WOMEN'S SOCCER AT THE PAN AM GAMES

This year, the U.S. Soccer Federation will send a women’s team to Chile for the Pan American Games for the first time since 2007. In that tournament the Under-20 WNT played against full national teams and advanced to the championship final with the team recording a loss to Brazil, 5-0, in front of a packed house at the famed Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. 

With that run in Brazil and a gold medal performance at the 1999 Pan American Games—when the U.S. Under-18 WNT downed an older Mexico team, 1-0, in the final—the U.S. women have a fine, albeit short, history in this tournament, and the 2023 team will be looking to follow that success.

While the men’s tournament is an under-22 competition and the women’s tournament has no age limit, the 2023 U.S. Women’s Pan American Soccer Team will feature players from Team USA’s Under-20, Under-19, and Under-18 player pools. The U.S. roster will not include any collegiate players as the end of college season is during the tournament, which for the women will run from Sunday, Oct. 22 to Friday, Nov. 3.

Still, the Pan American Games will be valuable experience for a group of players who will be training to make the U.S. squad that will compete in the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in September 2024 in Colombia.

In Santiago, the U.S. team will face Venezuela, Costa Rica and Argentina in Group B of the eight-team tournament which will see first and second-place teams in both groups cross-over for the semifinals. 

The U.S. team will be coached in the Pan American Games by Carrie Kveton, who was appointed as the new head coach of the U.S. Under-19 Women’s Youth National Team in May 2023.

Born in Conyers, Georgia, and raised in Texas, Kveton has coached at the highest club levels in both the United States and Denmark. She came to U.S. Soccer from FC Nordsjaelland, where she served as head of individual player development and U-18 women’s head coach. She previously spent seven years at top Danish club Fortuna Hjørring, including five-and-a-half seasons as head coach/co-head coach, and led the team to several league and cup championships as well as to the knockout rounds of the UEFA Women’s Champions League each season in charge. Kveton holds a UEFA pro coaching license and served as an assistant for the Washington Spirit during its National Women’s Soccer League championship run in 2021. She was also an assistant for OL Reign during the 2020 NWSL campaign. Additionally, she has prior experience with U.S Soccer, serving as head coach of the U-23 WYNT for a trip to France at Clairefontaine and a U-19 WYNT training camp in North Carolina. She’s also served as an assistant with the U-18 and U-19 WYNTs and has scouted European competition for the senior USWNT.

The United States qualified to the 2023 Pan American Games by winning the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship.