By RYAN TOLMICH
For the third time in team history, the U.S. Women’s National Team will take the field at Rio Tinto Stadium.
U.S. Soccer announced Monday that the Salt Lake City area will play host to a clash between the U.S. and Mexico on September 13. The matchup will be the first of a two-part series, with the two teams also scheduled to face off September 18 at Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, N.Y.
The pair of games will serve as the final warm-ups for the two teams as they head towards the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship, in which the top three teams will automatically qualify for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.
The September clash will mark the first USWNT visit to the home of Real Salt Lake since a June 30, 2012 victory over Canada. The U.S. also boast a previous victory over Mexico at the venue, having knocked off their North American rivals 1-0 on March 31, 2010 in what was forward Alex Morgan’s first senior cap.
The U.S. holds a 26-1-1 record over their neighbors to the south, with the lone Mexico victory coming in the 2010 CONCACAF Women’s Championship in Cancun, Mexico.
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What do you think of the announcement? Plan on attending?
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This is ridiculous. Why are we giving our opponents a chance to scout us out right before qualification. We may meet them in the semifinal round and, I believe, the loser of that round misses the WC, so why take chances.
So your solution is to just not play any matches, period?
Not sure that playing them ahead of time really helps the Mexicans, anyway.
We can play against non CONCACAF teams or against Canada as they do not need to qualify.
Also we could play 2 intersquad games and sell tickets. It would probably have a bigger gate, get a network to actually televise the game and provide more information about who the best players on the team are.
One problem: these two games fall on FIFA WWC qualifying dates for South America and Europe…therefore all those teams are out of contention.
That leaves NZ, Asian teams or Canada…it’s possible those teams were contacted and turned it down…we don’t know.
I do think you’re overselling the importance of being able to “scout” the USWNT…it’s not as if they haven’t played each other or the players from both sides don’t play in the same domestic league.
If Mexico somehow beats the USWNT (remember they’re not playing in Cancun this time), it sure as heck ain’t gonna be because they got to scout and play them in two friendlies a month beforehand.
Also, the top three teams qualify for the WWC, therefore one semifinal loser will qualify via winning the third place match.