Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle to miss Thursday game

Three of its stars could miss Tuesday night's friendly.

August 29, 2019 at 12:25PM
Megan Rapinoe, center, is joined by teammates on the U.S. women's national soccer team during a celebratory rally at City Hall following a ticker-tape parade in New York
Megan Rapinoe, center, is joined by teammates on the U.S. women's national soccer team during a celebratory rally at City Hall following a ticker-tape parade in New York (Brian Stensaas — New York Times/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Five days before its lucrative "Victory Tour" arrives at Allianz Field, the World Cup-winning U.S. women's national team will play the second of five tour games Thursday in Philadelphia without injured stars Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Rose Lavelle.

Rapinoe and Morgan didn't play in the tour's opener, a 3-0 friendly victory over Ireland on Aug. 3 before 37,000 fans at the Rose Bowl in Pasedena, Calif.

Coach Jill Ellis told reporters in Philadelphia that Morgan and Lavelle won't play in the Thursday friendly against Portugal (6 p.m., FS1) because they're under concussion protocol. She also said Rapinoe is out because of an Achilles injury, and Ali Krieger won't play because of personal reasons.

Tuesday's 7 p.m. game at Allianz Field, home of Minnesota United FC, will be televised on ESPN2 and will be on the ESPN app as well.

The team will hold a one-hour training session at Allianz Field that starts at 5 p.m. Monday. It is free and open to the public. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Enter through the stadium's northeast gate.

Minnesota United season-ticket holders and fans on its wait list received ticketing priority, and the 19,400-seat venue virtually sold out before tickets went on sale to the public. As of Wednesday afternoon, two tickets on Ticketmaster were selling for face value from $100 for roof-deck general admission and $135 for second-level sideline seats each to $625 each for field level between the teams' benches.

Tickets on the secondary market were listed ranging from $83 for two seats to more than $1,000 per pair.

Allianz Field is the only venue among the five on the team's tour that is a soccer-specific stadium. The Rose Bowl, Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, Chicago's Soldier Field and Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium all are NFL stadiums that seat 65,000 people or more.

Face value tickets for the U.S.-Korea Republic games in Charlotte and Chicago in October start at $35 and $38, respectively.

The U.S. is the most successful team in international women's soccer. It won its fourth World Cup in July, beating Netherlands 2-0 in the final in France.

about the writer

about the writer

Jerry Zgoda

Reporter

Jerry Zgoda covers Minnesota United FC and Major League Soccer for the Star Tribune.

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