USSF confirms Tournament of Nations

The USSF have confirmed the hosting of the Tournament of Nations, a new four nations competition featuring the USA, Australia, Japan and Brazil.

The tournament sees Australia face the reigning World Champions, Asian champions and South American champions over 8 days on the west coast of the USA.

“To be invited to play in this tournament is really exciting as we will face off against some of the world’s top teams,” said Stajcic.

“The three teams we’ll play against all have good pedigree, experience, and importantly they’re all in good form at the moment so it will be a great hit out for us and an excellent test of where we’re at ahead of next year’s Women’s Asian Cup.”

For Stajcic it is another opportunity to continue to test players against some of the best opposition in the world with Australia opening against the United States on 27 July 2017 at Century Link Field in Seattle. It will be the 27th meeting between the two sides with Australia yet to claim a victory.

The tournament then moves to San Diego where the Matildas will take on their big continental rivals Japan at Qualcomm Stadium on 30 July. Finally, they will meet Brazil at StubHub Stadium on 3 August - the first time since the Rio 2016 Olympics penalty shoot out loss.

“There will be a similar approach as we had at the Algarve Cup earlier this year. We’re still in the rebuilding process of this team, it’s still the beginning of the cycle and Algarve was an excellent experience for our new players who came in.

“This is another step in that process, trying to give as many players opportunities and test the flexibility of the team. It’s about testing the team and moving the team forward with any eye on the Asian Cup in April next year and beyond.”

The Women's Game will have full coverage of the Matildas participation in the Tournament of Nations.