The United States Women’s National Team has scheduled an April friendly against Sweden in Stockholm as part of their preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, U.S. Soccer announced on Tuesday.
“We want to play as many of the top teams as possible to prepare for the Olympics and Sweden certainly falls into that category,” U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said in a statement.
– Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
“They are proven winners, have tremendously athletic players, are led by an excellent coach and are tactically savvy and experienced.
“We need as many tests as possible like the ones we’ll face at the Olympics and these games in Europe will give us that.”
The game, scheduled for April 10, will not allow fans to attend. U.S. Soccer is finalizing an opponent for a second match three days later.
U.S. Soccer also said the team has received an exemption from quarantine provided to professional sports organizations and that players and staff will operate inside highly controlled environments at the team hotels in Europe.
Last month, the United States won the four-team round-robin SheBelieves Cup tournament for a fourth time after clean sheet victories over Canada, Brazil and Argentina in Florida.
The USWNT is ranked No. 1 in the latest FIFA world rankings, while Sweden is fifth. The teams have played 40 times in their history. The U.S. has won 23 times, lost six and drawn 11.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
