USWNT to play Costa Rica on Aug. 16 and 19 in post-Women’s World Cup matches
CHICAGO (Via U.S. Soccer) – The U.S. Women’s National Team will play its first two post-Women’s World Cup matches on Sunday, Aug. 16, and Wednesday, Aug. 19, facing Costa Rica at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh (1:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1) followed by a match at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee (6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2).
The WNT’s match in Pittsburgh marks the team’s second visit to Heinz Field, home of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, after defeating Iceland there by a 3-0 score in 2004 following the Olympic gold medal run in Greece. The USA has also played at Finley Stadium before, but not since 1997, when it defeated Sweden, 3-1, at the home of the National Premier Soccer League’s Chattanooga FC and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Moccasins football and women’s soccer teams.
The USA has played 15 matches in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but this will be just the second in Pittsburgh, where U.S. defender Meghan Klingenberg (from nearby Gibsonia) will be celebrating a bit of a homecoming. The Aug. 19 match will be the USA’s fifth game in Tennessee with two having taken place in Chattanooga and two in Nashville.
The USA and Costa Rica squared off in the title game of the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship that served as the qualification tournament for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Both teams had already earned their berths to Canada through semifinal victories, but the USA triumphed 6-0 to take the regional title.
Costa Rica, which participated in its first Women’s World Cup, finished third in Group E after a strong campaign that saw the Ticas tie Spain, 1-1, and then draw with the Korea Republic, 2-2, before fighting Brazil for a place in the Round of 16 and eventually dropping a 1-0 result.
The U.S. WNT will next face China PR in Ottawa in the quarterfinals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup this Friday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m. ET (live on FOX, with pregame coverage starting at 7 p.m. ET, and on NBC Universo). The Americans reached the final eight after defeating Colombia, 2-0, in the Round of 16 on June 22 in Edmonton, following their first-place finish in the Group of Death (Group D), which included opponents Australia, Sweden and Nigeria.
