The U.S. will meet Brazil at SoFi Stadium in an April friendly that will be the first women’s professional sporting event in the four-year-old stadium. The game also will be a rematch of the teams’ Olympic gold-medal game last August in Paris.
The match will be part of a test of the natural-grass carpet system the stadium will use for the , when eight games will be played at SoFi. The venue’s artificial Matrix Turf surface will be covered with grass for four games of the CONCACAF Nations League finals March 20 to 23, then will remain in place for the U.S.-Brazil game, which will be played April 5.
The U.S. will meet Brazil again on April 8 at PayPal Park in San José. The Americans, who beat Brazil 1-0 in France to win their fifth Olympic title, are unbeaten in 15 matches under new coach .
“To play the first-ever women’s professional match at SoFi Stadium is a great honor and one worthy of this team,” Hayes said in a statement. “We’re very much looking forward to spending this trip in California, which has produced so many players for the U.S. women’s national team and so many great moments in our history.”
Hayes and her team will begin the new year in California, gathering for a training camp Jan. 15 to 21 at Dignity Health Sports Park. The camp will be held side by side with a “Futures” camp, basically an all-star team of up-and-coming youth national team players along with a few top, young NWSL players. Because the camp will not be held during a FIFA international break, the team’s top European-based players will not participate.
