Denver To Host Men's and Women's U.S. National Team Games
POSTED: 12:29 pm PDT May 13,
2008
Commerce City, CO -- The United States plans to play its home games in the semifinals of World Cup qualifying in Washington and suburban Chicago and Denver. The Americans, who had a first-round bye, meet Barbados in the second round, playing the total-goals series in Carson, Calif., on June 15 and at the Caribbean nation seven days later. If the United States advances, it would open the semifinals Aug. 20 at Guatemala or St. Lucia, then play at Cuba or Antigua and Barbuda on Sept. 6. The Americans' first home match would be Sept. 10 at Bridgeview, Ill., against Trinidad and Tobago or Bermuda. The U.S. team would host the Cuba-Antigua and Barbuda winner Oct. 11 at Washington, then play at the T&T-Bermuda winner on Oct. 15. The home game against the Guatemala-St. Lucia winner would be Nov. 19 at Commerce City, Colo. The U.S. women's team will play Brazil, its conqueror in last year's World Cup, in two exhibition games this summer. The teams will meet on July 13 in Commerce City, Colo., and in July 16 in San Diego as a final buildup to the Beijing Olympics. Last fall, Brazil routed the Americans 4-0 in the World Cup semifinals in China. Germany then beat the Brazilians for the championship. The two games will not be the first meetings since then. Brazil and the United States will meet in group play at the Peace Queen Cup in Suwon, South Korea on June 17. "It's always good to get great games before you go to the Olympics, and what better team to play than Brazil?" said U.S. midfielder Shannon Boxx. "It's always an exciting game playing Brazil, so these will be good tests to give us confidence heading into the Olympics. "Obviously, we didn't do well against them in the World Cup, so it will be beneficial for our team to play them a few times beforehand in case we do meet them in China." The U.S. women are 19-2-2 against Brazil.
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