#SheBelieves Cup seek’s to inspire millions of young girls

Written by Merrissa Vault

Over 3 million girls grow up playing the game of soccer. Over thousands of miles driven by soccer moms…and dads… to practices, games, and tournaments. Over 38,000 young women have the opportunity to play collegiate soccer and only hundreds of those collegiate athletes have the privilege to go pro. The one thing they ALL have in common, they believed in themselves and their dreams.

The SheBelieves campaign is an initiative started by the United States Women’s Soccer Team to inspire young girls and women to chase their goals and dreams whether it be through soccer or other avenues. The SheBelieves campaign was announced during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and helped rally the Women’s National Team to a championship run over China. After their 5-2 victory the team decided to continue the SheBelieves run which led to the inaugural season of the SheBelieves Cup in 2016. 4 of the top 5 teams in the world would compete to promote empowerment and self-belief in young women, and instill the belief that they have the ability to achieve anything and everything they want, as long as they do one thing, believe.

The SheBelieves Cup replaced the longest-running international women’s soccer tournament, the Algarve Cup. The U.S. Women’s National Team dominated the previous tournament with 10 titles. It is with no surprise that the U.S. Women’s National Team claimed the first title at the 2016 SheBelieves Cup with wins over England, France, and Germany. The United States Women’s Soccer Team will go into the 2017 SheBelieves Cup as the #1 seed.

The 2nd edition of the SheBelieves Cup will be held March 1st-7th starting in Pennsylvania, make its way down to the east coast to New Jersey, and end in the United States Capital, Washington D.C. The tournament will be host to some of the world’s greatest athletes. Countries invited to compete in this year’s tournament are #1 USA, #2 and current Olympic champions Germany, #3 France, and #5 England.

The Unites States Women’s National Team along with 3 other countries will play for the love of their sport and for all the young girls and women across the nation that have a dream. The U.S. Women’s National Team, along with the other representing countries have influenced a generation of young women as they exemplify and showcase the embodiment of strength, perseverance, and determination in achieving one’s goals.

As an addition, this year the U.S. Women’s National Team will also launch the SheBelieves Hero Contest as an extra promotion for what the SheBelieves Cup represents. According to ussoccer.com, “The contest aims to find a girl between the ages of 13-17 that embodies the SheBelieves spirit. A SheBelieves Hero is a leader in their community, a confident and passionate individual who empowers others around her and is working to make a difference.”  The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team selected the final four contestants, then allowed for the people to select who they believed represented the SheBelieves spirit. The final contestant was selected and will be traveling to the second game in New Jersey on March 4th to watch the Women’s National Team take on England.

The SheBelieves Cup will be an exciting tournament not only for the Women’s National Teams competing this upcoming week, but also for the thousands of young girls and women that will be watching from the stands or elsewhere, supporting and cheering their teams on for a great cause.
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Tune in March 1st-7th to see some of the best women’s soccer players in the world compete to promote strength and inspire belief in women all across the world.