United States women's national soccer team

The United States women's national soccer team, often referred to as USWNT, represents the United States of America in international association football competitions. It is controlled by United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football). The U.S. team won the first ever Women's World Cup in 1991, and has since been a superpower in women's soccer. It is currently ranked first in the world by the FIFA Women's World Rankings. The team has also won the 1999 Women's World Cup, four Olympic women's gold medals (1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012) and eight Algarve Cups (2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011).

Among its many other honors, the team was selected as the U.S. Olympic Committee's Team of the Year in 1997 and 1999. Sports Illustrated chose the entire team as its 1999 Sportspeople of the Year.

History
The team played its first match at the Mundialito tournament on August 18, 1985, coached by Mike Ryan (not related to 2005–2007 coach Greg Ryan). In March 2004, two of its stars, Mia Hamm (who retired later that year after a post-Olympic team tour of the USA) and Michelle Akers (who had already retired), were the only two women and the only two Americans named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living soccer players chosen by Pelé as part of FIFA's centenary observances. Those two women along with Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly, and the 1999 team started a revolution towards women's team sports in America.

Arguably their most influential and memorable victory came in the 1999 World Cup when they beat China 5–4 in a penalty shootout. With this win they emerged onto the world stage and brought significant media attention to women's soccer and athletics. On July 10, 1999, over 90,000 people (the largest ever for a women’s sporting event and one of the largest attendances in the world for a tournament game final) filled the Rose Bowl to watch the United States play China in the Final. After a back and forth game, the score was tied 0–0 at full-time, and remained so after extra time, leading to a penalty kick shootout. With Briana Scurry's save of China's third kick, the score was 4–4 with only Brandi Chastain left to shoot. She scored and won the game for the United States. Chastain famously dropped to her knees and whipped off her shirt, celebrating in her sports bra, which later made the cover of Sports Illustrated and the front pages of newspapers around the country and world. This win influenced girls to want to play soccer on a team.

Perhaps the second most influential victory came on July 10, 2011, in the quarterfinal of the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany, where the U.S. beat Brazil 5–3 on penalty kicks. Abby Wambach tied the game 2–2 in the 2nd minute of extra time in the 2nd period of overtime (the 122nd minute of the match overall) with a left-footed cross by Megan Rapinoe. Earlier in the game, Brazil had evened the score 1–1 on a controversial penalty kick. Interestingly, the game was played on the 12th anniversary of the memorable 1999 World Cup Final (described above), which the US also won on penalty kicks.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics, the U.S. won the gold medal for the fourth time in five Olympics by defeating Japan 2–1 in front of 80,203 fans at Wembley Stadium, a record for a women's soccer game at the Olympics. The United States advanced to face Japan in a rematch of 2011 Women’s World Cup final, won by the Japanese on penalty kicks, by winning arguably one of the greatest games only rivaled by the victories mentioned above. In the semi-final match against Canada, the Americans trailed three times before Alex Morgan’s header in the third minute of injury time at the end of 30 minutes of extra-time lifted the team to a 4–3 victory. Morgan’s game-winning goal (123") is now the latest tally ever in a FIFA competition by a USWNT team. The London Olympics marked the first time the USWNST won every game en route to the gold medal and set an Olympic women's team record of 16 goals scored. Wambach scored a team-leading five goals in five straight games, which is an U.S. and Olympic record, while Morgan and Rapinoe led the team with four assists apiece, which attributed to their team-high tying 10 points. By scoring both goals in the 2012 Olympic final, Carli Lloyd is the only woman in history to score the winning goal in separate gold Olympic matches (2008 and 2012).

Past and present kit
Traditionally since the team started, the kit has been an all white kit, with occasional blue shorts. Blue shorts in combination with blue or red jersey and socks have also been used. Combinations of red, white and blue were used in 2003 World Cup, and 2004 Olympics. As of May 2011 the away kit is all black. From 2012, the team's home kit is a white jersey with red hoops paired with blue shorts and white socks. The kit is identical to that worn by the men's team, which is the first time both teams have worn the same kit. Like the men's team, Nike is the team's kit manufacturer. The team also wears two stars above the US Soccer badge, to signify their two championship titles from World Cup competitions.

Schedule and results
The following is a list of matches from the past six months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled. US Soccer Schedule. USA: Fixtures and Results – FIFA.com

Algarve Roster
The following 23 players were named to the squad for the 2013 Algarve Cup.

Caps and goals are current as of March 8, 2013.

Recent call-ups
The following players were named to a squad in the last six months, but were not selected to play for the 2013 Algarve Cup.

Records

 * Active players in bold, statistics as of March 6, 2013

The women's national team boasts the first six players in the history of the game to have earned 200 or more caps. These players have since been joined in the 200-cap club by Pu Wei and Li Jie of China and Birgit Prinz of Germany, as well as by two more Americans, Kate Markgraf and Abby Wambach. Kristine Lilly is the first (and so far, only) player to earn more than 300 caps.

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Most capped players

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Top scorers

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Most goals scored in a match
The record for most goals scored in a match by a member of the USWNT is five, which has been accomplished by six players.

Head coaches

 * Statistics as of March 8, 2013

World Cup record

 * Host year in red

Olympics record
The team has participated in every Olympics tournament through 2012 and won a medal in each.

CONCACAF Gold Cup record
$1$ The US team directly qualified for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup as hosts of the event. Because of this, they did not participate in the 1998 CONCACAF Championship, which was the qualification tournament for the World Cup.

International

 * Algarve Cup
 * Champions (8): 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011
 * Runners-Up (4): 1994, 1999, 2006, 2009
 * Third Place (3): 1997, 1998, 2012


 * Four Nations Tournament
 * Champions (7): 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011
 * Third Place (1): 2002


 * Kirin Challenge Cup
 * Runners-Up (1): 2012


 * Peace Queen Cup
 * Champions (2): 2006, 2008

Regional

 * Pan American Games
 * Champions (1): 1999
 * Runners-Up (1): 2007


 * U.S. Cup
 * Champions (5): 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999

Media coverage
ESPN and ESPN2 bring most coverage, with occasional coverage from Fox Soccer, Fox Sports en Espanol, and Galavisión.