REIMS, France — Last fall, when Jill Ellis was involved in arranging tuneups for her U.S. national soccer team leading to the Women’s World Cup, many obvious opponents came to mind.
Certainly the Americans would play an away friendly against France, host to this summer’s tournament. Usual suspects, such as Brazil, Japan and Australia, were on the agenda as well.
But with women’s soccer experiencing growth spurts, Ellis also wanted to gain a firsthand look at a World Cup-bound team from a traditional soccer country emerging in women’s circles.
So in January, the top-ranked Americans played Spain for the first time, visiting the city of Alicante on the Costa Blanca.