U.S. women to play Portugal in Philadelphia in August in World Cup victory tour

The U.S. women’s soccer team made it official Wednesday that Lincoln Financial Field will host the second game of the Americans’ World Cup victory tour, at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 against Portugal

It will be the team’s 15th all-time visit to the Philadelphia area, and the second of this year. Talen Energy Stadium hosted the Americans’ SheBelieves Cup game against Japan in late February. But it will be the first game at the Linc since 2008, a sign of the two-time reigning World Cup champions’ rising popularity.

That contest drew 13,176 fans, which back then was the second-largest domestic crowd of the calendar year for the team.

U.S. Soccer and the Eagles believe they can draw a crowd that will beat that number and Talen Energy Stadium’s capacity of 18,500. The public is likely to agree.

We’ll see if the crowd tops the stadium record for the U.S. women: 31,553, set at the 2003 World Cup. Tickets go on sale July 30. Because the game is on a weeknight, prices might be a factor. U.S. Soccer has a history of setting them high, and drawing fans’ ire.

It will be another homecoming for Delran native Carli Lloyd, who played in that 2008 game. Also, Julie Ertz will get to play on husband Zach’s field for the first time. The Eagles’ preseason finale will be on the same night, at the New York Jets. Given the traditional insignificance of the final preseason game, we’ll see if Zach Ertz is excused for the night and allowed to stay home.

The U.S. women and Portugal have met seven times, most recently in a friendly last November in Lisbon. Jessica McDonald’s goal in that game helped earn her a place on the World Cup roster, and gave a spotlight to one of the national team’s best success stories.

Before then, the teams hadn’t met since 2001; their last contest on American soil was in a two-game series in January 1999. The Americans had just one World Cup title back then, and their jerseys didn’t carry stars yet.

After the game here, the U.S. and Portugal will meet again Sept. 3 in St. Paul, Minn., at Minnesota United’s Allianz Field. It will be the national team’s first game in Minnesota since 2016 (a friendly against Switzerland in which Lloyd scored a memorable goal), and the team’s first outdoor game in the state since 2006.

The victory tour will begin Aug. 3 at the Rose Bowl, site of the Americans’ historic 1999 World Cup title win. and end with games Oct. 3 and 6. The opponents and venues for those contests are still to be announced.