Published : Aug. 19, 2021 - 09:18
This photo provided by the Korea Football Association on Aug. 19, 2021, shows South Korea's starting XI against the United States in a women's football friendly at Soldier Field in Chicago on Oct. 6, 2019. (Korea Football Association)
The South Korean women's national football team will play a pair of friendlies against the world No. 1 United States on the road in October, the sport's national federation announced Thursday.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said the first match between the two countries will kick off at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas. That's 9 a.m. on Oct. 22 (Korean time).
The second match will be at 7 p.m. on Oct. 26 at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota, or 9 a.m. on Oct. 27 in Seoul.
The United States won the bronze medal at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics. South Korea, ranked 18th, just missed out on qualifying for the Olympics for the first time.
Prior to the South Korea matches, the US will host Paraguay for two friendlies in September. These will be the final contests in the US kits for Carli Lloyd, who announced her plans to retire Monday. Lloyd, 39, has scored 128 goals, fourth most in the US women's football history, in 312 matches.
South Korea have never defeated the Americans in their 13 previous meetings, with three draws and 10 losses. Their most recent meeting, on Oct. 6, 2019, in Chicago, ended in a 1-1 draw.
It halted the US international winning streak at 17 and their clean sheet streak at five.
The South Koreans are gearing up for the 2022 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup, which will double as the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
South Korea will play in the Women's Asian Cup qualifying tournament in Uzbekistan in September. They're in Group E against Mongolia (Sept. 17) and Uzbekistan (Sept. 23), and only the winner of the group will reach the tournament proper, to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand in early 2023. (Yonhap)