The Samsung Super League Nations Cup series has seen intense competition this year, with the U.S. team results of first and second at the first two competitions—La Baule (France) and Rome (Italy) in May–vaulting them to first in the series this summer.

But at St. Gallen (Switzerland) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands) in June, the U.S. team could only manage a fourth and an eighth, dropping them to second in the standings behind Switzerland. And Germany and Great Britain lurk just behind in the points, .5 and 1 point off the U.S. total.

The next Super League Nations Cup, July 29 at Hickstead, England, will be crucial. The U.S. is sending big guns—Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden, Kim Prince, McLain Ward and Jeffery Welles. They should look to capitalize on the fact that most of the European teams will be resting their “A” list combinations after the conclusion of the European Show Jumping Championships the week before.

Germany looks to be formidable, however, even with a younger team. They will field Thomas Muhlbauer, Alois Pollman-Schweckhorst, Rene Tebbel and Ulrich Kirchhoff. But don\’t discount the current leaders, the Swiss. Pius Schwizer rode inspired rounds to lead them to victory in Rotterdam, and he\’ll be joined by Beat Mandli, Hansueli Sprunger and Niklaus Schurtenberger.

The team from Great Britain is still reeling from less-than-stellar results at the European Championships, where they finished sixth and none competed in the individual round. But the Irish have even more to worry about. Not particularly deep in talent reserves, the Irish squad will be missing Jessica Kurten, who refused to ride on a team with Cian O\’Connor because of the Olympic debacle over his horse\’s positive drug test.

O\’Connor, who lost the individual Olympic gold medal after the positive medication test result, has finished serving his three-month suspension and is back showing. O\’Connor and Waterford Crystal took fifth in their first grand prix back and were named to the Hickstead team.

Ireland, languishing in seventh place in the standings–just .5 points ahead of the Dutch–need a good result to keep their place in the Super League.

Just four events remain, with Hickstead, Dublin (Ireland) on Aug. 5, and Aachen (Germany) on Aug. 26. The league final, where points count double, is at Barcelona (Spain) on Sept. 16. The same U.S. team will compete at Hickstead, Dublin and Aachen, after which U.S. Chef d\’Equipe George Morris will choose a team for the final.