The Algarve Cup, nicknamed the Mini FIFA Women's World Cup, is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious and longest-running women's international football events.
The most successful teams have been the United States, with ten titles, followed by Norway and Sweden, with four. Norway's titles all came in the early years of the tournament, while the USA has won all its titles since 2000, including nine in thirteen years since 2003. Germany has won three times, and China has won twice. The USA, Norway and Germany are the only nations to have won both the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Algarve Cup.
The Algarve Cup, as an annual event featuring most of the world's top women's football teams, has no parallel in the men's game, given that there are fewer professional women's leagues and thus fewer scheduling conflicts. It is played in late February or early March, at the same time as the Cyprus Cup and the SheBelieves Cup. Since 2016 the SheBelieves Cup has attracted some of the top ranked teams, and thus shifted some attention from the Algarve Cup.
It is superstition that the team that wins the Algarve Cup never goes on to win the World Cup, but in 2015, the USA proved it to be wrong as they win both the 2015 Algarve Cup and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.
11th place: The two bottom teams in Group C played one game.
9th place: The Group C runner-up played one game against the lower-ranked of the fourth-place teams from Groups A and B.
7th place: The Group C winner played 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 played one game.
3rd place: The second-place teams from Groups A and B played one game.
1st place: The first-place teams from Groups A and B played one game.
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^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 April 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013. CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link), kicker.so, 11. February 2013.
^ "DFB-Frauen beim Algarve-Cup gegen Brasilien, China und Schweden". dfb.de. 19 December 2014.