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The USWNT will play reigning World Cup champion Spain at Subaru Park in October The reigning Olympic champions will face reigning World Cup champions Spain at Subaru Park on Oct.
13, marking the USWNT's 16th all-time visit to the region.
The reigning Olympic champions will face reigning World Cup champions Spain at Subaru Park on Oct.
13, marking the USWNT's 16th all-time visit to the region.
Rose Lavelle and the U.S.
women's soccer team haven't faced Spain on U.S.
soil since 2020, and overall since 2022.
The U.S.
womens soccer team will return to town in October for a game that will be about as big as a friendly gets.
It will be the U.S.
womens teams 16th all-time visit to the region, dating back to 1991, and its 10th game at the Unions home.Its last game at Lincoln Financial Field was soon after the teams 2019 World Cup title, when it setVarious rounds of ticket presales start Tuesday, and sales to the general public start Thursday.
If Spain brings all of its stars, the roster would include three-time reigning world player of the year Aitana Bonmati, two-time winner Alexia Putellas, a further all-world playmaker in Mariona Caldentey, one of the planets top young players in Salma Paralluelo, and Gotham FCs Esther Gonzalez.Theyre all well-known to womens soccer fans here, with Putellas star power the biggest of the lot.
That was confirmed this month when the longtime Barcelona star pickedover the Boston Legacy as her new club home, and made the announcement in New York alongside club owner Michele Kang who also owns the Washington Spirit.that she sees Englands Womens Super League as the most competitive league.
Whether or not she meant it as a shot at the NWSL, it certainly made noise on both sides of the Atlantic.
The NWSL has long, and with plenty of evidence.
But the top teams in Englands circuit spend more on salaries, and dont have the same roster limits.that there are clearly some sensitivities, but Im not here to promote one league over the other.
I want everyone to move up.product Sam Coffey, who has played for the Portland Thorns and Manchester City, was equally diplomatic in a news conference Monday morning.I personally refuse to draw any comparison between NWSL and WSL I just think, quite honestly, its a waste of time, she said.
Both leagues are unbelievably talented and so hard to play in, in very different ways.
And I just feel fortunate that Ive gotten now to play in both of them, and I know that that has helped my game so much.Fans will be happy to settle this on the field, and they had already waited a while for a U.S.-Spain matchup.
The teams havent played each other since October of 2022 in Spain, 10 months before La Roja confirmed its arrival as a power withat the 2020 SheBelieves Cup.The most famous was at the 2019 World Cup, a 2-1 U.S.
win in the round of 16 that sent the Americans toward There was hope that the teams would meet at the 2024 Olympics.
But Brazil beat Spain in the semifinals, and the Americans took the final to win, the U.S.
finally has an opportunity to play a European team for the first time since facing Italy last December.The continents schedule is usually filled by continental competitions: World Cup qualifiers, European championship qualifiers, and the UEFA Nations League.
Spain is free because it won its World Cup qualifying group.
Other powers including England, Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway are headed for playoffs in October and November.Weve desperately wanted to get Spain on our schedule, but the difficulties of scheduling the top teams during the womens international calendar are well-known, U.S.
manager Emma Hayes said in a statement.
So to be able to get these two games on the East Coast will be the perfect tests before we head into World Cup qualifying at the end of the year.
Concacafs World Cup qualifying tournament is Thanksgiving week in Houston and suburban Dalllas.The Americans play El Salvador in the quarterfinals, and the four winners of that round will clinch berths in the first 48-team womens World Cup.
The losers will play off for two tickets to FIFAs inter-confederation playoffs.Ultimately, our goal is qualifying first and foremost, and I cannot think of a better team to play against in order to prepare for that to happen, Coffey said.
I wouldnt say its a measuring stick, necessarily, of Europe versus America, but I do think its just going to be such amazing prep for us.
We have so much respect for Spain and the team that they are, and it will be an amazing challenge.I dont think we ever approach anything as just a friendly I think were a little bit too competitive for that, Coffey said.
A few minutes later, she added: Of course theyre an incredible team, but so are we.
And I think when were at our best we can play and beat anyone.
I'm The Inquirer's soccer reporter, covering the Union, the U.S.
men's and women's national teams, MLS, the NWSL, and Philadelphia's place in the world's game.I also cover college basketball, the WNBA, and occasionally other things.