Algarve Cup facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Algarve Cup

Founded	1994
Region	Portugal
Number of teams	12
Current champions	Sweden (5th title)
Most successful team(s)	United States (10 titles)
Website	Official website: https://www.fpf.pt/pt/competicoes/futebol/feminino/algarve-cup

The Algarve Cup is a special football tournament for national teams in women's association football. It's held every year in the Algarve region of Portugal. The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) organizes it.

Since it started in 1994, the Algarve Cup has become one of the most important and longest-running women's international football events. Some people even call it the "Mini FIFA Women's World Cup" because so many top teams play in it!

The United States is the most successful team, winning ten titles. Norway and Sweden have each won five times. Germany has won four titles, and China has won twice. The USA, Norway, Germany, and Spain are the only countries that have won both the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Algarve Cup.

The Algarve Cup is unique because it brings together many of the world's best women's football teams every year. This doesn't really happen in men's football. The tournament usually takes place in late February or early March. Other similar tournaments happening around the same time include the Arnold Clark Cup and the SheBelieves Cup.

How the Tournament Works

Estádio Algarve, one of the stadiums used in the tournament

From 2002 to 2014, 12 teams were invited to play. The top eight teams would compete to win the championship. Teams were split into three groups: A, B, and C. Group C was added so that newer or less experienced teams could still play against high-level opponents.

First, teams played against every other team in their own group. This is called a round-robin format. After the group games, teams played more matches to decide their final rank. For example:

• The two teams at the bottom of Group C played each other for 11th place.
• The winners of Groups A and B played in the final match for 1st place.

In 2015, the rules changed a bit. Now, teams from Group C can also reach the final! The final match is played between the two best teams that won their groups.

If teams have the same number of points, there are special rules to decide who finishes higher. They look at things like:

• Points from games between the tied teams.
• How many goals they scored compared to how many they let in (goal difference).
• The total number of goals they scored.
• Fair play (how many yellow or red cards they got).
• Their FIFA ranking.

The matches to decide places are now a bit different too:

• The 11th place match is between the 3rd and 2nd worst 4th-placed teams.
• The 9th place match is between the best 4th-placed team and the 3rd best 3rd-placed team.
• The 7th place match is between the 2nd best 3rd-placed team and the best 3rd-placed team.
• The 5th place match is between the 3rd best 2nd-placed team and the 2nd best 2nd-placed team.
• The 3rd place match is between the 3rd best group winner and the best 2nd-placed team.
• The Final is between the best group winner and the 2nd best group winner.

Past Winners

This table shows who won the Algarve Cup each year, who came second, and who finished third and fourth.

Edition	Year		Final				Third Place Match				Number of teams
			Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1	1994		Norway	1–0	United States		Sweden	1–0	Denmark		6
2	1995		Sweden	3–2 (aet)	Denmark		Norway	3–3 (aet) (4–2 p)	United States		8
3	1996		Norway	4–0	Sweden		China	2–1	Denmark		8
4	1997		Norway	1–0	China		Sweden	0–0 (6–5 p)	Denmark		8
5	1998		Norway	4–1	Denmark		United States	3–1	Sweden		8
6	1999		China	2–1	United States		Norway	2–2 (aet) (4–1 p)	Denmark		8
7	2000		United States	1–0	Norway		China	1–0	Sweden		8
8	2001		Sweden	3–0	Denmark		China	5–1	Canada		8
9	2002		China	1–0	Norway		Sweden	2–1	Germany		12
10	2003		United States	2–0	China		Norway	1–0	France		12
11	2004		United States	4–1	Norway		France	3–3 (4–3 p)	Italy		12
12	2005		United States	1–0	Germany		France	3–2	Sweden		12
13	2006		Germany	0–0 (aet) (4–3 p)	United States		Sweden	1–0	France		11
14	2007		United States	2–0	Denmark		Sweden	3–1	France		12
15	2008		United States	2–1	Denmark		Norway	2–0	Germany		12
16	2009		Sweden	1–1 (4–3 p)	United States		Denmark	1–0	Germany		12
17	2010		United States	3–2	Germany		Sweden	2–0	China		12
18	2011		United States	4–2	Iceland		Japan	2–1	Sweden		12
19	2012		Germany	4–3	Japan		United States	4–0	Sweden		12
20	2013		United States	2–0	Germany		Norway	2–2 (aet) (3–2 p)	Sweden		12
21	2014		Germany	3–0	Japan		Iceland	2–1	Sweden		12
22	2015		United States	2–0	France		Germany	2–1	Sweden		12
23	2016		Canada	2–1	Brazil		Iceland	1–1 (6–5 p)	New Zealand		8
24	2017		Spain	1–0	Canada		Denmark	1–1 (4–1 p)	Australia		12
25	2018		Netherlands and  Sweden The final was cancelled due to heavy rain				Portugal	2–1	Australia		12
26	2019		Norway	3–0	Poland		Canada	0–0 (6–5 p)	Sweden		12
27	2020		Germany	3-0 The final was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	Italy		Norway	2–1	New Zealand		8
	2021		Cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic				Cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic				—
28	2022		Sweden	1–1 (6–5 p)	Italy		Norway	2–0	Portugal		5
	2023		Not held due to Portugal's participation in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification play-offs				Not held due to Portugal's participation in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification play-offs				—

Top Teams in the Tournament

Here's a quick look at the teams that have done really well in the Algarve Cup, reaching the top four spots:

• The United States has won the most titles, with 10 wins. They've also been runners-up 4 times and finished third twice.
• Norway has won 5 titles, been runners-up 3 times, and finished third 7 times.
• Sweden also has 5 titles, with 1 runner-up spot and 6 third-place finishes.
• Germany has won 4 times, been runners-up 3 times, and finished third once.
• China has won 2 titles, been runners-up twice, and finished third 3 times.
• Canada has won 1 title, been runners-up once, and finished third once.
• Spain and the Netherlands have each won 1 title.

Other teams like Denmark, Japan, Italy, France, and Iceland have also reached the top four spots multiple times, showing how competitive the tournament is!

Medals

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	10	4	2	16
2	Norway (NOR)	5	3	7	15
3	Sweden (SWE)	5	1	6	12
4	Germany (GER)	4	3	1	8
5	China (CHN)	2	2	3	7
6	Canada (CAN)	1	1	1	3
7	Netherlands (NED)	1	0	0	1
	Spain (ESP)	1	0	0	1
9	Denmark (DEN)	0	5	2	7
10	Japan (JPN)	0	2	1	3
11	Italy (ITA)	0	2	0	2
12	France (FRA)	0	1	2	3
	Iceland (ISL)	0	1	2	3
14	Brazil (BRA)	0	1	0	1
	Poland (POL)	0	1	0	1
16	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (16 entries)		29	27	28	84

• In 2018, the Netherlands and Sweden shared the gold medal because the final game was cancelled due to heavy rain.

Star Players and Top Scorers

Many amazing players have shone at the Algarve Cup over the years. Here are some of the "Best Players" and "Top Scorers" from different tournaments:

Year	Best Player	Top Scorer	Goals
1994	Ann Kristin Aarones	Ann Kristin Aarones	5
1995	Helle Jensen	Helle Jensen	6
1996	Hege Riise
1997	Marianne Pettersen
1998	Marianne Pettersen
1999	Tiffeny Milbrett	Tiffeny Milbrett	4
2000	Dagny Mellgren	Dagny Mellgren	4
2001	Hanna Ljungberg	Hanna Ljungberg	6
2002	Bai Jie	Shannon MacMillan	7
2003	Liu Ying	Hanna Ljungberg	4
2004	Shannon Boxx	Abby Wambach	4
2005	Birgit Prinz	Christie Welsh	5
2006	Shannon Boxx
2007	Carli Lloyd	Carli Lloyd	7
2008	Cathrine Paaske-Sørensen	Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir	6
2009	Hope Solo	Kerstin Garefrekes Jayne Ludlow Lotta Schelin	3
2010	Inka Grings	Inka Grings	7
2011	Homare Sawa	Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir	4
2012	Aya Miyama	Célia Okoyino da Mbabi	6
2013	Megan Rapinoe	Kosovare Asllani Alex Morgan	3
2014	Dzsenifer Marozsán	Dzsenifer Marozsán	4
2015	Eugénie Le Sommer	Sofia Jakobsson	4
2016	Kadeisha Buchanan	Janice Cayman	4
2017	Irene Paredes	Pernille Harder Kumi Yokoyama	4
2018	Cláudia Neto	Lieke Martens Christine Sinclair Fridolina Rolfö	3
2019		Jennifer Hermoso Mimmi Larsson	3
2020		Nanna Christiansen Cristiana Girelli Pernille Harder Synne Jensen	2
2022	Barbara Bonansea	Valentina Giacinti Celin Bizet Ildhusøy	2

See also

In Spanish: Copa de Algarve para niños