The first matchday of the 2025 UEFA Nations League tournament saw a few regional heavy-hitters shaking off the dust on Friday, with reigning Euros champs England settling for a 1-1 draw against Portugal while perennial contenders Germany similarly split points with the Netherlands after a 2-2 result.
Snagging an early lead for the Lionesses was forward Alessia Russo, who slotted in a ball from right-back Lucy Bronze in the match's 15th minute.
Unfortunately for England, however, Portugal extended their undefeated streak to 11 games after attacking midfielder Kika Nazareth scored a top-corner equalizer at the 75th minute mark to clinch the draw.
Germany and the Netherlands, who claimed third- and fourth-place, respectively, in the tournament's inaugural 2023/24 edition, opened their 2025 campaigns with a back-and-forth battle on Friday.
After Dutch star Lineth Beerensteyn opened scoring by nutmegging German net-minder and 2024 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year Ann-Katrin Berger in the 13th minute, Germany closed out the first half with an extra-time header from Lea Schüller to level the score.
The second half saw the Germans pull ahead thanks to a 50th-minute strike from Sjoeke Nüsken, before Beerensteyn again broke through with the match's final goal in the 66th minute.
After the match, new head coach Christian Wück, who took over the German team last March, told reporters, "We need to learn to maintain our focus, especially after taking the lead. It’s frustrating to draw after putting in such strong efforts."
Reigning champion Spain rallies for late comeback victory
Draws aside, defending Nations League winners Spain earned perhaps the wildest victory of the opening matchday, surging back from a 2-0 deficit against Belgium to claim all three points in a 3-2 finish.
The 2023 World Cup champions fell behind early after striker Mariam Toloba gave Belgium the edge in the game's 18th minute. Forward Tessa Wullaert doubled that lead in the 72nd minute, seemingly putting an emphatic end to Spain's hopes of a victory.
Clàudia Pina clawed one back for La Roja just five minutes later, but it took a pair of stoppage-time goals from Lucía García and late call-up Cristina Martín-Prieto to secure the literal last-second win.
Nations League to set up UEFA's 2027 World Cup qualifying
Established in 2022, the Women’s Nations League is now the continent’s qualifying tournament for the Euros, World Cup, and Olympics.
With records wiped following last year’s rollercoaster Olympic qualifiers, early Nations League matches now serve as a key window into the fast-approaching 2025 Euros — in addition to a heated competition in their own right.
On top of that, the outcome of this second-ever edition of the contest will determine teams' positioning for the 2026 European qualifiers for World Cup. Put simply, the finishing spots teams snag after 2025 Nations League play will determine their league paths to claiming one of UEFA's 11 available spots in the 2027 World Cup.
While there's a lot on the line, there's also a significant amount of action still to come. With four teams in each League A group, squads will play three round-robin home-and-away fixtures to determine their final group-play standings — meaning each of Friday's games have a rematch on the calendar before the stage ends on June 3rd.
The winners of the four League A groups will ultimately meet in the two-leg Nations League semifinals in October, with the two-leg third-place play-off and a final set for November and December.
On Thursday, US Soccer announced that the USWNT will cap off its 2024 campaign with a December 3rd friendly against the Netherlands in The Hague — the team's 23rd game this year.
The match comes three days after the US side's previously announced meeting with 2022 European champions and 2023 World Cup finalists England at London's iconic Wembley Stadium.
To stay the best, the USWNT will play the best
Following their gold medal-winning run at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the USWNT reclaimed their world No. 1 ranking. In order to stay there, head coach Emma Hayes noted, the team must seek out matches against other top international foes.
"It was a fantastic summer for our team, and we’re going to take a lot of great lessons and memories from our time in France, but now we are looking forward to continuing our process,” said Hayes.
"In order for our team to keep learning and growing, and for the coaching staff to continue to evaluate players, we need to play the best teams possible. Playing matches in Europe against some of the world’s top teams will be an important part of our journey."
With England sitting at No. 2 in the world and the Dutch at No. 11, this final 2024 road trip is exactly what the US boss ordered.
The Dutch are a familiar friendly foe
In their 11 previous meetings with the Netherlands, the USWNT has only lost once: a 4-3 defeat in their first-ever matchup in 1991. In the years since, the States have had the upper hand, logging eight wins and two draws.
The duo has ramped up the drama in their matches, though, facing each other in world championships in three of their last four bouts.
The USWNT's 2019 World Cup final win is arguably the team's most meaningful Dutch defeat, though recent tilts have appeared significantly tougher. While the US walked away with the win in the pair's 2021 Olympic quarterfinal, they needed penalty kicks to do so. And in the States's admittedly disappointing 2023 World Cup run, they played the Netherlands to a 1-1- draw in the group stage.
How to watch the USWNT's European friendlies
The US will take on England on November 30th at 12:20 PM ET. Their meeting with the Netherlands will kick off at 2:45 PM ET on December 3rd.
Both friendlies will air live on TNT, or you can stream the games via Max and Peacock.
Team USA's U-20 World Cup run has come to an end after Wednesday's 1-0 semifinal loss to tournament favorites North Korea (DPRK).
The result marks the U-20 USWNT's best showing since their 2016's fourth-place finish, when they similarly fell to DPRK in the semis before the North Korean side advanced to win the Cup.
DPRK outshot the US 18-7 last night, but 17-year-old Choe Il-Son was the lone player to find the back of the net, securing the eventual game-winner in the 22nd minute. With five goals on the tournament so far, Choe is now in a three-way tie atop the competition's Golden Boot race.
Japan tops the Netherlands in second semifinal
While the US gave DPRK arguably their toughest match of the World Cup, Japan overwhelmed the Dutch with their attacking prowess last night, outshooting the Netherlands' 24-1 to notch the 2-0 win.
Notably, both goals by "the Young Nadeshiko" were scored by North Carolina Courage midfielder Manaka Matsukubo, the only NWSL player on Japan's roster.
Where to watch the U-20 World Cup final and third-place match
On Saturday, the US will battle the Netherlands for third-place hardware, with live coverage on Fox Soccer Plus.
Then on Sunday, the World Cup championship match will mirror March's U-20 Asian Cup final, where DPRK forced six-time champs Japan to relinquish the title for the first time since 2013. The final will air live on FS2.
Should DPRK emerge victorious on Sunday, they'll join the US and Germany as the only nations with three U-20 World Championships.
Vivianne Miedema is concerned about the workload on soccer players as the number of injuries grows.
An increasing number of players have suffered season-ending injuries this year, with the majority of them being ACL tears. That list includes Alexia Putellas, Christen Press, and now, England’s Beth Mead.
In her column for Dutch newspaper AD, Miedema confirmed that Mead will likely miss next summer’s World Cup. She also attributes the increase of injuries to a lack of rest.
“I see a worrying pattern. The playing calendar for both the women and the men is simply too full,” she wrote. “Actually, it’s just a shame. We are in a world that goes on and on and there are few players who say anything about it. I do. We go completely crazy with the tax on football players and football players.
“I can already envisage some of the reactions to this column, you know. ‘We have the best profession in the world, we earn a lot of money and we don’t have to complain. Just play football.'”
As women’s soccer grows in popularity and its standards, the demands on female players continue to increase. The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 and the UEFA Women’s European Championships to 2022 means that European players could carry a workload of playing in five summer tournaments in five straight years.
There are also more games, as leagues like the WCL have introduced group stages and the NWSL has expanded both by teams and games.
Such a packed schedule led to Miedema taking a step back at the beginning of November, she says, explaining her recent absence in her column.
“At the beginning of this month I deliberately took a step back,” she continued. “I felt that my body and mind were ready for a rest. For people who do not work in top sport, that will sound strange. People who do work in our world will understand it better, but many players don’t feel that freedom to stand up for themselves or just want to continue in their tunnel.”
She says that Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall “was initially surprised” by the request but found himself in agreement with one of his star players.
“I spent a large part of the European Championship last summer in my hotel room with Covid-19. After that, the preparation for the season started almost immediately,” she said. “I went through in one go and I paid the price for that. I had to get out.”
Speaking after Arsenal’s match on Thursday, Eidevall spoke about striking a balance. While Miedema has since returned, scoring the tying goal in Arsenal’s draw with Juventus, the issue of scheduling remains.
“There is always the balance between freshness and having continuity in the training and playing,” he said postgame. “We need to strike that balance. You can see that Viv was fighting really hard today with the team on the pitch.”
Player health should be paramount, Eidevall said, noting that there should be protected periods for players in which there are no club or international games played.
“I really think we need to consider in women’s football when we look at the calendar, how we can put the players health first. They are constantly going between really competitive games at club level, onto international level. It has taken a lot of my time thinking about it because my gut says that we are not creating something that is good for the players.
“At the moment there are players who get barely any vacation and it’s consecutive, year after year after year. It’s great if we’re going to have more competitive games but let’s have a calendar that allows players to recover so we can keep the quality too.”
Come next summer, the U.S. women’s national team will be facing a familiar opponent in the World Cup after drawing the Netherlands for the group stage.
They’ll be joined by Vietnam and the winner of the Group A Play-off, which will either be Cameroon, Portugal or Thailand.
Ready for next summer 👊 pic.twitter.com/WIrs7Yg2nI
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) October 22, 2022
But their second game of the tournament will prove a big test, as the two teams faced off in the final of the 2019 World Cup. The USWNT won that match while the Netherlands finished as runner-up in the tournament.
“We got a good but somewhat tough draw,” said head coach Vlatko Andonovski. “I’m excited about it. This is when the real preparation starts.”
A matchup between the two teams in the quarterfinals of last summer’s Olympics featured the U.S. advancing 4-2 on penalty kicks after finishing regulation tied 2-2.
“It’s exciting, and it’s a very good team,” USWNT midfielder Lindsey Horan told Fox of going up against the Netherlands in their second game. “One that’s developing a lot and has changed a lot over the last two years. An opening game against Vietnam, I think that’s great for us to get us going in the tournament.”
Both teams have had a rough go of it as of late. The USWNT is coming off of back-to-back losses to England and Spain, but were without stars such as Alex Morgan.
Meanwhile the Netherlands have not been the same since manager Sarina Wiegman departed for England. After a disappointing Euros that featured the team exiting in the quarterfinals, the team parted ways with Mark Parsons and has since named Andries Jonker as head coach.
Horan knows that the USWNT has a ways to go to be fully prepared for next summer’s World Cup.
“I think we have a lot of work to do in the next year,” she said. “You see the competitiveness and you see the game changing, how the teams are evolving. We lost two games. We need to be better, we need to learn and grow from these.
“Even without certain players on the field, we have to adapt and develop the style that we’re going to go in and play in the World Cup.”
All of the games in Group E will be played in New Zealand, starting July 22 in Auckland against Vietnam. The USWNT will then face the Netherlands on July 27 before their final game on Aug. 1.
Andries Jonker was announced Wednesday as the next head coach of the Netherlands women’s national team.
He succeeds Mark Parsons, who parted ways with the team after the defending champions were knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Euros in July.
Jonker has signed on through 2025, according to the Dutch soccer federation.
🇳🇱@oranjevrouwen has their new coach👋
— ata football (@atafball) August 24, 2022
Andries Jonker has signed a contract with the team until 2025. pic.twitter.com/iBnGZM03bi
“During the last European Championship, we saw how incredibly fast women’s football has developed in recent years,” Jonker said. “We have ambitious goals, but also an enormous amount of quality and talent that we can draw on for the 2023 World Cup.”
This is not his first time with the team. The 59-year-old briefly served as interim head coach for the Netherlands in 2001. The Netherlands native later went to work as an assistant at men’s clubs FC Barcelona, VfL Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich. He also served as first-team manager for Wolfsburg and academy manager at Arsenal.
Starting in 2019, he managed Sportclub Telstar, a member of the second-tier Dutch men’s league, but he left the club in June.
Jonker will begin immediately, coaching the team in a friendly against Scotland on Sept. 2 followed by a World Cup qualifying match against Iceland on Sept. 6. A win in the latter would assure the team of a spot in next summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Mark Parsons is no longer manager of the Netherlands women’s national team after the two sides agreed to part ways.
The Dutch Football Association (KNVB) confirmed Parsons’ departure Wednesday in a statement. The news comes after the squad was eliminated in the quarterfinals at the UEFA Women’s Euro in July. The Netherlands had entered the tournament as the defending champion.
According to the KNVB, the two sides came to the joint decision after a review of Parsons’ performance revealed there wasn’t enough confidence in the coach.
“In the run-up to and at the European Championship, both the games shown and the results were disappointing and we cannot afford that,” KNVB board member Jan Dirk van der Zee said. “The bar is high.
“The Netherlands was defending champion and also a finalist at the last World Cup, we want to participate for the prizes… The group came from an incredibly strong period and supplemented with young players, the team had to lay the foundation for new successes. Mark has managed to scout new talents and give them a chance in this interim phase and we are grateful to him for that. We wish him every success in his further career.”
After finishing second in Group C behind Sweden, the team lost to France in the quarterfinals. That game marked the return of star forward Vivianne Miedema, who had been out due to COVID-19 protocol. In a recent column for AD Sport, Miedema detailed how difficult the Euros were for her.
“It was a very difficult European Championship for me. I still haven’t processed everything. My expectations were high, I felt good, but then I got corona,” wrote Miedema, detailing how she laid in bed with a fever for nine days.
“I played 120 minutes against France, I have no idea how I did that,” she continued. “I was going to be substituted, but then we were 1-0 behind and we had to score.”
While recognizing that the tournament was a disappointment for the defending champions, she also highlighted the play of those like Daphne Domselaar, who stepped in when Sari van Veenendaal went down with an injury. The team was also missing Lieke Martens due to injury.
The issues with Parsons, though, seemingly run deeper than the Euros run. When Danielle van de Donk was asked after the Euros loss what she had learned with Parsons at the helm, she said she would “think about that.”
Parsons was announced as the successor to Sarina Wiegman in May 2021 after she departed to manage England. Wiegman led the Lionesses to the Euros title at this year’s tournament. Parsons joined the Netherlands from the NWSL’s Portland Thorns, where he had coached for five years.
He also spent time with the Washington Spirit, D.C. United and Chelsea Reserves.
Parsons released a statement Wednesday saying that it was a “privilege” to coach the Netherlands.
— Mark Parsons (@mparsons_1) August 10, 2022
“I want you to know that I always worked with one goal in mind and that is to help this team move forward,” he added. “I truly wish to have achieved better results for you.
“This has been a very challenging 12 months but I remain honored I have had the chance to work with these players and KNVB. I wish you all the best and good luck for September’s qualifier. I will be cheering you all on from afar.”
The Netherlands sits atop Group C in UEFA World Cup qualifying with a two-point lead over Iceland. The two will meet in a match on Sept. 6, and Netherlands could secure a World Cup spot with a win.
Vivianne Miedema will not play in the Netherlands’ match against Portugal on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19.
The Dutch national team said in a statement that she “will therefore be in isolation for the next few days.”
“When she no longer has any symptoms and tests negative she can rejoin the selection,” the statement continued.
Following Portugal, the Netherlands next will play Switzerland on July 17.
Miedema is the all-time leading goalscorer for the team, with 94 goals through 112 caps. She’s the second player from the team to test positive for COVID-19 in the tournament after Jackie Groenen.
Players from other countries have also tested positive during the tournament, including England’s Lotte Wubben-Moy.
The Netherlands is third in Group C standings, sitting behind Portugal and Switzerland due to goal differential. No team in Group C has won a game yet this tournament, with the Netherlands drawing 1-1 with Sweden in their opening match.
Also out for the team is goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal, who suffered a shoulder injury during the team’s opening match. The Dutch have yet to qualify for next year’s World Cup, with just Denmark and France qualifying so far from UEFA.
The Portland Thorns confirmed head coach Mark Parsons’ departure from the club following the conclusion of the 2021 NWSL season.
First reported by The Athletic’s Meg Linehan on May 12, Parsons’ move to the Dutch women’s national team became official Thursday morning. Parsons called it an “absolute honor and privilege” to become head coach of the Netherlands and stressed his commitment to the Thorns through the end of the season.
“Before I join the Netherlands I have a very important commitment and responsibility to the Portland Thorns,” Parsons wrote. “This is a club and a fan base that epitomizes family and we have a very exciting season ahead with the opportunity to achieve more special memories together.
“I will give everything to the players, staff and fans to make it our best yet.”
Parsons has coached Portland since 2015, winning the NWSL Shield in 2016 and NWSL championship in 2017. After signing a multi-year contract extension with the Thorns last March, he led them to the Challenge Cup title earlier this month.
🇳🇱 It’s an absolute honor and privilege to become the new head coach of the Dutch national team later this year.
— Mark Parsons (@mparsons_1) May 20, 2021
🌹One more tour it is. I will give everything to the players, staff and fans to make it our best yet. pic.twitter.com/cDTZi8mXHW