and be ratified:

• A player being substituted must leave the field of play at the nearest point on the boundary line.
• Yellow and red cards for misconduct can be issued to team officials.
• On a goal kick and a free kick for the defending team in their own penalty area, the ball is in play as soon as the kick is taken so a player – or opponent as long as they started outside the penalty or were not given the proper time to exit the penalty – can play the ball before it leaves the penalty area.

Follow all the #USWNT action on Twitter using @uswnt and on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt)