Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By CAITLIN MURRAY
When the U.S. Women’s National Team hosts friendlies, they tend to stick to familiar rivals. But next month, they bring in a new opponent.
The USWNT will face Switzerland on Aug. 20 in WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday. It will be the first time they face off in the USWNT’s 29-year history.
Switzerland appears to be a team on the rise. This month, they qualified for the 2015 women’s World Cup for the first time ever.
Switzerland is one of the six nations that have already qualified for the tournament, to be held in Canada next year. Switzerland won their group in qualifying with a match still left to play, accumulating an 8-0-1 record ahead of Iceland and Denmark.
The USWNT will begin their World Cup qualifying campaign in October, where the U.S. will host CONCACAF qualifiers via the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The tournament was originally to be held in Mexico, but was moved in May.
Switzerland is ranked No. 19 in FIFA’s world rankings. The U.S. women are ranked No. 1.
Kick off is set for 7:30 pm ET and the match will be streamed by USSoccer.com
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What do you think of this friendly? Think this will be a good opponent for the U.S. before qualifying? Will you attend?
Share your thoughts below.
Too bad nobody is televising it.
It also seems to be about the same time as one of the U20 WC semi final matches. Ugh. How can there be so little quality woso on and yet still have it regularly on at the same time?
My wife and I will be attending (her first cap, my second) and we are excited! Glad to see some USSoccer love for NC.