USWNT To Play Sweden and Japan, in Sweden, in June

(Update, 18-April-2012: US Soccer has confirmed the USWNT’s involvement in the tournament. No word yet on TV coverage.)

On Wednesday, Sweden’s soccer federation (SvFF) announced on its website that in June  it will be hosting a mini friendly tournament between the women’s national teams of Sweden, the United States, and Japan.  The next day, Japan’s soccer federation (JFA), also posted a short news item on its website about the tournament. US Soccer has yet to publicly confirm the USWNT’s participation in this friendly tournament, which may be due to them trying to line-up a TV broadcaster before they make their official announcement.

Tournament Schedule:

Here is a screenshot of the schedule, from SvFF’s website:

(Note: Sweden is currently six hours ahead of the Eastern USA time zone.)

The first match is Sweden-USA, on June 16th, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The second match, between Japan and the USA is on June 18th at 7:00 a.m. EDT. Both matches will take place in Halmstad at Örjans Vall stadium, which has a cozy capacity of 15,500. The second match is at an earlier time in order to accommodate TV coverage in Japan.

The final match, Sweden-Japan, will be on the 20th of June at 3:15 p.m. EDT in Göteborg at the national stadium of the Swedish WNT, (new) Gamla Ullevi, which has a capacity of 18,800. Originally, the match was to be held at a smaller stadium in Göteborg as Gamla Ullevi is scheduled to be used for viewing men’s UEFA Euro Championhip matches, but the SvFF announced the change in venue on Sunday, April 15th. (Sweden’s MNT plays their Euro group matches on June 11, 15, and the 19th.)

The tournament takes place during an international match window for official matches, which runs from June 16th to the 21st. In Europe, this means Women’s 2013 Euro qualifying: 27 matches will be held during the window. Sweden, as host of the 2013 tournament, qualified automatically, so they are not participating in the qualification phase. The Damaskvallen, the top league for women’s soccer in Sweden, has a two week break from June 10th to June 24th.

Source Links:

• SvFF’s original news item (in Swedish)
• JFA’s short news item confirming the tournament (in Japanese)
• SvFF’s follow-up news item confirming the venue change for the Sweden-Japan match (in Swedish)
• SvFF’s page for the the tournament (in Swedish)

(Note: Links to the SvFF’s website have been updated, due to the original links no longer working because the SvFF’s website has been redesigned.)