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USA draws Canada, Cuba, El Salvador in Olympic qualifying

U.S. Soccer Federation

The United States drew a favorable path to the semifinals of CONCACAF Olympic qualifying on Tuesday, getting put in Group A with Canada, Cuba and El Salvador. Group A's games will take place at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn. The full schedule for the qualifying tournament will be released later this week, according to CONCACAF.

The United States avoided having to face Honduras, likely the top challenger aside from Mexico, in the group stage. If the U.S. Under-23 team can muster a top-two finish in Group A, it will advance to the semifinals at Livestrong Sporting Park, where a win is the final requirement for Olympic qualification. The trade-off for not having Mexico or Honduras in the group is that either of the two is likely to be a potential semifinal opponent.

According to a U.S. Soccer release, U-23 coach Caleb Porter will be holding a domestic training camp in Sarasota, Fla., from Dec. 15-23, with a roster announcement expected in the coming days.

Here are the two groups for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying:

GROUP A (LP Field) – United States, Canada, El Salvador, Cuba

GROUP B (Home Depot Center) – Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago

What do you think of the draw? Which teams do you see advancing to the semifinals?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Wet feet / dry feet …

    Seriously, unless things have changed, I think a Cuban player is automatically welcomed with open arms, whereas a Mexican player would be forced back.

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  2. El Salvador is already more experience than our Olympic age group,under 23s mexico & Costa Rica already played Copa America & some friendlies, only because players at this age group are doing in Europe might helps us.

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  3. Would be tough if we drew Mexico in the semifinals but thats what happens when you have a draw. Sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don’t. Would we rather qualify against European teams?

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  4. It’s going to be important for the US to easily win its first two games so that it can rest some starters in the third group game ahead of the semifinal game. If the 2nd place team in Group B has to get a result in its last game to advance, then having a slightly more rested team could be the difference in the semis.

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  5. I don’t understand why this is a favorable draw. Wouldn’t it be easier to be drawn in a group with Honduras or Mexico, so you would have a 50/50 chance at getting a weakling as semifinal opponent? This way, we’re almost guaranteed to have a strong semifinal opponent. Unless I am missing something, this is a bad draw.

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  6. I know people think that this will be a cakewalk for USA to win the group but see what happen in Guatemala when USA won it’s group and lost to the lowest (no disrespect to Guatemala) but they barely qualified as the 3rd best. USA went to this game thinking with the stupid mentality that the were better team and they already had won the game, in other word they under estimated Guatemala. If the USA goes to this Olympic qualifying thinking they are better is going to be a long day. I know we are better but you have to play to win and don’t think that just by showing up u already won. SO PLEASE USA GO AND WIN and QUALIFY to the OLYMPIC GAMES.

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  7. Can we bring everyone in for the semis, just to make sure we win. Might miss a game in Europe, but was is one game to play in the Olympics.

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  8. If none of the big name Euro vets go to London, despite it being in the summer and them not missing any games who are our 3 overage players?

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  9. Yeah…pretty much what I said. Jozy, Timmy C, and Danny Williams won’t be there because they are (usually) starters for their club teams.

    I won’t be surprised if Mix and Gatt aren’t there either because the Norwegian season starts in March. Not really sure what other Scandinavian based players Porter will want to call up. Maybe Sean Cunningham if Ole and Molde are willing to let him go for a week?

    I would guess it’s slightly possible we could see Alfredo Morales and/or Terrence Boyd since they are reserve players and usually don’t even make into the match day 18 man roster. If not there are whole other heap of Germerican players that Porter could call in.

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  10. Yeah, you have to love it when Cuban youth teams come to the states; a few promising kids could shortly be looking for a team on US soil…

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  11. this turny will be MLS/Scandivanian leagues/youth rank players. there is absolutly no way Timmy Chandler, Jozy or anyone who plays for an inseason European club will be on this squad.

    they will be added if we make it to London.

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  12. Highly doubt Clint, Timmy or any of our Euro based overage players will be playing in the Olympics (assuming we qualify). I doubt Landon will be either. I don’t think Bruce and the Galaxy would be thrilled about losing Landon for a couple weeks during the summer.

    Considering that the qualifying tournament takes place in March/April, I would bet that the qualifying squad will lack a lot of our top under 23 players (Jozy, Danny Williams, Timmy Chandler, and maybe even Mix, Josh Gatt, Alfredo Morales, and Terrence Boyd too)

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  13. Yep. If Honduras is in your group and you slip up, you still have a shot against Mexico. If you beat Honduras in the group, you play a minnow in the semis.

    Now, we breeze through the group and have one game against Mexico to Honduras to decide it.

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  14. Dont believe you can use overage players until the tournament proper. The roster is not set, I believe the games are in march, but the article fails to mention this.

    I would like to know if they fall on international dates, so the euro based players can be called.

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  15. Mexico’s U-17 won the World Cup, their U-20 got 3rd in that world cup, an the U-23 Pan-American team won that tourney…they have some good talent for years to come.

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  16. What’s our Olympic roster going to look like? I remember hearing Agudelo was called in, along with Bunbury? What about the 3 veteran players (assuming we qualify)- Landon, Clint, Timmy?

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  17. I’m sure Mexico will win their group. And we really can’t complain if we either A) Don’t win our group and can’t beat Mexico, or B) Win our group and can’t beat Honduras or Panama.

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  18. So if Honduras had ended up in our group we probably had to have beat them to win the group and avoid Mexico in the Semis. Either way you have to beat Mexico or Honduras to advandce so the draw has little or no effect on that. At least in this situtation we should be able to win the group going away.

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  19. Mexico’s youth squad won the world cup this summer, or at lkeast got pretty deep into the tournament, right? Just trying to get a sense of what our expectation should realistically be…

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  20. Honduras is the key to everything. The two key games will be Mexico-Honduras in the group and (very likely) US-Honduras in the semifinal to determine which one qualifies for the Olympics.

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  21. sorry for the ignorance, haven’t had time to keep up with olympic qualifying- to qualify we have to either a) Win our group, or b) win a semifinal game?

    kinda a weird system.. but I like our group, anyway

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  22. Yeah maybe i’m overthinking things, but it’s almost worse that honduras and mexico are in the other group.

    Better to face them in a group stage setting than a one-off elimination game. Easy path to the semis, sure, but now we’re very likely facing a difficult opponent once it’s do or die.

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  23. Easy group for USA to win, but Mexico cakewalk to Olympics if they win group. USA will have a tougher semi-final opponent.

    If all goes as planned/expected of course.

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  24. You realize this makes it more likely that Canada will play the deciding game (semifinals) against Mexico (unless either US or Mexico fail to win their group), right?

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