World Cup

The 2018 Women's Africa Cup of Nations kicked off last Sunday to determine which CAF teams will be headed to France next summer. Similar to the Concacaf format, eight teams were divided into two groups, with the top two teams in Groups A and B advancing to the knockout rounds. The winners of the semifinal matches would automatically qualify for the World Cup while the losers would go head-to-head in a third-place match to determine the final CAF spot. 

Another day, another piece of evidence to file into the women’s soccer folder titled: “The World Is Catching Up With The USWNT.” 

Today, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018, marks four years to the day until the scheduled start of the 2022 World Cup. Aside from that little fact, there’s still so much we don’t know about the world’s premier sporting event.

Four years to go until the 2022 #WorldCup kicks off in Qatar 

We're counting down the days already  pic.twitter.com/ySOnUzJ5LS

The U.S. will be at the U-20 Men’s World Cup. Alex Mendez and Uly Llanez made sure of that on Friday night.

The USMNT is currently playing in the Concacaf U-20 Championship in Bradenton, Florida. After crushing it in the first group stage — five wins with 39 goals for and two against — the U.S. needed just one more win in the second group stage to ensure one of four Concacaf spots at the 2019 U-20 World Cup. 

They got that win in style, beating Costa Rica 4-0 thanks to a couple impressive goals from Mendez and Llanez.

In 2016, Iceland was the darling of the football world. Buoyed by bearded backers belting out their brilliant Viking chant, Iceland reached the quarterfinals of the European Championship, the country’s first-ever major international tournament. 

The following year, Iceland qualified for its first-ever World Cup, becoming the lowest-populated country to ever reach the tournament. Qualification coincided with Iceland peaking at No. 18 in FIFA’s rankings of international teams earlier this year, an astonishing climb after hitting the nadir of No. 131 just six years prior. 

Just like Switzerland many time zones away, Panama had a steep hill to climb going into its game against Argentina at home on Tuesday night. Panama dropped a 4-0 decision to Argentina in the first game of the two-legged playoff. Much of the drama in that fixture took place in stoppage time as Argentina scored two goals and Panama saw two players sent off.

It was always going to be an uphill battle for the Swiss heading into Tuesday's second game of the two-leg playoff to decide which UEFA team would lock up the region’s last spot in the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Switzerland found itself in quite a significant hole after a 3-0 away loss on Thursday and needed to be firing on all cylinders (an off day from its opponent wouldn’t hurt either) to keep its hopes alive. 

The U-17 Women's World Cup kicked off on Tuesday in Uruguay, featuring 16 of the best youth national teams in the world. 

It didn’t take long for the tournament to show just how good these young women are.

While the opening match of the tournament finished 0-0 between Brazil and Japan, the second — between New Zealand and Finland — provided an incredible first goal of the tournament.

All but one UEFA qualification spot has been filled for next summer’s World Cup. The battle for that coveted berth began Friday in Utrecht in front of a sellout crowd as the home side took on Switzerland in the first of two matches to decide their fate. The Netherlands won 3-0.