The 2022 SheBelieves Cup will be the least challenging yet for the U.S. women’s national team. So Vlatko Andonovski is giving less-experienced players an opportunity to show what they can do. But the USWNT roster for the 2022 SheBelieves Cup left off two of the nation’s most promising young players.

Mexico secured a tough three points at Estadio Azteca Wednesday night with a narrow 1-0 victory against Panama. The win was anything but confident from El Tri as a late penalty was the only thing to separate the two sides.

Panama looked comfortable inside the mostly empty Estadio Azteca — Mexico was serving its final game with limited attendance after punishments for homophobic chants — and had the better chances in the first half.

Héctor Herrera pulled off some goal line heroics in the 12th minute to deny Panama from taking the lead.

The U.S. men’s national team has never played a game like Wednesday night in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The temperature at Allianz Field was measured in single digits, the wind chill a dozen degrees below zero. Americans may be more accustomed to just frigid weather than Honduras, but it was the Texas boys who made the difference for the USMNT in a crucial 3-0 win in World Cup qualifying. 

Temperatures in the single digits. Wind chill at least 15 below. It’s gonna be cold when the U.S. takes on Honduras in World Cup qualifying on Wednesday night. Here’s how the USMNT plans to keep warm.

U.S. Soccer decided to play a World Cup qualifier in February at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They knew it would be cold, and it’s no surprise the scheduled temperature is going to be close to 1 degree Fahrenheit at kickoff, with threat of frostbite in less than a half of soccer. That’s not normally shorts weather, but the USMNT came prepared. 

Trinity Rodman was a revelation in 2021. Now the 19-year-old is becoming one of the highest paid women's soccer players in NWSL history.

In a strictly sporting sense, the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations arrives at exactly the right moment (there are a lot of non-sporting reasons why this is not at all an optimum time). In Europe, the coming month will be dominated by transfer nonsense, the ever-tightening grip of the domestic title favorites and no Champions League football.

Between Jan. 9 and Feb. 6 in Cameroon, AFCON promises to deliver a remedy for each of those ills: the pure passion of the international game, total unpredictability and a showcase of some of the world's most brilliant footballers.