The U.S. women’s national team is coming back to the Centennial State.
U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will participate in two international friendlies against South Korea, the first of which will be played at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on June 1. The team will then travel to St. Paul for a rematch at Allianz Field on June 4.
The matches will be the first under new head coach Emma Hayes, who was hired as the 10th full-time head coach in USWNT history back in November. As was the plan, she will finish the current Women’s Super League season in England with Chelsea FC before starting with the national team two months prior to the 2024 Olympics.
Per U.S. Soccer, two more friendlies will be announced in the coming weeks, which will be played in early July before the team heads to Paris for the Olympics. The women’s soccer group stage starts July 25.
“It will be exciting for everyone to have Emma on board for the June games,” said interim coach Twila Kilgore, who will join Hayes’ staff as an assistant once she arrives in the U.S. “We need as many quality games as we can get heading into the Olympics and Korea Republic will provide good tests.”
Kilgore also noted the friendlies will serve as a last look at the player pool before the final roster is chosen for the Olympics, so they will “carry that extra edge.”
The USWNT currently features three key pieces from Colorado in Sophia Smith (Windsor), Lindsey Horan (Golden) and Mallory Swanson (Littleton). Combined, the three Colorado natives have 272 caps, 80 goals and 69 assists for the national team.
The match at DSGP will mark the ninth all-time in Colorado and eighth in Commerce City. The USWNT has never lost in Colorado, tying just once in a wild 3-3 match against Japan in 2016.
The most recent outing at DSGP was in June of 2022, when Smith scored a brace in a 3-0 win over Colombia.
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.
