USWNT will face Sweden, New Zealand and Australia in summer Olympics

The delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics Women’s Soccer tournament will take place from 21 July to 7 August. The final draw took place on Wednesday at the FIFA Headquarters in Zürich and the United States Women’s national team are in Group G alongside Sweden, New Zealand and Australia.

USWNT facing old rivals

The United States Women’s national team will make their Olympic debut on 21 July against Sweden national team at the Tokyo stadium. The Americans are set to face New Zealand on 24 July at the Saitama stadium and will finish the group stage against Australia national team on 27 July at Ibaraki Kashima stadium.

“After waiting an extra year for this Olympics, the draw represents a real milestone in our journey and helps us focus even more on our preparation and what we need to do to achieve our goals,” said US Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski. “We have great respect for all three of our group opponents and we know this tournament will push us to our limits both mentally and physically, as well as challenge us every game technically and tactically, so we will do everything we can in the next three months to prepare for success.”

The USWNT are no strangers to their rivals in Group G, because they played against Sweden in the 1996 and 2016 Olympic games, New Zealand in the 2008 games in China and 2012 in England, and Australia only once in 2004 in Greece. The Americans have a special rivalry with the Swedish team because they eliminated them on penalty kicks in the 2016 Olympics quarterfinal round.

“Sweden are obviously fresh in our minds coming off the match in Stockholm, but we of course already knew how talented they are, how athletic they are and how dedicated they are to their tactics. The USA and Sweden have a long history of meeting in world championships, and this will surely be another great match to open the tournament.”