The 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Championship is now set for this coming fall.
CONCACAF announced on Sunday that three locations have been chosen to host the tournament, which runs from Oct. 4-17 in the United States. Cary, N.C., Edinburg, Texas, and Frisco, Texas are the three locations that will host the matches which, will have eight teams divided into two groups.
The United States, Mexico, and Canada have already qualified for the tournament, and the tournament itself will serve as the North American qualifiers to the 2019 Women’s World Cup. The three finalists in the tournament will qualify for the World Cup, while the fourth best team will advance to a two-game playoff with the third-place team from South America for a final spot into the competition.
The USWNT, ranked No. 11 in the world will be placed into Group A, while Canada ranked No. 4 is in Group B. The placement for the final six teams will be made later this year, following completion of both Caribbean and Central America qualifiers.
Sahlen’s Stadium in Cary will host the three first round doubleheaders in Group A, while H-E-B Park in Edinburg will host the three first round doubleheaders in Group B. Frisco’s Toyota Stadium will play host to the semifinals and final on Oct. 14 and 17th .
The USWNT are the defending champions, after rolling past Costa Rica, 6-0, back in 2014 at Talen Energy Stadium.
It might be an apt calibration of the stadium size needed for the non US games, but then a dilution of home field advantage for the US games. Maybe they figure at their level of quality it won’t be an advantage they actually need until the semis and Frisco.