International test against the BYU Cougars

The violet women round off the match-free extended weekend on Tuesday at 6:30 pm with an international test match. Amelie Kandlhofer & Co will meet the Cougars of Brigham Young University from Utah in the USA in Vienna.

"There's a touch of international flair coming to Vienna that we'd like to soak up and take with us," says head coach Stefan Kenesei, looking forward to the test match against the Brigham Young University soccer team with much excitement.

In all, the university from Provo, Utah, fields teams in 19 different sports, all competing under BYU Cougars. The soccer department of the university, which has over 34,000 students, is in all-female hands.

Top team visits Vienna

They play in Division 1 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which is the top college league in the U.S., with a total of 348 soccer teams. Last year, the Cougars finished second in the West Coast Conference - one of 32 conferences - and qualified for the NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament, where they were eliminated in the round of 16.

In 2021, the Cougars even advanced to the NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament big final after finishing first in their own conference, but were narrowly defeated by Florida State in a penalty kick shootout. So next Tuesday, the Violets will take on the second-best college soccer team in the U.S. in 2021.

Exciting comparison

"We are really looking forward to this special test match. The USA are traditionally very strong in women's soccer and college soccer is also at a high level. On the one hand, it will be very interesting to see how we perform on the field in comparison with such a team and, on the other hand, to see what is valued in the USA - more the physical or the soccer component", Kenesei explains.

The BYU Cougars' women's soccer team will be touring Europe from May 1-12. After the test match in Vienna against Jovana Čavić & Co, the Americans will continue on to Salzburg and then via Slovenia to Croatia.

The test match against Brigham Young University will kick off next Tuesday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m. on Court 2 of the Generali-Arena. Admission is, of course, free.