The U.S. Women’s National Team has added a trio of summer friendlies as added preparation for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics this July.
U.S. Soccer announced Thursday that the USWNT will host the 2021 WNT Summer Series in Texas from June 10-16. Joining Vlatko Andonovski’s side will be Portugal, Jamaica and Nigeria, with Houston’s BBVA Stadium and the brand new Q2 Stadium in Austin hosting the matches.
The Americans will kick off the competition on June 10 in Houston against Portugal before taking on Concacaf rivals Jamaica on June 13. Q2 Stadium will play host to the USWNT’s final match of the tournament, a showdown with Nigeria on June 16.
“In these COVID times, we’re grateful that U.S. Soccer has been able to organize a schedule of games for us to prepare for the Olympics and getting these three during the Summer Series against teams we don’t play very often will be important in helping us make the final decisions on the Olympic Team,” Andonovski said.
“Choosing the Olympic Team has been a long process, with a big break in the middle,” he said, “but we’ll take all the information from our trainings, the National Team games and club matches so we can make the best choices to give our team the best chance for success in Japan.”
These matches will be the final international games before Andonovski names the 18-player Olympic Team ahead of embarking to Tokyo. The USWNT will also play two Olympic Send-Off Matches in early July before leaving for Japan.
The USWNT has already captured the SheBelieves Cup in 2021 and will look to add Olympic Gold to its trophy case later this year. The Americans were drawn into Group G where they will face Sweden (July 21 in Tokyo), New Zealand (July 24 in Saitama) and Australia (July 27 in Kashima) during group stage play.
These matches will allow everyone on the training roster to get some quality playing time. I wold anticipate that the U. S. will come away with a Veteran Roster after all is said and done. Hopefully the U.S. will be able to keep injuries to an absolute minimum. All 3 opponents play a VERY physical game to make up for any lack of skill. So hopefully the Referee will call the matches close so as to send a message to all concerned. Everyone can probably remember when the 2016 U.S. team went over to train in Hawaii and because of some faulty astro-turf on the pitch, Megan Rapinoe ended up with a torn MCL, and was never the same through the Olympics which significantly mitigated the U. S. offense, especially with set plays. So injuries need to be avoided if at all possible. Because of the increased competitiveness of the entire field, the U. S. needs to be playing with a full deck, at the O/G if they expect to come out with the winning hand in the end.