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The United States women's national team will be joined by Canada, Brazil and Japan in next month's SheBelieves Cup, the country's soccer governing body said on Monday. Canada are participating in the tournament for the first time after 2019 champions England pulled out of the Feb. 18-24 tournament due to "uncertainties" around the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the U.S. "The SheBelieves Cup gives us the opportunity to face some of the top football teams in the world in a tournament setting," Canada head coach Bev Priestman said in a statement. The event will be held at the Exploria Stadium in Orlando and consist of three doubleheader matches, kicking off on Feb. 18. The USWNT are ranked No. 1 in the world while Brazil, Canada and Japan are stacked atop one another in the FIFA Rankings with the Canarinhas and Maple Leafs tied for eighth and the Nadeshiko at 10th. The U.S. have won the invitational round-robin tournament three times, most recently in 2020. "I can't wait for this tournament and I know our players feel the same way," said U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski. "We put in all this work to play matches, so to get three great ones in this world class event that resembles group play at an Olympics is something we're very thankful for." Reuters contributed to this report.
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