USWNT announces April friendlies against Japan, long-awaited return to Seattle – Equalizer Soccer

Photo Credit: Julia Kapros-Imagn Images

The U.S. women’s national team will play three international friendlies against Japan during the April FIFA window, it was announced Saturday. The three matches will all be played in the home venues of National Women’s Soccer League teams — Denver Summit’s DICK’S Sporting Goods Park, Bay FC’s PayPal Park and Seattle Reign’s Lumen Field.

The trio of games against the world’s eighth-ranked women’s soccer nation will kick off on Saturday, April 11, at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., at 2:30 p.m. PT. The teams will then play on Tuesday, April 14, at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash., at 7 p.m. PT. They will then close the window on Friday, April 17, at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., at 7 p.m. MT.

The first match on April 11 will mark the U.S. women’s sixth all-time match at PayPal Park, while it will be the 10th time the team has played in Commerce City. Comparatively, it will be the first time the U.S. women have played in Washington state for almost nine years and just the third time at Lumen Field. A lack of a suitable stadium with a real grass surface had been a primary barrier to the team returning, but with grass being installed ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the USWNT is finally able to play at Lumen for the first time since July 27, 2017.

The matches will write another chapter in the storied USA-Japan rivalry that goes back 40 years to the teams’ first-ever meeting in 1986. Though the USA holds a 32W-2L-8D all-time record against the Nadeshiko, the most recent meeting at the 2025 SheBelieves Cup ended in a 2-1 victory for Japan, which secured their first-ever SheBelieves Cup title.

“Japan is one of the best teams in the world,” head coach Emma Hayes said in the release. “I’m a big admirer of how they play, and I have tremendous respect for their team and identity. They are a highly experienced group and are fully committed to their style of football. Playing the same opponent three times is unusual, but it presents a great challenge and a chance to test ourselves against a top-quality opponent.”

Japan will come into the matches fresh off the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, which will take place from March 1-21 and serve as the final stage of qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.