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The seventh annual SheBelieves Cup Tournament this year from Feb. 17-23 resulted in the fifth tourney title for the United States women's national team.
The SheBelieves Cup is part of the U.S. Soccer's SheBelieves initiative to inspire and empower women and girls to achieve goals in soccer and beyond.
The USA women won the title in a big way with a 5-0 rout of Iceland. The U.S. women controlled play throughout, but it was not until late in the first half that emerging star, Catarina Macario, opened the scoring and struck again with two goals to end the half.
The Cup, played in Carson, Calif., and Frisco, Texas, saw an American roster that was quite different. It was primarily made up of young, developing, energic team members like Macario, Ashley Sanchez, Mal Pugh, Sophia Fox, Emily Smith, Trinity Rodman and Sofia Huerta.
A lot of the regulars like Tobin Heath, Megan Rapinoe and Rose LaVelle were not found on this roster. The idea was to get young players playing time while watching their composure and perseverance.
The Americans started the Cup with a lackluster 0-0 tie with the Czech Republic but bounced back and showed control and patience and offensive fireworks in their 5-0 wins over New Zealand and Iceland.
The team must now get a blend of this dynamic youth and experienced veterans to see success internationally. Some of the world's top teams like England and France were not in attendance as they were holding their own tournament.
Suit to benefit
A monumental task in soccer has been achieved. The players from the U.S. women's team have settled their equal pay class action lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation for a total of $24 million, the two sides announced in a court filing last month.
Players will receive a lump sum payment of $22 million with $2 million in an account to benefit U.S. players in their post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women's and girls soccer. Each player will be able to apply for up to $50,000 from this fund.
This is a suit many never thought would be settled. The U.S. women have had a great deal of dominance internationally with World Cup titles and Olympic gold medals, but on the international scene, the USA men have struggled to climb the ladder of success.
This has come as a major breakthrough after decades of fighting for equal pay by the USWNT.
Hall void
April will bring another class to be inducted into the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame.
It will not include a soccer player or coach, and the Hall remains without a soccer player or coach ever being inducted into its ranks.
Certainly PSU assistant women's coach Tim Wassell, with a NCAA national title and numerous Big Ten championships, would be up for strong future consideration along with coach Joe Allianiello of the Juniata College Eagles, who has turned around several collegiate programs into success stories and holds most of the goalkeeping records at Saint Francis.
Other individuals up for consideration would have to be Jim Fee, who has initiated or coached every soccer program in our area for the past 50 years.
Fee was the individual responsible for bringing competitive soccer to our area and is still active with the game today.
The Hall of Fame has a wide variety of sports to cover and many considerations. To date, there are also no golfers from our region in the Hall of Fame or MMA standouts like Charlie Brenneman, who received a top 10 world ranking with the UFC.
Hopefully, the board can give these sports careful consideration in its next induction class.
Tom Schmitt writes a monthly soccer column for the Mirror.