CHICAGO – U.S. Soccer will host the 2021 U.S. women’s national team Summer Series in Texas as preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.

The Americans will play Portugal, Jamaica and Nigeria from June 10-16. The matches are set for June 10 and 13 at BBVA Stadium in Houston and June 16 at the new Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas.

The USA’s three games of the Summer Series begin with a match against Portugal June 10 in Houston (broadcast on FS1 begins at 8 p.m. ET with kickoff at 8:30 p.m. ET), followed by a meeting with Jamaica June 13 (10 p.m. ET on FS1), also at BBVA Stadium, before traveling to Austin to face Nigeria on June 16 (9 p.m. ET on ESPN2).

The match in Austin at the home of Major League Soccer’s newest club, Austin FC, will be the first soccer game at the new, state-of-the-art, 20,500-seat Q2 Stadium. Three nights later on June 19, Austin FC will play its first MLS match at home.

The two dates in Houston will be doubleheaders, with Jamaica facing Nigeria on June 10 (5:30 p.m. ET) and Portugal playing Nigeria on June 13 (7 p.m. ET).

These matches will be the final international games before U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski names the 18-player Olympic Team.

The USA will also play two Olympic Send-Off Matches in early July before leaving for Japan.

The USA was drawn into Group G where it will face Sweden (July 21 in Tokyo), New Zealand (July 24 in Saitama) and Australia (July 27 in Kashima) during group play.

“In these COVID times, we’re grateful that U.S. Soccer has been able to organize a schedule of games for us to prepare for the Olympics and getting these three during the Summer Series against teams we don’t play very often will be important in helping us make the final decisions on the Olympic Team,” Andonovski said in a statement. “Choosing the Olympic Team has been a long process, with a big break in the middle, but we’ll take all the information from our trainings, the National Team games and club matches so we can make the best choices to give our team the best chance for success in Japan.”

U.S. Soccer jad staged the Tournament of Nations during this summer period in 2017 and 2018 and had planned to hold the tournament during non-Olympic and non-World Cup years. Due to FIFA changing the international match window in June from a three-match window to a two-match window starting in 2022, the competition will no longer be able to be held.

In addition, the June FIFA international match window for 2021 has already changed to a two-match opportunity for European teams, meaning that the format of the Summer Series will feature the USA and Nigeria playing three matches while Portugal and Jamaica will play two. No standings will be kept and all matches will be treated as friendlies.

Ticket information for the two doubleheaders in Houston and stand-alone match in Austin will be released soon.

 

2021 WNT Summer Series

Date         Matches                   Stadium            City                    Kickoff (CT)   TV
June 10   Jamaica vs. Nigeria   BBVA Stadium   Houston, Texas   4:30 p.m.
June 10   USA vs. Portugal       BBVA Stadium   Houston, Texas   7:30 p.m.        FS1
June 13   Portugal vs. Nigeria   BBVA Stadium   Houston, Texas   6 p.m.
June 13   USA vs. Jamaica       BBVA Stadium   Houston, Texas   9 p.m.             FS1
June 16   USA vs. Nigeria         Q2 Stadium        Austin, Texas      8 p.m.             ESPN2

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.