U.S. women’s soccer team part of Nashville doubleheader

January 12th, 2016

The World Cup champion U.S. women’s national soccer team will make its third trip to Nashville on March 6 as part of an international doubleheader at Nissan Stadium.

The two matches will feature four of the top five-ranked teams in the world, according to FIFA, the sport’s governing body. The top-ranked Americans will take on third-ranked France at 2 p.m., followed by second-ranked Germany against fifth-ranked England at 4:30.

The doubleheader is part of the inaugural SheBelieves Cup, a round-robin tournament featuring the four teams that will run March 3-9 in Tampa, Fla., Nashville and Boca Raton, Fla. It will be the premier women’s soccer tournament staged in advance of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“When I took this job, one of my main objectives was to play the best teams in the world during our preparation periods, and you can’t ask for better matches,” U.S. women’s coach Jill Ellis said in a prepared statement. “To get the chance to play these great teams on home soil is a treat for our fans and extremely valuable in the further evolution of our team. These are the kinds of games where you get tested all over the field and can really evaluate players and learn a lot about ourselves.”

Tickets for the games go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through ussoccer.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000 and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers in the local venue areas.

U.S. Soccer will also offer a four-day girls fantasy camp March 4-7 in Nashville. The camp is open to girls born in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

The camp includes training sessions with former women’s national team stars, VIP access to a WNT training session, on-field match tickets and more.

This will mark the first journey to Nashville for the U.S. women since 2013, when the Americans defeated Scotland 3-1 in front of 14,224. In their first trip to Nashville, the Americans defeated Canada 1-0 in 2004.

The U.S. women’s team is half a year removed from its World Cup championship, when the Americans beat Japan 5-2 in the final behind midfielder Carli Lloyd’s hat trick. It was the first World Cup crown for the U.S. since 1999.

England beat Germany 1-0 in the third-place game, while France fell in the quarterfinals to Germany.

“We are thrilled to host one of the dates for this new elite soccer tournament,”said Bob Flynn, the Titans’ VP of facilities and game-day operations. “These are matchups that occur in World Cups and Olympic competitions, so the quality is very high and we are looking forward to a fantastic day of soccer on March 6.”

On Monday Lloyd, 33, was named FIFA’s World Women’s Player of the Year after leading the U.S. with 18 goals in 2015. She and defender Becky Sauerbrunn were recently named the team’s new captains, replacing the retired Abby Wambach and the injured Christi Rampone.

Some other U.S. names familiar to soccer fans are forwards Alex Morgan and Sydney Leroux, defenders Ali Krieger and Meghan Klingenberg and goalie Hope Solo.

On Monday Ellis was named FIFA’s World Coach of the Year. Ellis led the Americans to a 20-2-4 record in 2015, including a 24-game unbeaten streak.

Courtesy of: John Glennon

Published by Tennessean.com