Lethbridge Herald

CONCACAF soccer draw set for Sept.

- Neil Davidson THE CANADIAN PRESS

Canada will learn its qualifying road for the 2019 Women’s World Cup at the Sept. 4 draw in Miami for the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Championsh­ip.

The eight-country regional qualifying tournament, set for Oct. 4-17 in Cary, N.C., and Edinburg and Frisco, Texas, will send three teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean to next year’s Women’s World Cup in France. The fourthplac­ed team will take part in an interconti­nental playoff versus Argentina.

The U.S., as host, and second-ranked Canada will play in separate groups. Mexico has also already qualified.

Two teams will come from the Central American Women’s Qualifier that starts Aug. 27 with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama taking part.

Three more countries will come from the Caribbean qualifying round, which starts Aug. 25 and features Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda, Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.

The five teams that advance will join Mexico and be placed in three different pots depending on ranking for the draw.

Group B, which features Canada, will play its preliminar­y-round games Oct. 5, 8 and 11 at H-E-B Park in Edinburg, a 9,700-seat stadium that is home to the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros of the USL.

Group A, which includes the U.S., will play its games Oct. 4, 7 and 10 at the 10,000seat Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.

The top two finishers in each group will then cross over to meet in the Oct. 14 semifinals at Toyota Stadium in Frisco. The third-place match and championsh­ip game are slated for Oct, 17.

The two finalists and thirdplace finisher automatica­lly qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which runs June 7 through July 7.

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