Algarve Cup

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The Algarve Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's football (soccer). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious women's football events, alongside the Women's World Cup and Women's Olympic Football. Currently, 12 teams are invited, with the top eight competing for the championship. The teams are divided into three groups of four — A, B and C. Group C was added in 2002 to provide second-tier teams with high-level match experience every year. The current holders are Germany.

The teams first play round-robin within their pool. Then the placement round proceeds as follows:

11th place: Bottom two teams in Group C play one game.
9th place: The Group C runner-up plays one game against the lower-ranked of the fourth-place teams from Groups A and B.
7th place: The Group C winner plays one game against the higher-ranked of the fourth-place teams from Groups A and B.
5th place: The third-place teams from Groups A and B play one game.
4th place through 1st place: The top two teams from Groups A and B are bracketed into a single-elimination tournament. In the semi-final, the winner of each group plays the runner-up in the other. The semi-final losers compete for third-place; the winners play for the championship.

The most successful teams have been Norway and the USA, with four titles apiece. Norway's titles all came in the early years of the tournament, while the USA have won all their titles in the 2000s, including three consecutively from 2003 through 2005. Sweden and China, also traditional powers in the women's game, have won two titles each. The USA, Norway and Germany are (so far) the only nations to win both the FIFA World Cup and the Algarve Cup.

The Algarve Cup, as an annual event featuring the world's top women's football teams, has no parallel in the men's game, given the fact that professional women's leagues are few and far between, thus not being likely to have scheduling conflicts.

[edit] Results

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd Place	Score	4th Place
Year	Final			Third Place Match
1994	Norway	1–0	USA	Sweden	1-0	Denmark
1995	Sweden	3–2 aet	Denmark	Norway	3-3 (4-2) on penalties	USA
1996	Norway	4–0	Sweden	China PR	2-1	Denmark
1997	Norway	1–0	China PR	Sweden	0-0 (6-5) on penalties	Denmark
1998	Norway	4–1	Denmark	USA	3-1	Sweden
1999	China PR	2–1	USA	Norway	2-2 (4-1) on penalties	Denmark
2000	USA	1–0	Norway	China PR	1-0	Sweden
2001	Sweden	3–0	Denmark	China PR	5-1	Canada
2002	China PR	1–0	Norway	Sweden	2-1	Germany
2003	USA	2–0	China PR	Norway	1-0	France
2004	USA	4–1	Norway	France	3-3 (4-3) on penalties	Italy
2005	USA	1–0	Germany	France	3-2	Sweden
2006	Germany	0–0 (4-3) on penalties	USA	Sweden	1-0	France