Draw maps out groups for Concacaf W Gold Cup
MIAMI, Florida (CMC) — The three top-ranked English-speaking Caribbean women’s teams are down to face difficult opponents in the first stage of the Concacaf W Gold Cup later this year.
The official draw for the inaugural tournament took place on Wednesday in the United States, and 35 women’s senior national teams in the confederation have been divided into three leagues according to the Concacaf rankings of March 2023, and subdivided into groups.
The road to the W Gold Cup is set to begin this September, after the conclusion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which takes place in Australia and New Zealand, and will include a record six Concacaf women’s national teams.
For the Concacaf W Gold Cup, number four Jamaica, number eighttrinidad & Tobago, and number 12 St Kitts & Nevis, the three top-ranked English-speaking Caribbean teams in the confederation, will play in League A, which features nine of the leading teams.
The Reggae Girlz could face number six Panama and number nine Guatemala in Group C if they fail to beat Canada in a play-off in September to qualify for the Olympic Games next year in Paris.
According to a Concacaf media release, the two teams that will play in the Olympic women’s football tournament — United States and either the Jamaicans or Canadians — will skip the qualifying rounds for the W Gold Cup.
The Women’s Soca Warriors, as the T&T side are known, have been drawn in Group A with number five Mexico and nimber 11 Puerto Rico, and St Kitts & Nevis have been drawn in Group B with number three Costa Rica and number seven Haiti.
League B of the Gold Cup features the next 12 bestranked teams divided into three groups of four teams.
Group A comprises Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda, Suriname, and Dominica; Group B is made up of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Martinique; and Group C features Dominican Republic, Bermuda, St Vincent & the Grenadines, and Barbados.
The 14 remaining teams have been divided into two groups of four teams and two groups of three teams to play in League C.
In Group A, there are four teams — Belize, Aruba, Turks & Caicos Islands, and Bonaire — and so too in Group B, where there is Cuba, St Lucia, Guadeloupe, and St Maarten
Group C comprises the United States Virgin Islands, Grenada, and Bahamas; and Group D consists of Curacao, Cayman Islands, and Anguilla.
After home and away group matches within each league in the FIFA women’s international match windows of September, October, and November this year, the top finishers in each of the three League A groups will qualify directly for the group stage of the W Gold Cup to played between February 20 and 28 next year.
The second-place finishers in each of the three League A groups, and the first-place finishers in each of the three League B groups will advance to the preliminary stage of W Gold Cup on February 17, and the winning team in each of three matches will qualify for the group stage.
The W Gold Cup Group Stage will include the participation of eight Concacaf teams, and four guest teams from the South American confederation, CONMEBOL as part of a strategic collaboration agreement.
The W Gold Cup will end with quarter-finals on March 2 to 3, semi-finals on March 6, and the final on Sunday, March 10, to crown Concacaf’s best women’s national team and end a cycle of elite women’s football in the confederation that also included the 2022 Concacaf W Qualifiers and 2022 Concacaf W Championship.