July 13, 2026, 10:01 a.m. ET
The U.S. women’s national team isn’t slacking off before World Cup qualifying.
The USWNT will play two games against reigning World Cup champion Spain in October. The first match, on Oct. 10, will be played at Audi Field in Washington, D.C., followed by the second game Oct. 13 at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. “Two more fantastic matches,” USWNT head coach Emma Hayes said in the release announcing the games. “We’ve desperately wanted to get Spain on our schedule, but the difficulties of scheduling the top teams during the women’s international calendar are well known, so to be able to get these two games on the East Coast will be the perfect tests before we head into World Cup qualifying at the end of the year.”
The USWNT’s qualifying tournament for the World Cup is Nov.
27-Dec. 5 in Texas. Spain, which features three-time world player of the year Aitana Bonmati and two-time world player of the year Alexia Putellas, has already qualified for the World Cup. Next year’s World Cup will be played across eight sites in Brazil from June 24 to July 25. This will be only the fifth time the USWNT has played Spain, which is currently the top-ranked team in the world. Spain won its first-ever World Cup title at the 2023 tournament in Australia and New Zealand. The USWNT are the reigning Olympic champions, having won gold in Paris just three months after Hayes took over.
Crystal Dunn, who played on the USWNT teams that won the World Cup title in 2019 and the Olympic gold medal in 2024, will be honored before the game in Washington, D.C. Dunn won the NWSL MVP while playing for the Washington Spirit in 2015.
