The U.S. women’s soccer team will end the year by hosting Germany

The U.S. women’s soccer team will close out 2022 with a bang, as the world’s No. 1-ranked squad will host No. 2-ranked Germany in a two-game series in November.

It will be the nations’ first meeting since 2018, and it will end a long wait for the U.S. women to host a really big European opponent. They haven’t done so since the 2020 SheBelieves Cup, which took place right as the coronavirus pandemic was starting.

“Playing Germany in the final matches of the year will be ideal for our World Cup preparations for all of our players and coaching staff, but it’s also fantastic for all the fans,” U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski said in a statement.

Over the last two years, the Americans have had to leave home soil for almost every game they’ve played against the sport’s traditional powers. Pandemic-enforced travel restrictions have obviously been a factor. So have continental qualification tournaments for this year’s European Championship and next year’s World Cup.

But there’s a little more to it beneath the surface. As women’s soccer has become more popular in Europe, the big teams there have found it profitable to host one another instead of flying across the Atlantic Ocean — and then flying several times between American cities for events like the SheBelieves Cup.

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Since that 2020 tournament when England, Spain, and Japan came here, the only top women’s soccer teams to visit the U.S. have been next-door neighbor Canada and South American power Brazil. They both came in February 2021 for the SheBelieves Cup, and it didn’t hurt that some of their stars live here and play in the NWSL.

The U.S. program has been increasingly willing to play friendlies abroad in recent times, especially since Andonovski became manager and Kate Markgraf became general manager. The Americans returned from the pandemic stoppage with a trip to the Netherlands in November 2020, giving the world a rematch of the previous year’s World Cup final; went to France and Sweden in April 2021; and went to 2023 World Cup cohost Australia last November.

Next month, the U.S. will go to England (Oct 7., 3 p.m., Fox29) and Spain (Oct. 11, 2:30 p.m., ESPN2). The England game will be a clash with the team that won this summer’s Euros, played at famed Wembley Stadium in London. It’s where the Lionesses won the title game, beating Germany in front of the largest crowd in European championship history — men’s or women’s.

When tickets for the U.S.-England game went on sale in early August, all 90,000 seats sold out in just 24 hours.

The Spain game was confirmed on Monday, after being rumored for a while. It will be played in Pamplona, at the 24,000-seat home of men’s La Liga club Osasuna. (Get your one-liners ready about Rose Lavelle charging forward like a bull.)

The Germany games are set for Thursday, Nov. 10 at Inter Miami’s DRV PNK stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (7 p.m., FS1), and Sunday, Nov. 13 at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. (5 p.m., ESPN). That will be a nice treat for fans in the New York and Philadelphia areas, and other fans across the Northeast who can make the trip.

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It will be the U.S. women’s team’s first visit to Red Bull Arena since the 2020 SheBelieves Cup, and it should be the sixth straight time the crowd tops the official 25,000-seat capacity. The Americans haven’t played in Fort Lauderdale since 2000, when the old Lockhart Stadium — which dated back to the 1970s NASL era — stood on the same site as Inter Miami’s new home.

Also of note, the game at Red Bull Arena will be ESPN’s last telecast of a U.S. national team home game after more than 30 years as the U.S. Soccer Federation’s top English-language rights holder. Turner Sports starts an eight-year, $25 million-per-year term in January, and it will be different from what fans are used to. Every game will be streamed live via HBO Max, but only about half of them will be televised. Those games will be shown on TNT or TBS.

With a women’s FIFA window set for February, it won’t be long until Turner’s first games.

The next Spanish-language rights holder is still to be confirmed. Univision, the incumbent, has been U.S. Soccer’s home since the 1990s.

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