More than a year after the US Women’s National Soccer Team qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, the time has finally come for some games to be played. The USWNT seems to be hitting their stride heading into Tokyo and will be looking to make history coming off of their 2019 FIFA World Cup win.
But it won’t be an easy road, here’s who the USWNT has to face off first on the road to gold.
The game schedule
The USWNT are facing off against three other countries in Group G, which has proved to be one of the tougher groups with Sweden, New Zealand and Australia all drawing in the same group. It’s the only group with two top-five teams in accordance with FIFA women’s world rankings, as the USWNT sit at No. 1 and Sweden sits at No. 5.
In the Olympic format, teams earn three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for a loss in the group stage. The two teams with the most points will move on while the two best third-place teams across the three groups will also advance, with goal differential being used to break ties.
In order to move on to the knockout round, the USWNT needs to place within the top two or be one of the best third-place teams. Here’s the full schedule:
- USWNT vs. Sweden: July 21 in Tokyo @ 4:30 a.m.
- USWNT vs. New Zealand: July 24 in Saitama @ 7:30 a.m.
- USWNT vs. Australia: July 27 in Kashima @ 4 a.m.
*all times ET
There is no word yet on the exact times for the games, but NBC holds the broadcasting rights to the Olympics, so expect the games to show up on one of their channels. The opener against Sweden will be a big one, as it will be a rematch of the 2016 Olympic quarterfinals in which the Blue and Yellow knocked out the USWNT for their lowest Olympic finish ever. More recently, Sweden snapped the US’ 16-game win streak with a 1-1 tie in April.
It won’t be an easy path to the podium, but then this is the USWNT. Look for them to make some magic as they attempt to once again make history.