The U.S. Women’s National Team will learn its path to qualifying for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics on Tuesday, April 19 when Concacaf conducts the official draw to determine the groups for the 2022 Concacaf W Championship. The draw will take place at 7 p.m. ET in Miami, Fla. and will be broadcast live in the United States on Paramount+.
Here are Five Things to Know about the upcoming draw:
CONCACAF W CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITORS
As the top-ranked team in Concacaf – and the world – the United States automatically qualified for the final eight-team field at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship. Canada, ranked second in the region and No. 6 in the latest FIFA Rankings, also received an automatic berth to the championship round. The remaining six teams in the field – Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Panama, Haiti and Trinidad & Tobago – secured their spots by finishing atop their respective groups in the qualifying round, which was contested during the February and April FIFA international windows earlier this year.
DRAW PROCEDURES
The eight teams have been distributed into four pots of two teams each based on latest FIFA Women’s Ranking, with the highest teams in Pot 1 (seeded teams) and the lowest ranked teams in Pot 4. As the highest ranked team, the USA will be placed in Group A, position A1, followed by Canada in Group B, position B1.
Pot 1: USA (No. 1) and Canada (No. 6)
Pot 2: Mexico (No. 27) and Costa Rica (No. 36)
Pot 3: Jamaica (No. 51) and Panama (No. 58)
Pot 4: Haiti (No. 61) and Trinidad & Tobago (No. 73)
The remaining teams in each group will be determined by a random draw, with the teams from Pot 2 being selected first. The first team drawn will go into A2 and the second into B2, and so on for Pots 3 and 4. The official match schedule and broadcast information will be announced at a later date.
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Group A |
Group B |
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A1 |
United States |
B1 |
Canada |
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A2 |
TBD |
B2 |
TBD |
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A3 |
TBD |
B3 |
TBD |
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A4 |
TBD |
B4 |
TBD |
ALL EYES ON MONTERREY
The 2022 CWC will be played entirely in Monterrey, Mexico from July 4-18, 2022. The tournament’s 16 matches will be split across two stadiums, Estadio Universitario and Estadio BBVA, which is also one of Mexico’s three venues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This will be the second time the Concacaf Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament has been held in Mexico, and the first since 2010 when the tournament was played in Cancun. The 2014 and 2018 tournaments were held in the United States, as were the Concacaf Women’s Olympic qualifying tournaments in 2016 and 2020. This will be the first time a Concacaf Women’s Qualifying tournament has been played outside of the United States since 2012 when the Olympic qualifiers were held in Vancouver, Canada.
NEW STAKES AWAIT
In August of 2021, Concacaf announced the details for its new senior Women’s National Team competitions, the 2022 Concacaf W Championship and the 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup. The new tournaments provide more official match dates across the region and a modified pathway for qualification to Women’s World Cup and Olympics.
The Concacaf W Championship will consist of group play, followed by Semifinals, a Third-Place Match and the Championship Game. After Group Stage play, the top two finishers in each group will qualify for the competition’s semifinals and guarantee their place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.
Additionally, both Group Stage third-place finishers will advance to a 10-team intercontinental playoff tournament to determine the final three teams in the expanded 32-team field for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The intercontinental playoff tournament will be held in Australia and New Zealand in February of 2023 as a test event for the actual World Cup.
Ten teams – Australia and New Zealand as co-hosts, Japan, Korea Republic, China PR, Philippines, Vietnam, Sweden, Spain and France – have already secured their spots in the World Cup, which kicks off in July of 2023.
Along with qualifying for the upcoming World Cup, at the conclusion of the Concacaf W Championship, the winning nation will also guarantee its place in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games Women’s Football Tournament and the 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup. The runner-up and the third-place nations will progress to a Concacaf Olympic play-in to be played in September of 2023. The winner of the play-in will also guarantee their place in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games and the 2024 W Gold Cup.
The 2024 W Gold Cup tournament will be held in June 2024, a month prior to the start of the 2024 Olympic Women's Football Tournament. The W Gold Cup will feature twelve teams, including the two teams that qualified for the Summer Olympics, six teams from the qualifying stage and four guest National Teams from other Confederations.
OPPORTUNITY AHEAD
The USA is looking to qualify for its ninth consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup, having played in every tournament since the competition’s inception in 1991 and winning a record four titles. The USA will also have the opportunity to qualify for an eighth consecutive Summer Olympics.
The USA has played Mexico in all seven Concacaf World Cup qualifying tournaments in which it has participated. As host, the USA did not participate in the qualifying tournament for the 1999 Women’s World Cup
The United States has an overall record of 32-1-0 all-time in Concacaf Women’s World Cup qualifying and a record of 23-0-1 all-time in Concacaf Olympic qualifying for an overall record of 55-1-1 in Concacaf qualifying events. The USWNT won the first four CONCACAF Women’s World Cup qualifying tournaments in which it competed -- 1991, 1994, 2002 and 2006 – and as hosts, did not participate in the qualifying tournament for the 1999 Women’s World Cup. The USA’s lone loss in World Cup qualifying came to Mexico in the semifinal of the 2010 competition, which forced the USA to win the Third-Place match and then defeat Italy in a two-game playoff to earn a berth to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany.
The USA won this competition in both 2014 and 2018 and went on to win the subsequent World Cups in 2015 and 2019.