Girlz start CWC against Mexico
Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz will go up against hosts Mexico on the opening day of the Concacaf Women’s Championship (CWC), according to the full schedule released by Concacaf on Thursday.
Jamaica’s senior women’s team, who are fifth in Concacaf and 51st in the FIFA rankings, face an opponent rated third in the regional rankings and 27th overall. Their encounter will be one of two matches that will kick off on July 4 at Estadio Universitario, in the region’s final round of qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 (FWWC) and as a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
The other match will be the reigning FIFA Women’s World Cup Champions United States versus Haiti.
Concacaf said the revamped CWC, which will be held July 4-18 in Monterrey, Mexico, is a key part of the Confederation’s new women’s senior national team ecosystem taking place from 2021 through 2024.
Eight teams are slated to participate in the tournament, including Canada, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medal winners who along with the United States qualified by virtue of being the top two ranked teams in Concacaf.
Along with Jamaica, Haiti, and
Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago secured their tickets to the 2022 CWC as a result of first-place finishes in their respective groups during the qualifiers.
United States, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti make up Group A while Group B is comprised of Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago.
INTERCONTINENTAL PLAYOFF
The group stage of the 2022 CWC will kick off on July 4 and will run through July 11. At the end of round-robin play, the top two teams from each group will move on to the semi-finals and in doing so, qualify directly to the 2023 FWWC (four teams). Meanwhile, the third-place teams in each group will qualify for a 2023 FWWC Intercontinental Playoff (two teams).
The semi-finals on July 14 at Estadio Universitario, and the final and third-place matches on July 18 at Estadio BBVA, will be played in a single-elimination format, with the Champion qualifying for both the 2024 Paris Olympics and the inaugural Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup (CWGC), to be held in 2024.
The runner-up and third-place teams will also square off in a Concacaf Olympic play-in series, scheduled for September 2023. The winner of that play-in series will also qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2024 CWGC.