Chicago (AFP) – The reigning Olympic champion United States women’s national football team will compete against Japan, Australia, and Colombia in the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, US Soccer announced on Wednesday. The 10th edition of the event will feature a six-game, three-day format for round-robin matches, with total points deciding a winner. Goal difference, most goals, and then head-to-head results will be used as tiebreakers.
The matches will be the first home contests for the US women, who have won the past five SheBelieves titles and seven overall, as they prepare for qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil. “This will be my first SheBelieves Cup, but I’ve followed the tournament, and it always produces close games between top teams,” US coach Emma Hayes said.
“All four of these teams were in the last World Cup and Olympics, and all are in the building process to qualify for the next World Cup. So to get three games against talented teams and players in a format that replicates group play at a world championship is valuable in our process.”
Opening matches send the Americans against Colombia, and Australia against Japan in Houston on February 20. The USA will face the Aussies and Japan will meet Colombia on February 23 at Glendale, Arizona. Finally, Japan will play the US women while Australia and Colombia meet on February 26 at San Diego.
© 2024 AFP
