The USA will host the sixth annual SheBelieves Cup, presented by Visa, from Feb. 18-24 as Canada, Brazil and Argentina join the USA for the prestigious four-team tournament. The entirety of the tournament will be played at Orlando’s Exploria Stadium with the three doubleheaders taking place in a seven-day span.
Here are Five Things to Know about this year’s SheBelieves Cup:
SHEBELIEVES CUP FORMAT AND SCHEDULE
The tournament format for the 2021 SheBelieves Cup will be the same as the previous five years. The winner will be determined by total points (three for a win, one for a draw), with the first tiebreaker being overall goal difference, followed by goals scored, then head-to-head result. If teams are still tied, the next tiebreaker will be the Fair Play ranking based on yellow and red cards. This will be the second appearance for Brazil at the SheBelieves Cup, after participating in 2019, and the first for Canada and Argentina. The pacing of the tournament mirrors that of the group stage of the Olympics, with two days rest between games. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire tournament will be staged at Exploria Stadium so there will be no travel between match days.
2021 SheBelieves Cup, Presented by Visa
|
Date |
Matches |
Stadium |
City |
Kickoff |
TV |
|
Feb. 18 |
Brazil vs. Argentina |
Exploria Stadium |
Orlando, Fla. |
4 p.m. ET |
FS1/TUDN App. TUDN.tv |
|
Feb. 18 |
USA vs. Canada |
Exploria Stadium |
Orlando, Fla. |
7 p.m. ET |
FS1/TUDN |
|
Feb. 21 |
USA vs. Brazil |
Exploria Stadium |
Orlando, Fla. |
3 p.m. ET |
FS1/TUDN |
|
Feb. 21 |
Argentina vs. Canada |
Exploria Stadium |
Orlando, Fla. |
6 p.m. ET |
FS2/TUDN App. TUDN.tv |
|
Feb. 24 |
Canada vs. Brazil |
Exploria Stadium |
Orlando, Fla. |
4 p.m. ET |
FS1/TUDN App. TUDN.tv |
|
Feb. 24 |
USA vs. Argentina |
Exploria Stadium |
Orlando, Fla. |
7 p.m. ET |
FS1/TUDN |
FAMILIAR FACES, FAMILIAR FOES
The SheBelieves Cup kicks off on Thursday, Feb. 18 with a pair of historic regional rivalries. South American foes Brazil and Argentina open the tournament at 4 p.m. ET (FS1/TUDN App. TUDN.tv) with the North American showdown between the USA and Canada to follow in the evening (7 p.m. ET on FS1/TUDN). Thursday’s game will be the 61st time the USA has faced Canada, by far its most common opponent. The USA is 50-3-7 all-time against Canada and while the Americans have had a long history of success in this series, the 14 meetings since 2011 have featured three ties and four one-goal wins for the USA. The countries most recently met on Feb. 9, 2020, in final of the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament, a 3-0 win for the USA behind goals from Lynn Williams, Lindsey Horan and Megan Rapinoe.
The Feb. 21 match against Brazil will also include a name very familiar to USA fans and players alike, as former USWNT head coach Pia Sundhage is now at the helm for Brazil. Sundhage coached the USA from 2008 to 2012, amassing an overall record of 91-10-6 and helping the USA win Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012, as well as guiding the team to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final. Five of the 18 players on the 2012 Olympic gold medal-winning team are part of the USA squad for the 2021 SheBelieves Cup: Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Kelley O’Hara, Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn.
SHEBELIEVES MOVEMENT CONTINUES WITH SIXTH ANNUAL TOURNAMENT
The SheBelieves Cup, Presented by Visa, is just one part of U.S. Soccer’s SheBelieves initiative to inspire and empower women and girls to achieve their goals in sport and beyond. The tournament, which will feature some of the world’s best players in the six-game tournament, was first played in 2016. The USA won the inaugural edition, France took top honors in 2017, the USA won again in 2018, England finished first in 2019 and the USA returned to the top of the podium in 2020.
As part of U.S. Soccer’s ongoing commitment to the initiative to grow women’s soccer in the United States and across the globe, this year’s SheBelieves Summit, presented by Deloitte, took place virtually on Feb. 11 and 12 and featured high-profile women across a variety of industries, including former USWNT greats Abby Wambach, Cindy Parlow Cone and Danielle Slaton. With U.S. Soccer and Deloitte’s shared vision of inspiring the next generation, the 2021 SheBelieves Summit provided college students and young professionals the opportunity to gain valuable insights through panels and workshops centered around the SheBelieves core pillars of Confidence, Career, and Community.
The Summit is part of U.S. Soccer’s overall SheBelieves platform, which is focused on providing women and girls the tools to pursue their dreams in sport and beyond. Now in its sixth year, U.S. Soccer has added additional SheBelieves programming, including the SheBelieves Hero, the SheBelieves Internship Program and SheBelieves Online Academy to increase its reach and provide access to more young girls across the country.
SHEBELIEVES CUP HISTORY
The United States has won the SheBelieves Cup three times and is looking to win back-to-back titles for the first time in the tournament’s history. England and France have won the tournament once each. Here’s how teams have finished since the inaugural tournament in 2016:
|
Year |
Winner |
Runner-up |
Third Place |
Fourth Place |
|
2016 |
USA |
Germany |
England |
France |
|
2017 |
France |
Germany |
England |
France |
|
2018 |
USA |
England |
France |
Germany |
|
2019 |
England |
USA |
Japan |
Brazil |
|
2020 |
USA |
Spain |
England |
Japan |
Of the first 12 SheBelieves Cup matches over 2016 and 2017, 11 were decided by one or less goal, with just nine goals scored over the six games in both 2016 and 2017.
In 2018, the teams combined for 16 goals and two matches saw three-goal margins of victory with England beating France 4-1, and France beating Germany 3-0.
In 2019, the teams combined for 19 goals over the six matches with two ties, two one-goal wins, a two-goal win for Japan over Brazil (3-1) and a three-goal win for England over Japan (3-0).
After the 19-goal bonanza in 2019, the 2020 SheBelieves Cup produced 13 total scores.
In the previous five editions of this tournament, no individual player has scored more than two goals in a single tournament. Twelve players have scored twice: Alex Morgan in 2016; Camille Abily of France in 2017; Ellen White of England and Eugénie Le Sommer of France in 2018; Beth Mead of England, Yuka Momiki of Japan and Tobin Heath and Megan Rapinoe in 2019; and Alexia Putellas and Lucia Garcia of Spain, Mana Iwabuchi of Japan, and Christen Press in 2020.
VISA SHEBELIEVES CUP MVP
For the second year in a row, Visa, the presenting sponsor of the SheBelieves Cup, will award the MVP trophy to the most outstanding player of the tournament. The award will be announced following the conclusion of the final match. Spain’s Alexia Putellas won the inaugural award in 2020 as voted on by a selection committee of former Women’s National Team players from each participating country. A new selection committee comprised of representatives from all competing nations will be announced for the 2021 SheBelieves Cup, but this year fans will also have the opportunity to vote for the Visa SheBelieves Cup MVP award recipient, using an online ballot to select among a list of finalists chosen by the committee. The fan-vote will be incorporated into the overall determination of the 2021 Visa SheBelieves Cup MVP.