The USWNT will play reigning World Cup champion Spain at Subaru Park in October
PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. women's soccer team will return to town in October for a game that will be about as big as a friendly gets.
The reigning Olympic champions will face reigning World Cup champion Spain at Subaru Park on Oct. 13, three days after the teams open a two-game set in Washington.
It will be the U.S. women's team's 16th all-time visit to the region, dating back to 1991, and its 10th game at the Union's home. Its last game at Lincoln Financial Field was soon after the team's 2019 World Cup title, when it set an attendance record for a standalone friendly that the venue still holds.
Various rounds of ticket presales start Tuesday, and sales to the general public start Thursday.
If Spain brings all of its stars, the roster would include three-time reigning world player of the year Aitana Bonmatí, two-time winner Alexia Putellas, a further all-world playmaker in Mariona Caldentey, one of the planet's top young players in Salma Paralluelo and Gotham FC's Esther González.
They're all well-known to women's soccer fans here, with Putellas' star power the biggest of the lot. That was confirmed this month when the longtime Barcelona star picked England's London City Lionesses over the Boston Legacy as her new club home, and made the announcement in New York alongside club owner Michele Kang - who also owns the Washington Spirit.
Putellas told The Athletic that she sees England's Women's Super League as "the most competitive league." Whether or not she meant it as a shot at the NWSL, it certainly made noise on both sides of the Atlantic. The NWSL has long trumpeted holding that title, and with plenty of evidence. But the top teams in England's circuit spend more on salaries, and don't have the same roster limits.
Kang, who in January signed Trinity Rodman to a new contract in D.C. that was a world record at the time, promptly told The Athletic that "there are clearly some sensitivities, but I'm not here to promote one league over the other. I want everyone to move up."
Penn State product Sam Coffey, who has played for the Portland Thorns and Manchester City, was equally diplomatic in a news conference Monday morning.
"I personally refuse to draw any comparison between [the] NWSL and WSL - I just think, quite honestly, it's a waste of time," she said. "Both leagues are unbelievably talented and so hard to play in, in very different ways. And I just feel fortunate that I've gotten now to play in both of them, and I know that that has helped my game so much."
Fans will be happy to settle this on the field, and they had already waited a while for a U.S.-Spain matchup. The teams haven't played each other since October of 2022 in Spain, 10 months before La Roja confirmed its arrival as a power with the World Cup title.
Just one of the teams' four meetings so far has come on U.S. soil, a tight 1-0 U.S. win at the 2020 SheBelieves Cup. The most famous was at the 2019 World Cup, a 2-1 U.S. win in the round of 16 that sent the Americans toward their triumph - but also announced Spain's potential.
There was hope that the teams would meet at the 2024 Olympics. But Brazil beat Spain in the semifinals, and the Americans took the final to win their first major title since 2019.
As next year's World Cup starts to come onto the horizon, the U.S. finally has an opportunity to play a European team for the first time since facing Italy last December. The continent's schedule is usually filled by continental competitions: World Cup qualifiers, European championship qualifiers and the UEFA Nations League.
Spain is free because it won its World Cup qualifying group. Other powers - including England, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway - are headed for playoffs in October and November.
"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," U.S. manager Emma Hayes said in a statement. "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."
Concacaf's World Cup qualifying tournament is Thanksgiving week in Houston and suburban Dalllas. The Americans play El Salvador in the quarterfinals, and the four winners of that round will clinch berths in the first 48-team women's World Cup. The losers will play off for two tickets to FIFA's inter-confederation playoffs.
The top three non-U.S. finishers in the bracket also qualify for the 2028 Olympics. (The U.S. is already in as host.)
"Ultimately, our goal is qualifying first and foremost, and I cannot think of a better team to play against in order to prepare for that to happen," Coffey said. "I wouldn't say it's a measuring stick, necessarily, of Europe versus America, but I do think it's just going to be such amazing prep for us. We have so much respect for Spain and the team that they are, and it will be an amazing challenge."
Most of the rest of her remarks were just as polite, but she did put a little spice in the pot.
"I don't think we ever approach anything as just a friendly - I think we're a little bit too competitive for that," Coffey said. A few minutes later, she added: "Of course they're an incredible team, but so are we. And I think when we're at our best we can play and beat anyone."
Philadelphia will get to see firsthand if she's right.
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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 5:11 PM.