USWNT opening SheBelieves Cup next month at Dignity Health Sports Park

The U.S. women’s national soccer team is returning to Southern California for the first time in more than two years next month when it opens the four-team SheBelieves Cup at Dignity Health Sports Park.

The reigning Women’s World Cup champions, ranked No. 1 by FIFA, will face the 24^th-ranked Czech Republic in the second game of a doubleheader on Feb. 17. No. 16 Iceland will meet No. 22 New Zealand in the first game. The U.S. will play New Zealand on Feb. 20 ahead of a Czech Republic-Iceland match. The tournament will then move to Frisco, Texas, for the final games — New Zealand-Czech Republic and U.S.-Iceland — on Feb. 23.

The games in Carson will be the 17^th and 18^th the women’s national team has played at Dignity Health Sports Park, more than any other stadium in the world, but they will mark the first time the SheBelieves Cup has been played there. The U.S. is 16-0 at the venue, with its last two wins coming over Mexico and Canada in Olympic qualifying in February 2020.

In the past the SheBelieves Cup has featured four top-10 teams, but this winter Germany, England, France, Spain and Canada have elected to play in competing tournaments in Europe.

For the U.S., the tournament kicks off a busy year that will include July’s eight-team CONCACAF W Championship, the qualifying event for both the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympics.

“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,” U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said in a statement.

With an average age of about 30, the U.S. had the oldest roster at last summer’s Tokyo Games, where it finished third. Since then Carli Lloyd, 39, has retired and Andonovski has begun working younger players such as Catarina Macario, Sophia Smith and Ashley Hatch into the team.

Presale tickets for the SheBelieves Cup will go on sale Monday for U.S. Soccer Insiders. To join, go to https://www.ussoccer.com/insiders. The public sale will begin Jan. 18 at https://www.ussoccer.com/schedule-tickets.