USA Olympic qualifying to be played in Denver, Kansas City, Salt Lake City

The United States will go from Kansas City, to Denver, (hopefully) to Salt Lake City for Olympic qualifying. CONCACAF finalized the venues for their qualifying tournament, which the Americans are hoping will qualify them for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The Americans will open the tournament at Sporting Park in Kansas City. They'll play their first two group stage matches there on October 1 and October 3, then move onto Dicks Sporting Goods Park outside of Denver for their final group stage contest on October 6.

If the U.S. finishes in the top two of their group, they will move onto the semifinals, which will be played on October 10 at Rio Tinto Stadium, in the Salt Lake City suburbs. Three days later, the third place playoff and final will be played.

The U.S. is in Group A for the tournament. Mexico is in Group B, which will play their first group stage matches at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA before meeting up with Group A in Denver and then onto the semifinals. The U.S., Mexico and Canada are the only teams that have qualified for the qualifying tournament so far so the rest of the field and the teams that will join the U.S. in Group A have not yet been finalized.

There will be eight teams in the tournament. Only two teams can automatically qualify for the Olympics so the U.S. has to make the final to book their spot. The two semifinal losers will play for third place, with the winner of that match going to an intercontinental playoff for the final Olympics place.

The U.S. will be heavy favorites to qualify, but they were last cycle and failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Jurgen Klinsmann has played greater emphasis on the U-23 team since taking over and has appointed his top assistant, Andreas Herzog as the U-23 manager, so the team should be better off this time around. Making things better, the final group stage match and the semifinals/final will be played during a FIFA international date so clubs will have to release anyone called up and the U.S. can have all their best players like Emerson Hyndman and Rubio Rubin.

USA Schedule

- October 1; Sporting Park, Kansas City, KS

- October 3; Sporting Park, Kansas City, KS

- October 6; Dicks Sporting Goods Park, Commerce, CO

- Semifinals October 10; Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT

- Finals October 13; Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT