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USWNT to kick off 2014 with friendly vs. Canada

Alex Morgan

Photo by Nick Turchiaro/ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

The U.S. Women’s National Team’s rivalry with Canada will be renewed in January 2014, as the two teams square off in their first friendly of the year.

U.S. Soccer announced on Thursday that Tom Sermanni will guide the U.S. as they open their 2014 schedule with a match against Canada at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on Jan. 31. The meeting will be the latest between the two North American rivals, who most recently played in an epic game that the Americans won at the 2012 Olympics and in a match at BMO Field earlier this year that the U.S. took in convincing fashion.

“It’s great to start the year with a game that is going to be a real test for us and a game that is always highly competitive,” said Sermanni in a released statement. “It’s a friendly game, but one that’s meaningful for both teams, and it’s an excellent first match in a year that will end with World Cup qualifying. In 2014, it will be important to play as many quality opponents as possible.”

The encounter will also likely mark the latest chapter in the Sydney Leroux-Canada rivalry. Leroux has a well-documented past with her birth nation. At the match earlier this year in Toronto she scored the clinching goal after allegedly being racially taunted by Canadian fans in the stands.

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What do you think of the U.S. Women’s National Team kicking off 2014 with a game against northern rivals Canada? Think it will serve as a good test at the start of the year? Do you see Leroux having a big match if she plays?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I don’t get what the suits at US Soccer were thinking when they put this game in Texas.

    “Hmmm, Canada and the USA are rivals, Canada and the USA share a 3,000 mile border, Canadians might want to come see this game, Canadian dollars are (lamentably) as good as ours, women’s soccer can use all of the dollars can get, so lets stage the game as close to Mexico as possible!”

    Reply
    • They’re thinking: 1) It will be cold up north in January and 2) When they played New Zealand there in Feb 2012, it was the largest home crowd they’ve had since the 2011 WWC . Surely Canada will be a bigger draw than New Zealand.

      Reply
  2. Like when our men face El Tri, when the USWNT faces Canada, there’s no such thing as a “friendly”.

    Which makes the match a lot more interesting in my book.

    Reply
      • No, not really. The USWNT got beat by a SoCal u15 boys team a few years back. Its actually a fairly common occurrence. Women’s national teams scrimmage U15/16/U17 club teams and typically get beat because of such a big difference in speed and physicality. Hell, when I was 14, my club team scrimmaged our local d3 university women’s team and won like 7-1. Not a knock against women’s soccer – it’s just how it is.

      • I actually agree with Deno. I highly recommend reading Todd Gallagher’s outstanding sports book titled “Andy Roddick beat me with a frying pan.”
        In the book, Gallagher quotes Aaron Heifetz, who is a media person for the USWNT. Here’s Heifetz’s quote talking about the US Women’s Senior Team and their scrimmages against elite boys club teams.
        “The boys thirteens we handle pretty consistently, but when the boys start really developing at fourteen, and especially fifteen, that’s when you start to see separation and the pass up even the best women’s players. They’re just bigger, stronger, and faster. What’re you going to do?”

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