USWNT will meet Costa Rica at Audi Field ahead of Paris Olympics
The U.S. women’s national soccer team will play its final Olympic tuneup July 16 against Costa Rica at Audi Field, the U.S. Soccer Federation confirmed Tuesday.
The USSF engaged in talks for several weeks with officials from D.C. United, which owns the 20,000-capacity stadium, and the Costa Rican federation.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. friendly will go on sale to the general public Friday.
The Costa Rica match completes the U.S. schedule in preparation for the Paris Olympics. Under incoming coach Emma Hayes, the Americans will play South Korea on June 1 in the Denver suburb on Commerce City, Colo., and June 4 in St. Paul, Minn., then host Mexico on July 13 in Harrison, N.J.
The day after the game in Washington, the U.S. delegation is scheduled to fly to France ahead of Group B matches against Zambia on July 25 in Nice, Germany on July 28 in Marseille and Australia on July 31 in Marseille.
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Hayes, who next month will complete her tenure with English club Chelsea, will select the 18-player Olympic squad in the days after the matches against South Korea.
Since it won a record fourth gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, the United States lost to Sweden in the 2016 quarterfinals and Canada in the 2021 semifinals.
The match against Costa Rica will be the program’s first in the D.C. area since September 2022 for a 2-1 victory over Nigeria before 18,869 at Audi Field. The U.S. women have a 14-1-0 record in the region, the loss coming to France in March 2017 at RFK Stadium.
The visit by the U.S. women will come about five weeks after the U.S. men play a pre-Copa América friendly against Colombia on June 8 at the Washington Commanders’ stadium in Landover. That NFL venue is also hosting an Argentina-Guatemala men’s friendly June 14.
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The U.S. women are No. 4 in the FIFA rankings, their lowest position since the list was created in 2003. Since bowing out of the 2023 World Cup in the round of 16, however, the Americans turned to a younger roster under interim coach Twila Kilgore and went 10-1-3, including championships in the Concacaf Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup.
Costa Rica is No. 44, fifth among teams from Concacaf, the confederation encompassing North and Central America and the Caribbean. Las Ticas have qualified for two of the past three World Cups but have to yet to win a game in group play. They have never qualified for the Olympics.
At the Gold Cup last month, Costa Rica lost in the quarterfinals to Canada in extra time.
Angel City FC’s Raquel Rodríguez, a nine-year NWSL attacker from Penn State, is Costa Rica’s captain.
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