USWNT to open January camp, play first friendly of 2026 in Carson
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The women’s national soccer team will return to Carson in 2026 for the first time in nearly two years for its annual January training camp, U.S. Soccer will announce Thursday.
The 11-day camp will run from Jan. 17-27 and will conclude with two international matches. The first, on Jan. 24 against Paraguay, will be played at Dignity Health Sports Park and will include a tribute to two-time World Cup champion Christen Press, who announced her retirement this fall.
The venue and opponent for the second match on Jan. 27 has not been finalized.
“January camp is a vitally important part of our yearly schedule, especially with 2026 being a year that will host World Cup qualifying,” USWNT coach Emma Hayes said in a statement. “We don’t get many training days together during any given year, so there is a high value in getting a whole week of training as well as two matches.
Cindy Parlow Cone, president of U.S. Soccer, will do something that has never been done before when she becomes the first female national federation head to preside over a World Cup.
“I was pleased with the progress we made as a team in 2025, but we still have a ways to go to get to where we want to be heading into the CONCACAF W Championship in the fall.”
Press, who was born and raised in Palos Verdes Estates, about 10 miles from Dignity Health Sports Park, scored 64 goals for the USWNT, ninth-most in team history. She helped the U.S. to back-to-back Women’s World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019 and played the final four years of her professional club career for her hometown Angel City FC.
The first 2,000 fans through the gates on Jan. 24 will receive a commemorative Press bobblehead.
No venue has played host to more USWNT matches than Dignity Health Sports Park which, under various names, has been the site of 21 games for the U.S., dating to 2003, soon after the stadium opened. The U.S. went 20 games unbeaten at the venue (19 wins and one tie) before losing its most recent match there, a 2-0 upset to Mexico on Feb. 26, 2024, in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup, a tournament the U.S. would go on to win.
Angel City veteran and New Zealand World Cup standout Ali Riley is retiring with gratitude for her success and optimism about her future.
The USWNT was scheduled to hold its January training camp in Carson this year, but the deadly Southern California wildfires forced U.S. Soccer to move the camp to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Presale tickets for the January matches will be available for purchase from 10 a.m. Friday through 8 a.m. Monday.
Tickets for both matches will go on sale to the public on Tuesday at 10 a.m.
