 In 10 years at the Algarve Cup the U.S. women have won the tournament four times and this is the first time they have beat all of their opponents. The U.S. got to the final by keeping three clean sheets. The U.S women’s team opening match started with a solid 1-0 victory over France, before cruising to a 3-0 win over Finland and finishing with a huge 4-0 win over Denmark.
In the awards section China won the Fair Play Award, Christie Welsh earned tournament top-scorer honours with five goals while Germany's Birgit Prinz picked up the tournament MVP. Norway's Bente Nordby was chosen as the tournament's top goalkeeper.
In the other placement matches, France defeated Sweden, 3-2, in a seesaw battle for third place at the Stadium Algarve. Les Bleus got the late winner from Hoda Lattaf. Norway defeated Denmark, 2-1 for fifth place. Both the seventh and ninth place matches went to penalties with China and England tying 0-0 in regulation before China took the seventh spot on the spot kicks. Mexico finished a solid tournament for the Algarve Cup first-timers, tying Finland 1-1 in regulation before winning on their seventh penalty kick and placing ninth. Hosts Portugal battled vigorously for a big come-from-behind 3-1 win over valiant Northern Ireland after losing to Northern Ireland 2-1 in the final match of Group C.
Northern Ireland’s win over Portugal in the group stages was their first win in two years after going through a period of re-structuring throughout the age groups culminating in the present squad, whose average age is only 21. This was Northern Ireland’s 11th appearance in the Algarve Cup and the team welcomes competing in this competition as it provides them with a chance to test themselves with the best in the world but also boost their progressive growth. In addition it gives many of the players an ideal pre-season platform for their competitive domestic league which is a summer one. With this in mind the squad took full advantage of the superb training facilities available to them at Browns Sport & Leisure club, which was their home base, for the duration of the competition.
In addition to the Irish, the Portuguese Football Federation continued to choose Browns as a training centre, as the Men’s U-19’s stayed in February, for the women’s team competing in the Algarve cup. It was fitting then that they both shared in their victories against one another.
|
Browns Sports & Leisure Club welcomed the Swedish National Football Team.
Football Blue at Browns
