U.S. Soccer will host the eighth annual SheBelieves Cup from Feb. 16-22.

Brazil, Canada and Japan will join the USA for the four-team international tournament. All four nations will be participating in the Women’s World Cup next summer and all four are ranked in the top 11 in the world with the U.S. women’s national team at No. 1, Canada at No. 6, Brazil at No. 9 and Japan at No. 11.

With a new broadcast partner coming on board with U.S. Soccer in 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports will exclusively present the USWNT matches, with specific distribution plans to be announced at a later date.

The SheBelieves Cup is part of U.S. Soccer’s SheBelieves initiative to inspire and empower women and girls to achieve their goals in sport and beyond.

The USA, perennial South American and Asian powers Brazil and Japan, and the reigning Olympic gold medalists in Canada, will use this tournament as important World Cup preparation just five months before the competition kicks off in Australia and New Zealand.

Due to COVID-19 protocols, the entirety of 2021 SheBelieves Cup was held at one stadium in Orlando, Fla. and the 2022 tournament was staged in two cities and two stadiums.

For its 2023 edition, the tournament will return to its traditional three-venue format with matches played at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Fla., GEODIS Park in Nashville, Tenn. and Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski will name a 23-player roster for the tournament.

The matches of the 2023 SheBelieves Cup will be the first domestic games of the World Cup year for the USWNT, which will play two games in and against New Zealand in January.

The six-game tournament was first played in 2016. The USA won the inaugural edition and France took top honors in 2017. The USA won again in 2018, and England finished first in 2019, but the USA returned to the top of the podium in 2020, the first title for Andonovski, and took top honors in 2021 and 2022.

“The first five games of the 2023 schedule will all be against teams playing in the World Cup and we expect to confirm a few more matches against top opponents before we go to New Zealand during the summer,” Andonovski said in a statement. “We love the SheBelieves Cup for the world class competition it brings, the format that helps replicate group play at a World Cup and the overall meaning that it has for our team and women’s sports. Obviously, you get more rest days in a World Cup, but managing a roster with three games over seven days against teams with three very different styles of play is really good preparation for us as we continue to grow as a team towards next summer.”

The competition format will be the same as for the previous seven years with the teams participating in three doubleheader events. The winner of the tournament will be determined by total points (three for a win, one for a tie), with the first tiebreaker being overall goal difference, followed by most total goals scored, then head-to-head result and lastly, Fair Play ranking if necessary.

2023 SheBelieves Cup

Date Matches Stadium City Kickoff (Local)
Feb. 16 Japan vs. Brazil Exploria Stadium Orlando, Fla. 4 p.m. ET
Feb. 16 USA vs. Canada Exploria Stadium Orlando, Fla. 7 p.m. ET
Feb. 19 USA vs. Japan GEODIS Park  Nashville, Tenn. 2:30 p.m. CT
Feb. 19 Brazil vs. Canada GEODIS Park Nashville, Tenn. 5:30 p.m. CT
Feb. 22 Canada vs. Japan Toyota Stadium Frisco, Texas 3 p.m. CT
Feb. 22 USA vs. Brazil Toyota Stadium Frisco, Texas 6 p.m. CT

 

 

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.