Datebook: U.S. women will open 2018 season against Euro 2017 runner-up Denmark

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Nov 29, 2017

The U.S. women's national team will return to San Diego County Credit Union Stadium (formerly Qualcomm Stadium) for the third straight year, opening its 2018 season on Jan. 21 with a match against Euro 2017 runner-up Denmark.

Denmark lost to the host Netherlands, 4-2 in the final of the UEFA Women's Championship after beating Belgium, Norway, Germany and Austria.

The Danes are second in their group behind Sweden in 2019 Women's World Cup qualifying after they forfeited their game at Sweden on Oct. 20 in a labor dispute with the Danish federation. They played four days later against Croatia and won, 4-0.

The San Diego match, which will follow the USA's first camp of the year, will be the 25th in the USA-Denmark series but the first since March 2014 at the Algarve Cup in Portugal, a 5-3 loss for the Americans, which set the record for most goals they've allowed in a single match.

Two losses at the 2014 Algarve Cup were among the reasons Tom Sermanni was dismissed as head coach and replaced by Jill Ellis.