CHICAGO (Aug. 7, 2018) – The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) confirmed today the official draw for the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship will be held Sept. 4 in Miami, Fla.
The official draw, which will put the eight participating teams into two groups of four for the first round of the competition, will be conducted live from Univision Studios at 10 a.m. ET. Fans will be able to follow the event through Concacaf.com, Univision Deportes and Fox Sports in the United States, and Yahoo Sports in Mexico and Central America.
The 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship will be played from Oct. 4-17, with the USA heading Group A at Sahlen's Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., Canada heading Group B at H-E-B Stadium in Edinburg, Texas, while Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas will host the all-important semifinals, third-place match and the championship game.
The United States, Canada and Mexico received automatic berths into the tournament. The five remaining participating nations will be confirmed in the coming weeks, as the regional qualifiers conclude in Central America and the Caribbean.
The 2018 Central American Women’s Qualifier will be contested between Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama and is scheduled to take place Aug. 27-31. After round-robin play, the top two finishers will qualify to the Concacaf Women’s Championship.
The 2018 Caribbean Women’s Qualifier will be contested from Aug. 25-Sept. 2 among the five first-round group winners, Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda, Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. The top three finishers will qualify to the final tournament.
The draw will use a double-blind system involving six pots – four “Team Pots” and two “Group Position Pots”. The four “Team Pots” will each contain the name of two teams, while the two “Group Position Pots” will contain the four possible positions for each group.
Six of the eight participating teams will be distributed in Pots 2, 3 and 4 based on the Concacaf Women’s Rankings (to be published in the coming weeks), while the host United States will be placed alongside Canada in Pot 1 as the seeded teams in Groups A and B, respectively. The “Team Pots” will be distributed as follows:
Pot 1: United States (host) and Canada (2nd ranked)
Pot 2: 3rd and 4th ranked teams
Por 3: 5th and 6th ranked teams
Pot 4: 7th and 8th ranked teams
The “Group Position Pots” (A and B) will contain the group positions:
Pot A: A1, A2, A3, A4
Pot B: B1, B2, B3, B4
The Final Draw will begin by drawing the seeded teams from Pot 1 and their assigned positions from Pots A and B. Once these have been confirmed, the first team will be randomly drawn from Pot 2, followed by a position from Pot A. The second team from Pot 2 will then be drawn, followed by its position from Pot B. The same will be done for Pots 3 and 4, alternating between Pots A and B.
2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship
Dates: Oct. 4-17, 2018
Venues: Sahlen’s Stadium (Cary, North Carolina), H-E-B Park (Edinburg, Texas) and Toyota Stadium (Frisco, Texas).
Teams: North America (3), Caribbean (3) and Central America (2)
Number of teams to qualify for the World Cup: 3 (Champion, Runner-Up and Third-Place). The fourth place finisher will play a home-and-away intercontinental playoff against Argentina, which finished third at the 2018 Copa America Femenina. The winner of the playoff will qualify to the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019.
Competition Format: The eight participating teams will be drawn into two groups of four for the Group Stage. After round-robin play, the two group winners, plus the two second-place finishers will advance to the semifinals. The semifinal winners will automatically qualify to the championship final and the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The semifinal losers will play in the tournament’s third place match for the last direct available ticket to the World Cup.