Final 8: Teams Set for Concacaf Women’s Championship | Draw Takes Place Sept. 4 at 10 a.m. ET

The Draw will be conducted live from Univision Studios at 10 a.m. ET. FOX Sports, the home of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, will show 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship across the FOX Sports family of networks.
WNT - Tierna Davidson
WNT - Tierna Davidson

Last night, the final teams in the Caribbean region booked their spot in the upcoming 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship, thus finalizing the eight countries that will compete for three direct berths to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The fourth-place team will take on Argentina, the third-place finisher in South America, in a home-and-away playoff, for a final World Cup berth.

The 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship will be played from Oct. 4-17, with the USA heading Group A at Sahlen's Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. and Canada heading Group B at H-E-B Stadium in Edinburg, Texas. Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas will host the all-important Semifinals, Third-Place match and Championship Game.

HOW TO WATCH
The Draw will be conducted live from Univision Studios at 10 a.m. ET, and can be streamed live on concacaf.com. Fans will be able to follow the event through Univision Deportes and FOX Sports in the United States, and Yahoo Sports in Mexico and Central America. FOX Sports, the home of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, will show 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship across the FOX Sports family of networks. For viewers on the go, matches can be streamed live via FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app.

WHO’S IN?
The United States, Canada and Mexico received automatic berths into the qualifying tournament. The five remaining participating nations, which came out of the regional qualifiers in Central America and the Caribbean, are: Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, first-time participant Cuba, and Trinidad & Tobago. The official draw will put the eight participating teams into two groups of four for the first round of the competition.

Country

Concacaf Ranking

United States

1

Canada

2

Mexico

3

Costa Rica

4

Trinidad & Tobago

5

Jamaica

7

Panama

10

Cuba

19

DRAW FORMAT
The draw will use a double-blind system involving six pots – four “Team Pots” and two “Group Position Pots”. The four “Team Pots” will each contain the name of two teams, while the two “Group Position Pots” will contain the four possible positions for each group.

Six of the eight participating teams will be distributed in Pots 2, 3 and 4 based on the Concacaf Women’s Rankings (see above), while the host United States will be placed alongside Canada in Pot 1 as the seeded teams in Groups A and B, respectively. The “Team Pots” will be distributed as follows:

Pot 1: United States (host) and Canada (2nd-ranked)
Pot 2: Mexico and Costa Rica
Por 3: Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica
Pot 4 : Panama and Cuba

The “Group Position Pots” (A and B) will contain the group positions:

Pot A : A1, A2, A3, A4
Pot B : B1, B2, B3, B4

The Final Draw will begin by drawing the seeded teams from Pot 1 and their assigned positions from Pots A and B. Once these have been confirmed, the first team will be randomly drawn from Pot 2, followed by a position from Pot A. The second team from Pot 2 will then be drawn, followed by its position from Pot B. The same will be done for Pots 3 and 4, alternating between Pots A and B.

The only country the United States cannot get in its group is Canada, but any of the other six countries are possible group opponents on the USA’s road to booking a spot in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France next summer.