The United States Women’s National Team will play two friendlies against New Zealand in Colorado and Ohio in September. These will be the first matches played by the USWNT after the Tournament of Nations coming later this month.
This is the first time the two teams have met since the opening match of the 2016 Olympics and the first time in the US since a 4-0 thrashing of the Kiwis in St. Louis, MO in April 2015.
USWNT head coach Jill Ellis says, “The fall friendly matches are an important transition period to 2018 and we want to get the most out of them by continuing to play teams with World Cup and Olympic experience like New Zealand.”
New Zealand is ranked 20th in the World and are the most recent OFC champions. They have played in multiple World Cups and Olympic games.
The two teams have faced each other in the last three Olympic Games with the USWNT winning every time.
The USWNT has not lost to the Football Ferns in 30 years, since their first match in 1987 and have a record of 12-0-1 since.
The USWNT has a 5-2-0 record in 2017 with the two losses coming from France and England in the She Believes Cup back in March. They won all of their matches since, only allowing one goal from Russia back in April and have outscored all opponents 12-5.
American Ties
Many Football Ferns also have United States ties in the NWSL with players on the North Carolina Courage, FC Kansas City and the Boston Breakers.
The match in Commerce City, Colorado will be a homecoming for forwards Lindsey Horan and Mal Pugh, while the Cincinnati match will welcome home Rose Lavelle.
The Colorado match will be on September 15 at 10 pm ET at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and the Ohio match will take place four days later at Nippert Stadium on September 19 at 7:30 pm ET.