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ALGARVE CUP 97

The Algarve Cup is organized by the Scandinavian Football Associations in cooperation with Portugal's Football Association. Algarve is a district on the south coast of Portugal. It is best known for its many excellent golf courses, and the soccer pitches deserve the same reputation. You don't see many fields like the ones in even minor cities here, in other parts of the world. The 16 matches of this year's Algarve Cup were played in March in nine cities. This 8-nation tournament is probably the most competitive women╒s soccer test except for the big official championships. As they went into the tournament, the Norwegians were favorites to win Group B, and Denmark were expected to be in second place.

The Swedes were highly motivated, hoping to take revenge for their 0-2 loss during the Olympics against China in Group A. Watching China winning 3-0 against host Portugal and only winning 1-0 against Netherlands led to optimism on their part. However, suspicions that the Chinese had not revealed the best of their skill came true when they played Sweden. Though the rejuvenated Swedish team played much, much better than in Miami last year it really didn't threaten China until the last 20 minutes of the game. No shame for the new national coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors. China kept 11 of its players from the Olympics squad.

Norway missed some defenders in the 1997 team, but world class strikers like Ann Kristin Aaronaes, Linda Medalen and midfielder Hege Riiseserve contributed their considerable experience. The new national coach is Per-Mathias Hoegmo. He replaced Even Pellerud, who led the team to its golden records during his 7 years. The decisive final goal against China was a penalty caused by Medalen, and hit by Riise. There was no doubt that both of the final teams were even in their quality, and that there was a quality gap between them and the teams of Sweden and Denmark. The match for third place finished goal-less, and in the ensuing penalty kick shoot-out Sweden's keeper Ulrika Karlsson became a hero by saving one Danish penalty, thus giving Sweden the 6-5 advantage.

Analysis of the style of play revealed that all of the best four teams played a four-line flat zone defence.

Both Netherlands and Finland had very young teams. The Dutch were a little more aggressive and won 1-0. The Dutch women have not yet lived up to their nation's great soccer reputation and Finland never has been a threat to the other Nordic countries. Among these is Iceland, which made its first Algarve cup appearance. Vanda Sigurdsdotteir, who has the most caps in Iceland, is National Coach this year. Her team is very young and they stayed out of last place in the tournament by beating Portugal on penalties 4-3.

The Nordic countries had sent some of their best female referees, who got more education during the week of 16 matches. The coaches of the premier division teams in Sweden held a course too. It is a rare chance to watch so many international games.