Morning Aggregate: World Cup Qualifying Locations Official, USWNT Roster

The U.S. Soccer Federation finally made a couple rumors official on Thursday as the remaining World Cup qualifying locations were named and a big time friendly was announced. Our guesses for where the World Cup qualifiers would be were not too far off, but the rumors had all but confirmed what was announced yesterday. The four remaining home CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches will be held at the following locations:

June 11—Panama at CenturyLink Field (Seattle, Wash.)
June 18—Honduras at Rio Tinto Stadium (Sandy, Utah)
Sept. 10—Mexico at Columbus Crew Stadium (Columbus, Ohio)
Oct. 11—Jamaica at Sporting Park (Kansas City, KC)

March 16, 2013; Sandy, UT, USA; Teams warm up before the Colorado Rapids-Real Salt Lake game at Rio Tinto Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Douglas C. Pizac-USA Today Sports

The official release may have led to multiple mouse clicks on travel sites as fans secured hotels and plane tickets to Columbus for the match with El Tri. That is the highlight match and could be key as the top four spots in qualifying will not be secure until the ninth or 10^th match. In Seattle the rumor is that CenturyLink will be limited to 42,000 seats because of baseball season and potential traffic nightmares, but it can hold many more as seen at Sounders’ games. Kansas City proved that it can provide a great home field advantage.

The USSF also announced a friendly with Germany on June 2nd at RFK Stadium.  This will be the first time the nations face off in the U.S. since 1999.  The match will pit coach Jurgen Klinsmann against his former team and home country.  The match is scheduled for 2:30 pm ET with tickets going on sale on April 2nd.

For now there is a game at hand this evening starting at 10 pm ET against Costa Rica.  We will be posting all day leading up to the opening kick.

There is plenty of support in the Denver area for the match and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park should be rocking as long as the fans can stay warm.

In Women’s National Team news, coach Tom Sermanni named a 23-player roster for upcoming friendlies with Germany and the Netherlands.  The team will travel overseas to play against two nations preparing for the European Women’s Championship.  The squad will play Germany for the second time in 23 days on April 5th at Sparda Bank Hessen Stadium in Offenbach.  The match against the Dutch in The Hague at Kyocera Stadium takes place on April 9th.  Meghan Klingenberg, Julie Johnston, and Adrianna Franch are the only variations from the recent Algarve Cup winning roster.  Here is the full roster.

GOALKEEPERS (3): Nicole Barnhart (FC Kansas City), Adrianna Franch (Western New York Flash), Ashlyn Harris (Washington Spirit)
DEFENDERS (9): Rachel Buehler (Portland Thorns FC), Crystal Dunn (North Carolina), Whitney Engen (Liverpool, England), Julie Johnston (Santa Clara), Meghan Klingenberg (Tyresö, Sweden), Ali Krieger (Washington Spirit), Kelley O’Hara (Sky Blue FC), Christie Rampone (Sky Blue FC), Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Yael Averbuch (Göteborg, Sweden), Shannon Boxx (Chicago Red Stars), Lauren Cheney (FC Kansas City), Tobin Heath (PSG, France), Kristie Mewis (FC Kansas City), Heather O’Reilly (Boston Breakers), Megan Rapinoe (Lyon, France)
FORWARDS (4): Sydney Leroux (Boston Breakers), Alex Morgan (Portland Thorns FC), Christen Press (Tyresö, Sweden), Abby Wambach (Western New York Flash)

News also broke last night that the 2015 Women’s World Cup final will be played at B.C. Place Stadium, which has field turf.  Capacity was a big factor, but the playing surface was immediately met with ire.

"Had a nightmare that the 2015 World Cup was going to be played on turf!"