The USWNT will visit next year’s World Cup host Brazil for two games in June
It will be the U.S. team’s first games in Brazil since 2014, and it will mark the sixth straight World Cup cycle in which the U.S. faces the next hosts on their turf.
Though most of American soccer’s attention is on the upcoming men’s World Cup, the next women’s World Cup is just over a year away. The time will pass quickly, and the U.S. women know that better than anyone.
With that in mind, the Americans will spend the June women’s FIFA window playing a two-game set at Brazil, the host of the 2027 tournament. It will be the U.S. team’s first games vs. the Seleçao in Brazil since 2014, when the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were on the horizon.
It will also mark the seventh straight World Cup cycle in which the U.S. faces the hosts on their turf. That includes 2003, when China was to host until the tournament was moved to this country at the last minute because of a disease outbreak.
The streak covers every World Cup cycle since the U.S. last hosted in 1999. So as you might guess, it’s intentional. Visiting the host countries in advance gives the program a look at some of the host cities and a chance for U.S. staff to scout potential base camp sites.
The U.S. also played in China in 1991, a three-game trip in August before the November tournament that at the time was not yet called a World Cup. The title only was given to the women in 1995, when the tournament was played in Sweden. Four years later, the U.S. hosted for the first time and it exploded to life.
It’s also preparation for the mental side of things. The U.S. team hasn’t played in another country since December 2024, so it will be a first chance for the program’s newer players to be booed by another team’s fans.
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“I’m so pleased we were able to schedule these games,” U.S. manager Emma Hayes said. “We want to play the best teams in the most difficult environments at venues across the world as often as we can, and these two games check all those boxes. We need more games in which every fan in the stadium is cheering loudly against us, and I’m looking forward [to] seeing how our team performs and grows in these adverse conditions.”
The U.S.-Brazil rivalry is one of the greats in the sport. But there’s a lot of friendship between the teams’ players, not least because Brazil’s stars have played in the U.S. for decades: Pretinha and Sissi in the Women’s United Soccer Association of 2001 to 2003, Formiga and Cristiane in Women’s Professional Soccer from 2009 to 2011, and Marta, Debinha, Kerolín, and Ludmila in the NWSL.
Marta is the greatest of them all, a legend not just of the Seleçao but the sport as a whole. Many of her 214 national team caps came against the United States, including five in major tournaments: the finals of the 2004, 2008, and 2024 Olympics; a 2007 World Cup semifinal when she scored a memorable hat trick; and a 2011 World Cup quarterfinal.
The last of those games is remembered for Megan Rapinoe’s cross to Abby Wambach’s head for a dramatic late equalizer. But it followed Marta scoring in regulation and the start of extra time.
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Now 40, Marta retired from the national team after the 2024 Olympics. But she returned for last year’s Copa América, and won player of the tournament for leading Brazil to its third title. She has not indicated whether she’ll play in next year’s World Cup.
The U.S. is 34-4-5 all-time against Brazil, dating back to the first meeting in 1986. They met last April in California, when they split a two-game series. Just six of the 43 games have been in Brazil: two each in 1996, 1997, and 2014.
This year’s games will be played on June 6 at Neo Química Arena in São Paulo (5:30 p.m., TBS, Telemundo 62), and on June 9 at Arena Castelão in Fortaleza (8:30 p.m., TNT, Peacock). The first game will be televised in a twin bill with the U.S. men’s team’s World Cup send-off game against Germany in Chicago, which kicks off at 2:30 p.m. Philadelphia time.
Philadelphia sports fans might recognize the São Paulo venue as where the Eagles played in 2024.
Nine nations will compete in five group stage matches this summer, plus two more in a knockout game on July 4. Here’s what you need to know about those countries — and what those fans need to know about Philly. Click here for more.
