The United States girls’s nationwide workforce will face China in a pair of video games this spring as head coach Emma Hayes continues to guage gamers who will assist her squad on the highway towards the 2027 World Cup.
The groups will meet at Allianz Area in St. Paul, Minn., on Could 31 and once more on June 3 at Energizer Park in St. Louis, the place former USWNT defender and captain Becky Sauerbrunn shall be honored for her not too long ago concluded profession.
“I like these video games as a result of they mix some wealthy girls’s soccer historical past with the current, with each international locations going by means of transitions in preparation for ’27 World Cup qualifying,” Hayes mentioned in a press release.
“However our course of continues and it is a affected person and complete one. It is as much as our teaching workers to present gamers alternatives — alternatives they’ve earned — and it is as much as the gamers to point out us they’ll carry out on the highest ranges. We’re trying ahead to seeing the gamers present their skills in opposition to a superb workforce in two implausible soccer venues.”
China and the USWNT have performed 60 instances, the second-most widespread American opponent behind Canada.
They most famously met within the first Olympic girls’s soccer gold-medal recreation, which the USWNT gained, after which once more three years later within the 1999 World Cup ultimate. The USWNT gained that recreation in a penalty shootout.
The USWNT simply misplaced for the primary time below Hayes, a 2-1 defeat to Japan final week that price the Individuals the SheBelieves Cup title.
Hayes had gone 17 video games in cost and not using a loss previous to the Japan outcome and guided the USWNT to an Olympic gold medal final August after solely simply over two months in cost.
Hayes experimented with lineups all through the SheBelieves Cup in an effort to find out which gamers can add depth to the squad.
Towards Australia, Hayes began this system’s youngest lineup in almost 25 years and made 11 modifications to the squad from the prior match — additionally for the primary time in about the identical interval.
Subsequent up for the USWNT is a 2024 Olympic gold-medal recreation rematch with Brazil.
The groups will play at SoFi Stadium close to Los Angeles on April 5, and once more three days later at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif. Video games in opposition to China will comply with for the USWNT, adopted by yet one more worldwide window that begins in late June earlier than an extended break till October.
U.S. Soccer mentioned it’s going to honor Sauerbrunn’s profession previous to the June 3 match in St. Louis, her hometown.
Sauerbrunn retired on the finish of 2024 as a two-time World Cup champion and an Olympic gold medalist.
She performed 219 instances for the USWNT, tenth most in program historical past.
The USWNT final performed in St. Louis in April 2023, a 1-0 win over Eire. Allianz Area will host the USWNT for the second time in a 12 months, almost to the day.
The Individuals defeated South Korea, 3-0 within the venue on June 4, 2024, in Hayes’ second official recreation in cost.
