U.S. Soccer announce 2018 Tournament of Nations schedule

Early this morning, U.S. Women’s National Team announced dates and times for the 2018 Tournament of Nations. USA will host defending Champion Australia, Brazil, and Japan. This is the second time U.S. Soccer will host the four team tournament to be held in late July into early August. Teams will play in a round-robin format, where each team will play each other once. Three points are earned for a win, one point for a draw and zero for a loss. The cities selected to host the double-header matches will be Kansas City, Hartford and Chicago.

Australia’s Westfield Matildas won the inaugural Tournament of Nations in 2017. USWNT finished runner-up, while Japan and Brazil finished third and fourth respectively. Former Sky Blue FC and current Chicago Red Star striker, Sam Kerr lead the tournament with four goals. Kerr and fellow Australians dominated the tournament by winning all three games by a 11-3 goal margin. The USWNT lost their first game against Australia 1-0, made a dramatic comeback against Brazil 4-3 and defeated Japan 3-0 to finish runner-up.

Julie Ertz scores the game winner as the USWNT came from behind to beat Brazil 4-3 in last year's Tournament of Nations. (Photo by Chris Williams/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Currently USWNT are ranked first in the world, Australia is sixth, Brazil is eighth and Japan is eleventh. New FIFA rankings are set to become available in June. Australia, Brazil and Japan have already qualified for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. Japan won the 2018 Asian Cup while Australia finished runner-up. Brazil won the 2018 Copa America Femenina in South America. USWNT will beginning World Cup qualifying during the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Championship in October.