{"id":3088,"date":"2026-04-10T20:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/3088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:52:06","slug":"uswnt-star-sophia-wilson-returns-for-3-match-series-with-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/3088\/","title":{"rendered":"USWNT Star Sophia Wilson Returns for 3-Match Series with Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The USWNT returns to action Saturday against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ussoccer.com\/stories\/2026\/04\/uswnt-opponent-profile-japan-match-preview-april-san-jose-seattle-colorado\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">world No. 5 Japan<\/a>, launching a <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/no-2-uswnt-to-face-no-8-japan-in-april-friendly-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">three-friendly series<\/a> against the Nadeshiko with several familiar faces rejoining the roster.<\/p>\n<p>The No. 2 ranked United States last faced Japan at the <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/uswnt-loses-to-japan-snaps-emma-hayes-unbeaten-streak-2025-shebelieves-cup-final-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2025 SheBelieves Cup<\/a>, where the Nadeshiko stunned a young USWNT side 2-1 to claim the tournament title. Japan enters the series fresh off winning the <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/china-vs-australia-2026-womens-asian-cup-semifinal-sam-kerr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2026 AFC Women&#8217;s Asian Cup<\/a>, defeating host Australia 1-0 in the final.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For us, patience is the biggest part,&#8221; said forward Trinity Rodman ahead of Saturday&#8217;s rematch. &#8220;Finding the areas to exploit in the final third\u2026 just being smart in those moments that we can take advantage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The match could reunite two-thirds of Triple Espresso as Sophia Wilson joins Rodman on the <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/uswnt-roster-sophia-wilson-tierna-davidson-japan-friendlies-april-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">USWNT roster<\/a> for the first time since the team&#8217;s gold medal 2024 Paris Olympics campaign. The frontline duo previously combined for crucial goals during the Olympic run, including Rodman&#8217;s extra-time winner against Japan in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n<p>Defender <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/uswnt-defender-tierna-davidson-talks-winning-olympics-gold-emma-hayes-at-raising-canes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Tierna Davidson<\/a> also makes her national team return after recovering from last year&#8217;s ACL injury, providing additional depth to the backline as the team begins <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/world-cup-qualifiers-2027-womens-world-cup-qualified-teams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">World Cup qualifying<\/a> preparations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re champions of Asia. They&#8217;re easily one of the best teams in the world,&#8221; USWNT manager Emma Hayes said of Japan. &#8220;I think this is one of the favorites to win the World Cup. So, what a great test for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Japan is competing under interim coach Michihisa Kano after parting ways with manager Nils Nielsen last week. The Nadeshiko compiled a 6-0 record at the Women&#8217;s Asian Cup, outscoring opponents 29-1.<\/p>\n<p>How to Watch the USWNT vs Japan Friendlies<\/p>\n<p>The USWNT kicks off against Japan on Saturday at 5:30 PM ET in San Jose, live on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntdrama.com\/ussoccer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TNT<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The series continues in Seattle on April 14th before culminating in Colorado&#8217;s April 17th finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The USWNT returns to action Saturday against world No. 5 Japan, launching a three-friendly series against the Nadeshiko&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3151,3152,8,33,2201,2207,2203,2198],"class_list":["post-3088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-2026-uswnt-friendlies","tag-emma-hayes","tag-japan","tag-nihon","tag-sophia-wilson","tag-tierna-davidson","tag-trinity-rodman","tag-uswnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}