FIFA Women's World Cup

The United States women’s national team is a favorite to win a record fourth Women’s World Cup next summer. After the 2019 Women's World Cup draw on Saturday, that status as favorite only increased, though the path after the group stage won’t be easy.

The USWNT was given a fairly easy group as things go for the tournament next summer in France. The reigning champions were placed in Group F along with Chile, Thailand and Sweden.

The USWNT will soon find out what it's path to defending it’s world title will look like. The 2019 Women's World Cup draw is nearly here. 

The Women's World Cup draw is the most important facet of a tournament that teams have no control over. Here’s a brief overview of when it takes place, how it works and what it all means.

While many soccer fans in Mexico will be paying attention to the Liga MX playoffs, which begin Wednesday night, or Tecatito becoming the first Mexican to score in three straight Champions League matches, the biggest news out of Mexican football this week comes not from Mexico or Europe but from Uruguay, where the U-17 Women's World Cup is reaching its climax.

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.” 

The USWNT U-17 Women's World Cup campaign took a bad turn on Saturday. Featured on FS2 — one of the few soccer matches on TV in the U.S. on a day dominated by college football — the Americans were routed by North Korea 3-0 in their second Group C match in Uruguay. 

The U.S. opened the tournament with a 3-0 win while North Korea lost 4-1. Perhaps the Americans assumed they’d have an easy win based on those scores, but that was anything but the case. 

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 Scotland women’s national team gave the U.S. all it could handle on Tuesday at St Mirren Park, and although there was warm applause for Alex Morgan and an audible intake of breath amongst the 3,790 in attendance during the USWNT’s best passages of play, the Scots will have left their home supporters looking forward to next summer’s World Cup with keen anticipation.