USA Women's soccer 2021 Tokyo Olympics schedule: dates, times, games

The United States women's national soccer team, the most successful nation in international women's soccer, will be aiming to extend their Olympic record when the 2020 Summer Games gets underway in Tokyo tomorrow. The USWNT collected the gold medal in 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012 - they have more Olympic titles in the soccer event than any other country - including the Men’s category.

USWNT's pre-Olympic friendlies

Vlatko Andonovski’s side warmed up for the Games with five friendlies between June and July and looked very impressive - they won all five games (beating Portugal, Jamaica, Nigeria and Mexico) without conceding a single goal and scoring 15.

They are sure to face a much tougher task in Tokyo however, after landing in the ‘group of death’ alongside Sweden, Australia and New Zealand in Group G. Sweden picked up the silver medal at the Rio Games in 2016 after losing 2-1 in the final to Germany. The Blågult, coached by Peter Gerhardsson, are one of the other big favourites to triumph in Tokyo and boast vastly experienced stars such as Sofia Jakobsson, Kosovare Asllani and Caroline Seger.

And it will be against Sweden that the USWNT begin their Olympic campaign at Tokyo Stadium on Wednesday 21 July (kick-off at 4:30 am ET).

Three days later, the USWNT are back in action, taking on New Zealand at Saitama Stadium on Saturday 24 July at the later time of 7:30 am ET.

The group stage will be concluded on Tuesday 27 July when Australia are the USWNT’s rivals. That game will be played at Kashima Soccer Stadium and will kick off at 4 am ET.

From the original 12 teams in groups E, F and G, the top two teams (together with the two best third-place finishers) will advance to the knockout stage. The quarter finals will be played on Friday 30 July. If the USWNT finish top of their group, they will face the best third-placed teams from groups E or F in Saitama. If the USWNT finish as runners-up in the group stage, they will face the winners of Group F (China, Brazil, Zambia, Netherlands) in Yokohama.

Should the USWNT finish third in their group but as one of the two best finishers, they will face the winners of Group E (Japan, Canada, Great Britain, Chile) in Kashima.

The semi-finals will be played on Monday 2 August in Kashima and Yokohama with the winners meeting in the final in Tokyo on Thursday 5 August (10 pm ET)

2020 Tokyo Olympics Women’s soccer group stage

21 July Sweden v USWNT (4:30 am ET)

24 July New Zealand v USWNT (7:30 am ET)

27 July USWNT v Australia (4 am ET)

Quarter finals

30 July (4 am-7 am ET)

Semi-finals

2 August (4 am and 7 am ET)

Final

5 August (10 pm ET)