We also look at the results from the Pinatar Cup tournament in Spain, involving Mexico, Canada, China and Chinese Taipei. We also review New Zealand’s two matches against Costa Rica in Central America. Finally, we examine the efforts by Greenland and St. Pierre and Miquelon—the French island possessions in the North Atlantic—to join CONCACAF, including thoughts from Japan’s WNT head coach Nils Nielsen—who took Denmark to the runner-up spot in the 2017 Women’s EURO—who is a native of Greenland.
2025 SheBelieves Cup ResultsIn the tenth edition of the SheBelieves Cup invitational tournament for national teams, the winner was Japan in their fifth tournament appearance, after finishing second to the U.S. two years ago. Japan was undefeated in the 2025 tournament and defeated the host side in the final game in San Diego (2-1). The USA had won seven of the previous nine SheBelieves Cup crowns, including each of the past five, with single titles for England and France. Last week, we presented the rosters of the teams and had some thoughts from U.S. head coach Emma Hayes (see: The Week in Women's Football: Exclusive with Brooklyn FC defender Amani; Hayes questions; examining SheBelieves Cup - TribalFootball.com). This week, we have more insights from coaches and players.
In the first matches on February 20, the U.S. defeated Colombia 2-0 in front of 15,043 at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas, the home of the Houston Dash of the NWSL and Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer. The goals came from Catarina Macario—her first WNT goal for the off-injured forward since 2022—and Ally Sentnor—who was the 2024 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year. Macario now has nine international goals for the U.S., with her last goals coming with a brace in an April 12, 2022, friendly against Uzbekistan.
She tore her ACL a couple months later, an injury that caused a long rehabilitation period, and in 2025 she has been in strong form with Chelsea, with two goals in ten WSL matches. On the opening goal, 17-year-old Lily Yohannes—who looked active and dangerous in her first U.S. WNT start since choosing the U.S. over Netherlands and appearing as a substitute last year on December 3 in a 2-1 U.S. win away against the Dutch, where she currently plays for Ajax Amsterdam and has lived in the country since 2017, where her father took a job and her two brothers play for Dutch club sides—sent a brilliant ball over the top of the defense to Yazmeen Ryan on the right wing. Ryan hit a hard first-time cross in front of goal and Macario beat her marker and scored from inside the six-yard box. Sentnor scored her first WNT goal on a wonderful long-distance blast into the upper right corner of the goal that caught Colombian keeper Katherine Tapia flatfooted. Defenders Tara McKeown and Gisele Thompson and forward Michelle Cooper all received their first caps during the match.
Houston Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell started the match on her club’s home field and earned her ninth USWNT cap (and just her second since 2021); it was Campbell’s third USWNT cap at the stadium. Campbell picked up her sixth career shutout as a full international as the U.S. defense held Colombia without a shot on goal. The U.S. finished with a 10-7 advantage in shots (3-0 on frame) and a 63%-37% edge in possession.
In the first game, Japan dismantled Australia 4-0, with Japan’s passing and quick attacking moves carving up the overwhelmed Matildas. Mina Tanaka (30)—who signed with the Utah Royals in July of 2024 and was with Japan’s Olympic Games Final side, scored a brace while Maika Hamano (20) of Chelsea in the WSL and defender Moeka Minami (26), who is in her third season with Roma in Italy, also scored for the eighth highest rated team in the world by FIFA, compared to #15 for Australia.
Matildas interim head coach Tom Sermanni explained after the game: “We were just played off the field today… They were quicker to the ball; they kept possession fantastically. When we tried to press, they broke out of the press. When we sat back, they managed to play through. Sometimes, you have one of those games. I’d like to be able to sit here and give you the x, y and z of why it happened. But in reality, they were just very, very good today, and we were a bit off.”
Sermanni said that the team had to come back from the loss: “It was a pretty huge wake-up call, I think. It was one of those games where we were outplayed from the start straight through to the finish of the game in every department. We were outplayed football-wise, physically, mentally and in our decision-making. I suppose the positive thing is now, it gives us a chance to say, ‘well, okay, if come this time next year, when we’re just about getting into the Asian Cup, what do we need to do to beat teams like Japan?’ What is important is that we move on. Sometimes you have a bad game... Sometimes you have a disastrous game, but you need to pick your heads up, pack up your gear, go home and then go back for the next game. That’s what we need to do.”
Arsenal midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross (23), who has been strong this season with two assists in 14 WSL matches and one assist in four UEFA WCL matches—after struggling last year following a mid-season move from Sweden—talked about her move to the WSL: “I’m just growing, making the most of every moment and taking everything in… When I first went to Arsenal, it was tough, having to move over and get used to so many things. Now that I’m more comfortable and I know what the Arsenal staff want for me and the players want for me, it just makes things so much easier… I’m so lucky to be playing at this club with these girls.”
Cooney-Cross scored her first international goal against Germany in October, 2024 in her 50th international appearance. Her future hopes are: “I want to start adding (goals). As a six, there’s not many players in that position that do score and assist a lot, and I would like to start adding those kinds of things to my game.”
Holly McNamara (22) of Melbourne City played in the second half of the Japan match for the first time since 2022. She has overcome three ACL reconstructions in her career, with two coming since her debut CommBank Matildas appearance in 2022 at the Women’s Asian Cup in India.
On February 23 in Phoenix/Glendale, Arizona, Japan beat Colombia 4-1 and the U.S. bested Australia 2-1. Momoko Tanikawaa (18) of Bayern Munich scored in the 18th second to set Japan on their way as Mina Tanaka again scored a brace, no doubt leaving Utah Royal fans and coaches ecstatic about her having a full season with the club in 2025. She played 14 years in Japan and part of one season in Germany with Leverkusen; she added three assists in the first two games of the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, contributing to all but one of Japan’s eight goals after two games.
After the Colombia match, veteran head coach Nils Nielsen—who was in charge of his first competitive games for Japan at the spring tournament—was kind enough to allow TribalFootball.com to interview him alone after the match. We asked about his thoughts that Japan had really excelled in his first two matches with the team and scored eight goals while allowing one, and what he wants to add to the team moving forward.
He said: “One of the things they need (is) a bit more confidence and spirit. We already succeeded to do in our first camp. They really want to play but sometimes we have to let them loose. Over a larger period of time, they played very controlled; of course, all of a sudden, you are allowed to do what you like the most, you look good. We made some mistakes today and the other game—we didn’t play the perfect game. We played with a lot of heart, also spirit, so we can press high and also surprise them with some speed in position (which the opponents) haven’t seen before. That’s part of it, right now nobody knows what we are doing. We change positions, we change players so (once) they get a chance to analyze us, it won’t be so simple anymore.”
We also asked about Nielsen’s thoughts on the WE League, which began for the 2021-22 season to much acclaim but has not attracted many imports from other countries, particularly from Europe and America: “I think the WE League has a lot of potential. It’s a very strong league. If they could attract a few more foreigners to make the games more physical, more fast—because all the players are technically so good—it’s incredible to watch, but they are missing that bite that you have internationally that you have to do. We need to bring in some power. The potential is there to have a really good league. The players are so fantastic on the ball. They are also polite and sometimes they don’t like to tackle them out of the park like they do in Europe. If (the league) had more funding, they could also attract more players from outside who could bring some more physicality into the game.”
Chelsea midfielder Maika Hamano told TribalFootball.com that she was pleased with their progress so far in the tournament and they had had time to get to know each other under their new head coach. When asked about playing with Chelsea—who are undefeated in the WSL after 14 games with 13 wins, one deadlock for 40 points, with a 7 point lead over second place Manchester United—where Hamano is in her second season, she said: “I am grateful to play with special players in front of (head coach) Sonia Bompastor and Emma (Hayes—her coach last year).”
In the second match, the U.S. used a completely different starting lineup (all eleven players were new) from the first game and five of their starters had fewer than five senior caps, to defeat a much improved Australia 2-1. Lynn (Williams) Biyendolo scored in the first minute and then Michelle Cooper (22), in her third season with Kansas City Current, added a second goal for the U.S. in the 68th minute, six minutes after coming on as a substitute. It was Copper’s first goal in her second senior international. Canberra United veteran forward Michelle Heyman scored for the Matildas with 10 minutes left in the game. Claire Hutton (19) won her first international camp and goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn (Haught) of the Utah Royals won her second cap and played the full 90 minutes.
The match marked just the sixth occasion in 758 all-time matches (and first time since 2000) that the USWNT’s starting lineup featured 11 changes in consecutive outings, showing Emma Hayes commitment to youth and to giving all her players an opportunity to show that they deserve more camps and games in the future. The Americans outshot the visitors, 15-7, and the Matildas’ only shot on target was Heyman’s goal. The USA improved its record to 30-5-1 (W-D-L) all-time against Australia. The announced attendance in Glendale/Phoenix was 25,503, a record for a women’s match in the state of Arizona and the largest crowd of the three tournament matchdays this year.
U.S. defensive midfielder Korbin Albert (21)—who is in her third season at PSG, started the Australia match and played all 90 minutes—talked to TribalFootball.com after the 2-1 win over Australia. She explained how the team has evolved in its play since the 2024 Olympic Games Finals victory: “I think we’re bringing the same thing, just the same elements of playing off of each other and playing angles and we are big on it’s not going to be a perfect play and that’s okay and embracing the mistakes. That’s our big goal right now, us playing through the mistakes and do everything we can to play off each other and be positive.”
When asked what the team saw differently from Australia from their preparation and how they reacted, she explained: “We started off strong. The first 25 minute were really good and then we lowered our heads a little bit and that is something we’re going to work on as a team.”
She also discussed how she is playing different with the national team than with PSG: “At the club level, I am definitely higher up the field so I have more freedom to run around and, with the national team, it is more balanced (as) we are playing off of other players. It is really important that you stay in your position without overloading other people on the field. It is really, ‘respect other’s positions and respect your own.’”
Emma Hayes commented after the Australia match on the defensive midfield play of Korbin Albert and Claire Hutton (19)—who made her first start in her second WNT game—and Hayes said that her focus was getting them to be better positioned to support options, particularly in attack”: “These are important games for Korbin and Clare in a sense that they are both players who like to move a lot and to be more disciplined positionally as low support options. I thought they were so diligent in the first half; if anything they were too cautious but that is because I am asking them to do something that is uncomfortable for them. I felt in the second half they got the opportunity to face forward a little more and they grew into the game.”
Forward Lynn (Williams) Biyendolo (31), who moved to the Seattle Reign for the 2025 season—her third side in four seasons and has won four NWSL titles with the Western New York Flash (one), North Carolina Courage (two) and NJ/NY Gotham FC (one in 2023) and who scored the first goal within the first minute against Australia—talked about her role as a veteran on such a young national team squad: “There is a lot of young players when it comes to tactics, not (to mean in terms of) being professional because I feel they are all being professional, but when it comes to the camps what that means and passing on the traditions and expectations and standards (of the storied USWNT).
"I look at them; they are so talented, I’m excited for the growth of this team and see where the U.S. is going to go in the next two-four years.”
She then expanded on her role in integrating the youth players into the team: “Anytime they have a question, a worry about something, anything, they can lean on me, they can ask, I am here, I’m a sounding board… A lot (of the new players) have come from the youth (national teams) together and can lean on each other… I have all of this knowledge, if you want it, I’m here to give it to you.”
In the third set of matches on February 26 in San Diego at the S.D. Wave’s Snapdragon Stadium, Australia finished the tournament at the bottom of the group with zero points, after losing to Colombia 2-1. Forward Wendy Bonilla (22) of America de Cali gave the South Americans an early lead in the 15th minute. In the 69th minute Haley Raso (30), in her first season at Tottenham Hotspur in the WSL after playing with Real Madrid in Spain in 2023-24 and who previously played five seasons in the NWSL with the Washington Spirit and Portland Thorns, scored to tie the game. Four minutes later veteran midfielder Cataline Usme (35), who is with Galatasaray of Turkey after a spell in Mexico with Pachuca and at home with America de Cali, scored the ultimate winner. Colombia finished the tournament in third place with three points.
Japan and the U.S. entered the final match of the tournament tied with six points but Japan had a +7 goal differential compared to +3 for the U.S., so the Americans needed to win to capture the SheBelieves Cup title while the Nadeshiko would win the title with only a draw. After the second match against Australia in Phoenix, Emma Hayes talked about the last game of the tournament: “Japan’s quality of play is so, so high. This is the perfect game as to where we are to learn a lot about ourselves. I am certain we will have to suffer, (with) he way they dominate the ball, the way they progress up the pitch, with their rotations with their dynamic advantages. I love watching Japan play. I’m excited for the challenge… It’s a must win game.”
In the final game of the tournament, Japan again scored early with a goal in the second minute by Yuka Momiki (28), in her second WSL season with Leicester City and who was born in New York City. She was on the books of the Seattle Reign in 2020 and 2021 (during the COVID years) but played on loan with Linkopings of Sweden, and was transferred permanently in December of 2021. Ally Sentnor tied the game in the 15th minute with an assist by Catarina Macario, for her second goal of the tournament. Japan regained the advantage in the 50th minute through substitute Toko Koga (19), who has scored three goals in 15 matches (all starts) with Feyenoord of the Netherlands in her second season, and held off the U.S. the rest of the way through their extremely skillful ability to play out of pressure and creatively pass the ball around the field.
Emma Hayes, who suffered her first defeat in 18 matches in charge of the Americans since she joined the team full-time last spring, told the media after the loss that: “The relationships they (Japan) have in terms of the volume of games they’ve played together really shows. They were a higher level to us throughout the whole evening.” She again emphasized her mission of developing young players when she added: “I think we’re better off as a result of this experience.” The games attracted 17,188 on a Wednesday evening in San Diego.
Hayes started 22 of her 23 players in the first two games and, against Japan, picked 10 of the 11 who started the tournament-opening win over Colombia. The exception was veteran left back Crystal Dunn, who started the second game against Australia. The U.S. is now 32-8-2 (W-D-L) all-time versus Japan, with their only other defeat in regulation time coming in the Algarve Cup in Portugal in March 2012. The Americans will next play Brazil at home in April in two rematches of last summer’s Olympic Games Final: April 5 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and April 8 at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif.
Pinatar Cup in Spain—Canada and Mexico Rosters
On February 19, Mexico defeated Chinese Taipei 4-0, with 18-year-old Angelique Saldivar of Club America scoring a second half brace, while Canada tied with China PR 1-1, as Julia Grosso (29) of the Chicago Stars scored in the 16th minute with Jin Kun (25), of Jiangsu Suning at home, scoring an equalizer just before the hour mark.
On February 22, Canada used two second half goals to defeat Mexico 2-0 for new head coach Casey Stoney’s first win in charge of the side. Vanessa Giles (Olympique Lyonnaise, who has scored 5 goals in 14 league matches this season in France) scored in the 51st minute and Adrianna Leon (32)—who has three goals in 11 WSL matches for Aston Villa this season and just this week transferred to the San Diego Wave—scored in the 89th minute. In the other match, China P.R. defeated Chinese Taipei 4-0.
An own goal by Chinese Taipei’s defender Pei-lin Teng (22) of Hang Yuan FC in the 21st minute gave China an unassailable lead. Forward Ziqin Shao (22) of Jiangsu Suning scored in the first half followed by second half tallies from Mengwen Li (29), who is with West Ham United this season after starting at Brighton and Hove Albion and has played at Paris St. Germain in France, and Xin Zhang (32) of Shanghi Shengli. Zhang retired from the game in 2017 and married and had a child, but returned to football two years later, and played in the Olympic Games Finals last summer.
On February 24, Canada defeated Chinese Taipei 7-0 and Mexico defeated China PR 2-0, with Marie-Yamine Alidou (29)—who is with Benfica of Portugal in her second season and won a Portuguese league title last year and also played for clubs in Norway, Spain, Sweden and France—scoring a hat trick. In Canada she played collegiately at Université du Québec à Montréal. Jordan Huitema (23), in her fourth season with the Seattle Reign, scored twice.
For Mexico, Alice Soto (18) of Pachuca scored in the 5th minute and Lizbeth Ovalle (25) of Tigres UANL (since 2017) tallied in the 14th minute to give La Tri Femenina a two goal advantage over China that the Northeast Asian side could not overcome.
Canada won the tournament title with a 2-1-0 record for seven points, with CONCACAF rival Mexico second on 2-0-1 for six points. China PR had a 1-1-1 record for four points and Chinese Taipei lost all three games, with no goals scored with 15 against.
Mexico’s WNT Spanish native head coach Pedro López named his squad for the Pinatar Cup in Spain, which was their first WNT training and games in 2025. All the players were based with Liga MX Femenil clubs with the exception of Reyna Reyes, from the Portland Thorns, a huge positive statement to the continuing importance of Liga MX Femenil to the country’s national team development:
Monterrey Rayadas 6
UANL Tigres 5
Pachuca 4
Club America 3
Juarez Bravas 2
Guadalajara Chivas 1
Tijuana Xolos 1
One notable player not on the squad for the February friendlies was Maria Sanchez (28), the American-born Mexican international forward who has 58 caps and 14 goals; she is currently with the San Diego Wave and played with Guadalajara and UANL Tigres in Liga MX Femenil in the past. She explained her absence to the media on a conference call in mid-February (which TribalFootball.com participated in): “I had a conversation with Pedro Lopes (Mexico’s WNT head coach) a couple of weeks ago and we both agreed that it would be better for me to do pre-season with the team (the Wave)… We have a fairly new team so I think it is going to be an important time for the season if I stay back and am able to participate in pre-season with the team.” Preseason training will also help her be in top fitness shape for the league and upcoming Mexico WNT matches later in the year.
Note: We presented Canada’s roster late last month: The Week in Women's Football: Northern Super League preview; Stoney named Canada coach; new UEFA comp - TribalFootball.com.
New Zealand defeats and ties Costa Rica in two matches in February.
On February 22, in the first match of their two game series, New Zealand and Costa Rica tied 1-1 in Santa Ana, Costa Rica, with Costa Rican international midfielder Priscilla Chinchilla (23) of Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia opening the scoring in the 20th minute. India Paige-Riley (23) equalized for the Football Ferns in first half injury time. She scored seven goals in 19 matches with PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands in 2023-24 and then joined recently promoted WSL side Crystal Palace, where she has two goals in 11 matches.
In the second match, midfielder Maya Hahn (24)—who has been with Turbine Potsdam of Germany since the 2022-23 season, when the historic women’s side was relegated to the second tier, but promoted back to the Frauen-Bundesliga ahead of the 2024-25 season—scored the only goal of the game in the 89th minute in Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto in Alajuela.
For the New Zealand traveling party, the Ford Football Ferns interim head coach Michael Mayne named a 23 player squad. The players are currently playing with clubs in the following countries: Australia (6), England (6), New Zealand (4—all with Wellington Phoenix of the A-League Women), Canada (2—both in the new Northern Super League), France (1), Germany (1), Netherlands (1), Scotland (1) and the U.S. (1—in the NWSL):
Liz Anton (19 caps) Canberra United, Australia
Mackenzie Barry (20 caps) Wellington Phoenix, Aotearoa New Zealand
Hannah Blake (6 caps) Durham FC, England
Kelli Brown (debut) Perth Glory, Australia
Claudia Bunge (31 caps) Melbourne Victory, Australia
Geo Candy (debut) Melbourne Victory, Australia
Milly Clegg (12 caps) Halifax Tides FC, Canada
Brianna Edwards (1 cap) Sydney FC, Australia
Manaia Elliott (0 caps) Wellington Phoenix, Aotearoa New Zealand
Victoria Esson (24 caps) Rangers FC, Scotland
Michaela Foster (22 caps) Durham FC, England
Macey Fraser (6 caps) Utah Royals, USA
Maya Hahn (debut) FFC Turbine Potsdam, Germany
Jacqui Hand (31 caps) Sheffield United, England
Grace Jale (34 caps) Wellington Phoenix, Aotearoa New Zealand
Katie Kitching (14 caps) Sunderland AFC, England
Annalie Longo (136 caps) Wellington Phoenix, Aotearoa New Zealand
Meikayla Moore (67 caps) Calgary Wild FC, Canada
Ruby Nathan (5 caps) Canberra United, Australia
Grace Neville (10 caps) London City Lionesses, England
Emma Pijnenburg (0 caps) Feyenoord Rotterdam, Netherlands
Indiah-Paige Riley (27 caps) Crystal Palace, England
Kate Taylor (21 caps) Dijon FCO, France
Three uncapped players were brought in for the Costa Rica trip: Perth Glory forward Kelli Brown (24), Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Geo Candy (23), and FFC Turbine Potsdam midfielder Maya Hahn (24). Hahn grew up in Wellington but spoke German and played youth soccer for Germany at the youth level. She recently committed to play for Aotearoa New Zealand at senior international level and received her first call up for the two games. All three players were part of the bronze medal winning team at the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay, for which Michael Mayne was an assistant coach. Brown and Hahn each won two caps in Costa Rica, while Candy did not play.
Wellington Phoenix’s Manaia Elliott (19) and Feyenoord’s Emma Pijnenburg (20) also had yet to take the field for the Football Ferns. Elliott is in the first year of a three year contract for Wellington Phoenix and captained New Zealand at the U-17 FIFA WWC in 2022 in India; she played all three games for New Zealand at last summer’s FIFA WWC in Colombia U-20 and scored against Ghana. Piknenburg was with the New Zealand U-20 WWC team in Costa Rica in 2022; she currently plays in the Netherlands with Feyenoord, starting in 2023-24, and has scored once in twelve games over two seasons in the league. Both came on for their first WNT appearance as substitutes in the series.
Mayne said: “I feel very privileged to be naming a Ford Football Ferns team for the first time as interim head coach and I’m excited about getting back into our environment with the players. It’s been a thorough process since taking this role on after the Olympics (he was the interim head coach in France last summer, named just a few months before the Games) and I have spent the time connecting with our wider squad of around 40 players to understand how we can start this cycle and make sure we have clarity on where we are at, and where we need to be, by the time the team hits Brazil (Women’s World Cup) in 2027.
"As this is the start of a new cycle, it is an opportunity to test some new and more inexperienced players, and there is a great opportunity for those selected for this tour to show me where their strengths lie and how that will support the team getting success on the pitch. The priority remains to put us in the best place to win games and get out of the group at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027, and this is a great opportunity to begin creating some competition for positions. The team will be playing regularly in the build-up to the next World Cup so there are ample opportunities for a range of players to be involved early in the cycle. We want to make sure that, come the next major tournament, we have tested a number of options and systems that allow us to be more threatening on the pitch, more exciting on the ball, and be a team that looks and feels different in the way we win games.”
Greenland and St. Pierre and Miquelon bid to join CONCACAF
We have discussed Greenland’s attempt to join CONCACAF as an affiliate member in this column in 2023. We asked current Japan WNT head coach Nils Nielsen who was born in Greenland—during the SheBelieves Cup—if he thought Greenland should try to join CONCACAF or continue to pursue entry into UEFA. Nielsen said: “I think whatever gives them the shortest travel; it’s a long way from everything. I was born there. I’m happy to see that they can do something. It’s a very strange place. There is no grass, there is nothing green (spaces), just a little bit of moss. Everything is artificial that they play football on. It’s great that they are trying to put teams together—women and men—and make official games for the Greenland people.”
Greenland is joined by another bidder from the North Atlantic region for CONCACAF affiliate status: the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon—off the coast of Newfoundland in eastern Canada. The islands represent France’s last remaining presence in North America and use the EURO, European electrical current and outlets, has direct flights to Paris and utilizes French as the official language, though English is widely spoken due to the large number of tourists in the summer. The islands’ population as of 2022 was 5,800. St. Pierre and Miquelon has a strong Basque tradition through its fishing history.
There is a Ligue de Football de Saint Pierre et Miquelon which consists of three teams—A.S. Ilienne Amateur, A.S. Saint Pierraise and A.S. Miquelonnaise—which play each other multiple times during a season and has operated since the mid-1970’s. The winner of a two round playoff has advanced to the third round of the Coupe de France Cup since 2018-19 on the men’s side. Teams from the archipelago had also been participating in tournaments with the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Association and became an associate member in 2019, when they also first submitted a proposal to join CONCACAF.
A women’s youth representative side from St. Pierre and Miquelon has competed locally in neighboring Eastern Canada, winning the 2016 Newfoundland and Labrador U-15 Girls Cup. Ludivine Quedinet became the president of the Football League of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon in 2023 and was the first woman to ever hold that position. She has been active in judo, athletics and played futsal and outdoor football with the ASIA (A.S. Ilienne Amateur) team. TribalFootball.com reached out to Ludivine Quedinet, but after she confirmed that we were not with CONCACAF but were media, she did not reply to any further phone calls/emails. TribalFootball.com also reached out to CONCACAF on their process and timeline for approving these two applications but had not heard back by the press deadline.
St. Pierre and Miquelon’s visibility throughout Canada has increased in 2025 with the launch of a brand new police drama on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)—Saint Pierre—directed by and starring Newfoundland native Allan Hawco (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and featuring legendary French actress Josephine Jobert (Death in Paradise, Foudre and many others). In the bad old days of Jack Warner (the now dispatched and disgraced former President of CONCACAF for over two decades since 1990), he was big on adding small nations to CONCACAF’s fold to build up his and the region’s power base within FIFA and probably would have brought both territories in within days of their application.
The question becomes, will CONCACAF expand at all—Greenland is ten times larger in population than St. Pierre and Miquelon but both are such a long flight for so many CONCACAF members. With the small French islands in particular—who traditionally view themselves as more European and are part of the EU—the key questions are if it is really reasonable to add them, could they ever be competitive in men’s and women’s football with such a small population base and does it justify the difficult logistics that would be involved for the existing CONCACAF member nations? However, Monserrat, a British Overseas Possession in the Caribbean, is a CONCACAF associate member and had 4,390 people in the 2022 census. The 1995 eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano and the resulting destruction of the capital city of Plymouth saw over 5,000 people leave the island, many to the U.K.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey