The U.S. Women’s National Team learned its group for the 2020 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Vlatko Andonovski’s team will take on Costa Rica, Panama, and Haiti in Group A of the eight-team tournament. The top two finishers in the tournament will qualify for the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
“As a coach or a player, it’s always great when your path to your goals becomes clearer, so I know everyone is excited for our new challenges in 2020,” Andonovski said. “It’s a nice thing to see some of the smaller soccer countries get the chance to pursue their dreams as well. In our group, we have opponents that we’ve faced in the past in qualifying competitions, so we’ll be well-prepared as these teams want to go to the Olympics as much as we do.”
BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston and H-E-B Park in Edinburg, Texas will host the group stage matches before Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Cali. will host the semifinals and final. The USWNT kicks off group stage play on Jan. 28th against Haiti, before facing Panama on Jan. 31st and Costa Rica on Feb. 3rd.
The semifinals will take place on Feb. 7th before the final occurs on Feb. 9th. The USWNT will seek a seventh-consecutive qualification into the Olympics and a fifth-straight tournament title.
Group B sees Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, and first-time participants St. Kitts and Nevis paired together.
Andonovski will hold a training camp in January prior to the tournament’s beginning, in which a 20-player roster will be named. Prior to that, the USWNT will still have friendlies to close out 2019.