Salt Lake City fans of the U.S. women’s soccer team will get to see them in their own back yard.
The USWNT will play a friendly at Rio Tinto Stadium, home of the Utah Royals FC, before the start of the National Women’s Soccer League season, it was announced Wednesday. Three national team players in Christen Press, Becky Sauerbrunn and Kelley O’Hara all play for the Royals.
The Americans, who won the FIFA Women’s World Cup last summer and are preparing for a run in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, will play Australia at 7:30 p.m. on April 10.
It will be the sixth time the USWNT plays a game at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy. The last time was in 2018 when the national team beat China, 1-0. The national team has also played a game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, taking on Ireland in 2003.
The USWNT recently qualified for the Olympics by sweeping five games against Haiti, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and Canada. All five games were shutouts.
Press scored five goals through the five Olympic qualifying games.
Australia lost in the World Cup Round of 16 to Norway, a game that went to penalties. The team has won its first two Olympic qualifying matches over Chinese Taipei and Thailand. It plays China in the third round on Thursday.
“I love big games," USWNT coach Vlatko Andovski said in a statement. "Even if they are friendlies, our players love big games and I know the fans love to see us play the best teams in the world, so these matches in April will be a lot of fun and also great tests for our team and players. Both teams have fantastic coaches and present different styles of play with quite a few dangerous attackers, including some of the best forwards in the world. I can’t emphasize enough how valuable it is for our coaches and players to have to figure out ways to deal with that and be successful.”
Tickets to the game go on sale to the general public Feb. 19 at 11 a.m. Real Salt Lake and Royals season ticket holders can buy presale tickets on Feb. 17 at 11 a.m.
