Waltzing with Matildas

With the Beijing games only a few months away, the US WNT is currently preparing for a "three-week, three-city trip" that kicks off with a Sunday night match against Australia in North Carolina. The tour is a fantastic opportunity for the Americans to prepare for Group G action. After a successful qualification campaign-which ended in a nice penalty-kick result against Canada-there's still much to improve upon before the quest for gold begins.

Don't expect Sunday night, or the following Saturday afternoon in Birmingham to look like a tune-up. A back-to-back fixture against Australia means that the US WNT will be competing against an up-and-coming national team program that surprised the world this past summer with an undefeated record in group play (including a 1-1 tie against Norway) and a hard-fought 3-2 loss against Brazil.

The Matildas are young, athletic, unfamiliar and full of newfound confidence. They'll both be closely contested matches, which is exactly what the Americans need right now. If you ask us, US Soccer couldn't have done better with the scheduling, as the team makes their way down the path toward gold.