Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By RYAN TOLMICH

Ahead of the next summer’s World Cup, the U.S. Women’s National Team have scheduled a December tournament to fine-tune their game against some of the world’s top teams.

U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday that the USWNT will participate in the four-team International Tournament of Brasilia in December. Joining the U.S. will be hosts Brazil, as well as China PR and Argentina. Brazil and China PR have both qualified for the 2015 World Cup.

The tournament is set to take place in the National Stadium Mane Garrincha, which hosted seven of this past summer’s World Cup contests.

The U.S. will open play against China PR on Dec. 10 before taking on Brazil and Argentina on Dec. 14 and 17, respectively. The round-robin tournament will then conclude on Dec. 21 when the top two sides square off four the tournament’s championship while the two remaining sides play for third place.

“Historically, we’ve had a two-week December training camp to finish the year,” said U.S. head coach Jill Ellis, “but getting the opportunity to get four international matches, as well as some excellent training at facilities that hosted teams in the World Cup this past summer, was too good to pass up.”

Before focusing on next summer’s World Cup, the U.S. face October’s World Cup qualifying group stage, where they will take on Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala and Haiti.

Take a look at the full schedule for the International Tournament of Brasilia below:

Dec. 10

USA vs. China PR

Brazil vs. Argentina

Dec. 14

Argentina vs. China PR

Brazil vs. USA

Dec. 17

USA vs. Argentina

Brazil vs. China PR

Dec. 21

Third-Place Match

Championship Match

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What do you think of the upcoming tournament? How do you think the U.S. will fare in Brazil? Is this a good test for the USWNT as they look ahead to the World Cup next year?

Share your thoughts below.