USA will host Women’s World Cup qualifying

The United States will host CONCACAF Women’s World Cup qualifying in fall of 2018, according to a report in The Washington Post. USSF has “begun evaluating potential venues.”

CONCACAF qualifying will supposedly run October 4 - 17, though according to the Post those dates are not final yet. CONCACAF will get 3.5 spots for the 2019 Women’s World Cup, giving three teams a spot from qualifying, and a fourth team a chance to play for a spot vs a CONMEBOL side.

2016 CONCACAF Olympic qualifying took place in Houston and Frisco, Texas, while more recently USSF hosted the summer Tournament of Nations on the west coast in Seattle, San Diego, and Carson and the winter SheBelieves in the northeast in Chester, Harrison, and Washington, D.C. Given USSF will be putting on both tournaments again in 2018 and will want to spread the venues around, it’s hard to say at the moment what cities might be under consideration for WWC quals.

Provided nothing goes catastrophically wrong, WWC quals should be routine for the United States and Canada, with Mexico and Costa Rica strong contenders for the third spot. In previous cycles Mexico would probably be an automatic lock for the third spot, but Costa Rica has been developing their women’s side under the watchful eye of Amelia Valverde and after coming up with some results in the 2015 World Cup against Spain and South Korea, could pose a problem for Mexico. Mexico has made investments in women’s soccer themselves, though, starting Liga MX Femenil this year to provide a place for young Mexican players to train and get regular minutes.

In the meantime, the next USWNT game on the calendar is a friendly against Denmark on January 21 at SDCCU Stadium in San Diego.