Algarve Cup

Encyclopedia : A : AL : ALG : Algarve Cup

The Algarve Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's football (soccer). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious women's football events, alongside the Women's World Cup and Women's Olympic Football. Currently, 12 teams are invited, with the top eight competing for the championship. The teams are divided into three groups of four — A, B and C. Group C was added in 2002 to provide second-tier teams with high-level match experience every year. The current holders are Germany.

The teams first play round-robin within their pool. Then the placement round proceeds as follows:

11th place: Bottom two teams in Group C play one game.
9th place: The Group C runner-up plays one game against the lower-ranked of the fourth-place teams from Groups A and B.
7th place: The Group C winner plays one game against the higher-ranked of the fourth-place teams from Groups A and B.
5th place: The third-place teams from Groups A and B play one game.
4th place through 1st place: The top two teams from Groups A and B are bracketed into a single-elimination tournament. In the semi-final, the winner of each group plays the runner-up in the other. The semi-final losers compete for third-place; the winners play for the championship.

The most successful teams have been Norway and the USA, with four titles apiece. Norway's titles all came in the early years of the tournament, while the USA have won all their titles in the 2000s, including three consecutively from 2003 through 2005. Sweden and China, also traditional powers in the women's game, have won two titles each.

The Algarve Cup, as an annual event featuring the world's top women's football teams, has no parallel in the men's game.

Champions

1994 Norway
1995 Sweden
1996 Norway
1997 Norway
1998 Norway
1999 China
2000 United States
2001 Sweden
2002 China
2003 United States
2004 United States
2005 United States
2006 Germany

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.