(Reuters) – The U.S. women’s national team will face the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Iceland at the SheBelieves Cup next month in their first matches of a busy 2022 during which they hope to qualify for both the 2023 Women’s World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics.
The reigning world champions, who top FIFA’s rankings, face 24th-ranked Czech Republic on Feb. 17 and No. 22 New Zealand on Feb. 20, both in Carson, California, before a Feb. 23 meeting with 16th-ranked Iceland in Frisco, Texas, U.S. Soccer announced on Wednesday.
“These will be the first matches of what will be a really important year, and as focus on World Cup qualifying, the SheBelieves Cup will be extremely valuable for the continued development of the team,” national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski said in a news release.
“As a coaching staff, when we are integrating newer players, we need as many games as possible, and all three of our opponents are very hard to play against.”
The winner of the four-team international tournament, which the USWNT have won the last two years, will be determined by total points.
The tournament will serve as valuable preparation ahead of July’s eight-team CONCACAF W Championship that will produce four direct qualifiers for the 2023 women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand as well as one automatic qualifier to the 2024 Olympics.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
