CHICAGO (Nov. 5, 2019) – The United States will host the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will send two nations to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.
The tournament will be held from January 28 through February 9, and the official draw and host cities announcement will take place on Nov. 7, 2019, at the Mediapro studios in Miami, Fla. Fans can follow all the drama beginning at 2:30 pm (ET) on www.concacaf.com, Concacaf GO, the official Concacaf YouTube page, and the official Concacaf Facebook page.
The competition will feature eight nations divided into two groups of four teams each. After round-robin play within the groups running from Jan. 28-Feb. 4, the top two finishers will cross over for the semifinals, with the winners of those matches qualifying for the Olympics and for the tournament championship game. The semifinals will be held on Friday, Feb. 7 and the championship will be played on Sunday, Feb. 9.
The seven nations that will join the USA to compete for the Olympic berths are Canada and Mexico from North America, Costa Rica and Panama from Central America and Haiti, Jamaica and Saint Kitts and Nevis from the Caribbean.
The USA has participated in all six Olympic Women’s Soccer Tournaments that have been contested, winning a record four gold medals (1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012) along with one silver medal (2000).
As host, the U.S. did not have to qualify for the 1996 tournament, the first for women’s soccer in the Olympics which the Americans won in historic fashion downing China PR 2-1 in front of 76,489 fans in Athens, Ga. The USA qualified for the 2000 Olympics by virtue of its top-seven finish at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which it won.
The USA has won the last four Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, in Costa Rica in 2004, in Mexico in 2008, in Canada in 2012 and in the USA in 2016 when the competition was held in Edinburg, Houston and Frisco, Texas.
No country has won the Women’s World Cup and the Olympics in back-to-back years, a feat the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup champion USA will be working towards once it begins qualifying. The USA was knocked out of the 2016 Olympics by Sweden via penalty kicks in the quarterfinals, the USWNT’s earliest ever exit from a world championship event.
The Olympic Women’s Soccer Tournament features 12 nations divided into three groups of four teams each.
Half the Olympic field is already set with host Japan, Brazil from South America, Great Britain, Netherlands and Sweden from Europe and New Zealand from Oceania having booked tickets to Japan. Still to be determined are the two representatives from Concacaf, one from Africa, two from Asia and the winner of a playoff between the second-placed team from Africa and Chile, which finished second in the most recent South American qualifying tournament.
In the 2004 qualifying tournament, the USA beat Costa Rica to earn a berth to Greece and came back to defeat Mexico 3-2 in the title game after being down 2-0.
In the 2008 qualifying tournament, the USA beat Costa Rica to qualify for Beijing and then defeated Canada in penalty kicks in the title game after drawing 1-1 in regulation.
In the 2012 qualifying tournament, the USA once again beat Costa Rica to qualify, this time for London, and then beat Canada 4-0 in the title game.
In the 2016 qualifying tournament, the USA beat Trinidad & Tobago to qualify, and then beat Canada 2-0 in the title game.
The Olympic Soccer Tournaments for men and women will be played at seven venues: Miyagi Stadium in Miyagi in northern Japan, Saitama Stadium just outside of Tokyo, the Sapporo Dome on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the National Stadium in Tokyo, Tokyo Stadium, the International Stadium in Yokohama just south of Tokyo and Kashima Stadium just north of Tokyo.