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WPS All-Star and Washington Freedom forward Abby Wambach will be a pivotal part of the U.S. attack.

 

One year after capturing the 2008 Olympic Gold medal, the U.S. Women’s National Team faces its biggest test in 2009 when it goes up against European champion Germany on Thursday at 1pm ET in Augsburg, Germany (6pm local). The game will feature the reigning Olympic champions (U.S.) vs. the reigning World Cup champions (Germany); the No. 1 team in the world (U.S.) vs. the No. 2-ranked team (Germany) in the FIFA Rankings.

Lineups will be made up of stars from Women’s Professional Soccer on one side of the pitch and the best from Germany’s Bundesliga on the other side. It doesn’t get any better than this on the international level in women’s soccer.

“You have the Olympic gold medalist against the European champions… so that inspires everyone,” said U.S. WNT coach Pia Sundhage.

With less than 20 months to go before the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in Germany, the game will also be a massive test for the Americans on foreign soil. A crowd of nearly 1,000 fans came out to watch the Germans in their practice earlier this week and a sell-out of 30,000 fans is expected at Impuls Arena – one of nine sites that will host games at the 2011 tournament with other venues being Berlin, Bochum, Dresden, Frankfurt, Leverkusen, Mönchengladbach, Sinsheim and Wolfsburg.

No Germans have yet to play in Women’s Professional Soccer, although several German stars have previously made an impact on professional soccer in the U.S. during the days of the WUSA with the likes of Steffi Jones and Maren Meinert. Today, the next generation of German stars has led the Black, Red & Gold to become one of the top teams in the world one spot below the U.S. in the rankings.

“The U.S. is a world power in women’s soccer,” says Germany’s assistant coach Ulrike Ballweg this week. “That’s why every single one of our players wants to go out and show that we can match up with them.”

While it’s still too early to let this game be a preview of the 2011 Women's World Cup, it will be an important measuring stick for the year-long build-up to the tournament.

“A game like this never comes too early,” says Ballweg. “For us, the timing of this is not important. What is important is that we have a tough opponent and we can get some great exposure for our team from this. In Finland, we played the European Championship semifinal in front of a few thousand fans. It’s just that much more special to play in front of 30,000.”

The game may be a friendly, but don’t expect it to be amicable on the field.

“There’s no friendly games between Germany and the U.S.,” said Washington Freedom forward Abby Wambach. “The best team at the end of the day will come out the winner.”