Photo by Christopher Hanewinckel/USA Today Sports
By CAITLIN MURRAY
The U.S. Women’s National Team will play 10 matches in the lead-up to the Women’s World Cup in June — andĀ fans will be able to watch all of them from home.
In an unprecedented move, all of the USWNT’s matches leading into Canada 2015 will be on broadcast television, including the prestigious annual Algarve Cup tournament, which did not air in the U.S. last year but led to coach Tom Sermanni being fired following a string of losses.
FOX Sports, which will broadcast the World Cup in June and July, will air all but two USWNT matches, including the Algarve Cup. ESPN will air the team’s opening match of the year and their send-off match before going to Canada.
The USWNT’s toughest opponents sit on the front end of the schedule: England and France next month, followed by Norway and Switzerland in the Algarve Cup.
The Americans will play four stateside matches before the World Cup — one in the midwest, two in California, including at the San Jose Earthquakes’ brand new stadium, and their send-off match will be at Red Bull Arena outside New York City.
See the USWNT’s 2015 schedule below:
Date | Opponent | Time | TV | Venue |
Feb. 8 | France | 12 p.m. ET | ESPN2 | Stade du Moustoir; Lorient, France |
Feb. 13 | England | 3 p.m. ET | FOX Sports 1 | stadiummk; Milton Keynes, England |
March 4 | Norway | 2 p.m. ET | FOX Sports 1 | Vila Real de San Antonio, Portugal |
March 6 | Switzerland | 12 p.m. ET | FOX Sports 1 | Vila Real de San Antonio, Portugal |
March 9 | Iceland | 1:30 p.m. ET | FOX Sports 1 | Lagos, Portugal |
March 11 | TBD | TBD | FOX Sports 1 | TBD, Portugal |
April 4 | New Zealand | 2:30 p.m. CT | FOX Sports 1 | Busch Stadium; St. Louis, Mo. |
May 10 | Ireland | 11:30 a.m. PT | FOX Sports 1 | Avaya Stadium; San Jose, Calif. |
May 17 | Mexico | 6 p.m. PT | FOX Sports 1 | StubHub Center; Carson, Calif. |
May 30 | Korea Republic | 4:30 p.m. ET | ESPN, WatchESPN | Red Bull Arena; Harrison, N.J. |
June 8 | Australia | 6:30 p.m. CT | FOX | Winnipeg Stadium; Winnipeg, Canada |
June 12 | Sweden | 7 p.m. CT | FOX | Winnipeg Stadium; Winnipeg, Canada |
June 16 | Nigeria | 5 p.m. PT | FOX | BC Place Stadium; Vancouver, Canada |
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What do you think of this schedule? Excited all the matches will be on TV? Impressed by FOX’s commitment to showing the games? Planning to attend any matches?
Share your thoughts below.
They like to talk about FS1 as if it is like being on ESPN, but is is far from it. Many cable providers it is only available with the extra sports package.
True, but the fact that the US matches are going to be on the actual Fox mother channel makes me so happy. Not all of the USMNT matches for Brasil 2014 were even broadcasted on ABC. Hell, I don’t remember if any of them were.
FS1 is a digital only channel where I live, but doesn’t require a extra sports package. Just the standard digital package (which also where NBCSN is).
The thing I’m glad about is that the games are on FS1 and not FS2. As FS2 is only in SD on most systems, so you don’t even have the option of getting it in HD. At least with FS1, you can sign up for that package if you don’t get it (and then cancel it after the game to only pay a pro-rated rate for the day).