Last night, the final teams in the Caribbean region booked their spot in
the upcoming 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship, thus finalizing the eight
countries that will compete for three direct berths to the 2019 FIFA
Women’s World Cup. The fourth-place team will take on Argentina, the
third-place finisher in South America, in a home-and-away playoff, for a
final World Cup berth.
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. and Canada heading Group B at H-E-B Stadium in Edinburg, Texas. Toyota
Stadium in Frisco, Texas will host the all-important Semifinals,
Third-Place match and Championship Game.
HOW
TO
WATCH
The Draw will be conducted live from Univision Studios at 10 a.m. ET, and
can be streamed live on concacaf.com. Fans will be able to follow the event
through Univision Deportes and FOX Sports in the United States, and Yahoo
Sports in Mexico and Central America. FOX Sports, the home of the 2019 FIFA
Women’s World Cup, will show 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship across the
FOX Sports family of networks. For viewers on the go, matches can be
streamed live via FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app.
WHO’S IN?
The United States, Canada and Mexico received automatic berths into the
qualifying tournament. The five remaining participating nations, which came
out of the regional qualifiers in Central America and the Caribbean, are:
Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, first-time participant Cuba, and Trinidad
& Tobago. The official draw will put the eight participating teams into
two groups of four for the first round of the competition.
|
Country |
Concacaf Ranking |
|
United States |
1 |
|
Canada |
2 |
|
Mexico |
3 |
|
Costa Rica |
4 |
|
Trinidad & Tobago |
5 |
|
Jamaica |
7 |
|
Panama |
10 |
|
Cuba |
19 |
DRAW FORMAT
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 (see above), 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:
Mexico and Costa Rica
Por 3:
Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica
Pot 4
: Panama and Cuba
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.
The only country the United States cannot get in its group is Canada, but any of the other six countries are possible group opponents on the USA’s road to booking a spot in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France next summer.