March 16, 2005

USA enjoying the Algarve Cup-a brief history and background of the Cup

by Colin A. Aldis

Despite having lost the services of some of the all-time greats of U.S. Soccer, their national team with a so called temporary head coach, still managed to win the prestigious Algarve Cup tournament. This was the 3rd time in a row for the USA, and the 4th time overall, in the
12 year history of the "Algarve."

This pre-season tournament, a joint co-operation with three Nordic countries Norway, Sweden and Denmark started on Cyprus in 1993, when Anson Dorrance brought a youthful team to the island, a few months before going to Hamilton, Canada to win silver medals
at the World Student Games.

The switch to Portugal in 1994, has seen the competition grow from six teams to twelve, and is only short of a complete world cup, with Brazil not competing.

Norway have won 4 times, in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998, Sweden won in 1995 and 2001, and China in 1999 and 2002. The USA won for the first time in 2000, and started their present run in 2003.

Final positions of teams in the last three years.- in the Algarve Cup.
       2005                 2004              2003
1st : USA                  USA              USA
2nd : Germany           Norway         China
3rd : France               France           Norway
4th : Sweden              Italy               France
5th : Norway              Sweden         Sweden
6th : Denmark            China             Finland
7th : China                  Denmark       Canada
8th : England               Portugal        Greece
9th : Mexico               Finland          Denmark
10th: Finland              Wales            Portugal
11th: Portugal             Greece          Rep. of Ireland
12th: N. Ireland          N. Ireland     Wales

In 2005, with the UEFA finals less than 3 months away, there was increased interest from all the media. The final and third place matches at the new and superb Estadio Algarve were shown live on Eurosport TV for the first time. As usual, all the other matches were captured on video by a local company.