What you need to know – DW – February 19, 2024

What is CONCACAF W Gold Cup?

This is a brand new tournament starting in the USA with three venues in California (Los Angeles, Carson, and San Diego) and one in Houston, Texas. The aim is to find the best women’s national team in the CONCACAF region, which includes North, Central America and the Caribbean. Similar to the men’s version, which has existed for 33 years, South American countries are also invited to compete. The four South American countries participating in the first tournament will be Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay.

There used to be a tournament called the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup, which also served as a qualifying round for the World Cup and the Olympics, and later became the current CONCACAF W Championship.

However, this new tournament, which was originally called the Nations League before adopting the W Gold Cup branding, is more similar to the men’s Gold Cup, European Championship, Asia Cup and Copas America. That means the North American women’s game will finally have an equivalent top continental tournament. .

How does it work?

As with most modern international men’s and women’s tournaments, there are multiple ways to qualify. Of the 12 competitors, 2 qualified for the region’s Olympics (USA and Canada), 3 went through the round-robin qualification process (Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica), and 3 qualified once The winner of the three qualifying matches will be the winner. A few days before the tournament officially begins. The remaining four teams will be invited teams from South America.

These 12 teams will be divided into three groups of four players each and will play each other once. The top two teams from each group and his two third-place teams with the best records advance to the quarterfinals, where a straight knockout format begins. Mexico and Argentina will open the tournament on February 20th in Carson, with the final game set for March 11th at San Diego’s 35,000-capacity Snapdragon Stadium.

Who is your favorite?

Although they are in the early stages of a rebuilding process that will pick up pace when Chelsea manager Emma Hayes takes over later this year, it will be hard to overlook the Americans. The sport is so well established for women, with strong domestic leagues and top players from European clubs that anything short of a trophy would be a failure. Canada, the 2020 Olympic champions, is also rebuilding. America will have to deal with the loss of Megan Rapinoe and the international retirement of her leading lady, Christine Sinclair. The normally defensive Canadian will remain one of the top prospects.

Outside of the North American giants, Brazil have won eight of the past nine South American titles and showed glimpses of a bright future at last year’s World Cup, even as they try to cope with the retirement of their national icon, Marta.

Who are the players to watch?

With so many great players retiring, this tournament looks like it will be a tournament where the next generation can play an active role. Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mia Fishel are favorites to represent the United States, while Colombia’s Linda Caicedo is a breakout World Cup star and teammate Mayra Ramirez is set to join England for a record fee. He has just moved to Chelsea.

Some, like Brazil’s Debinha and Canada’s Jesse Fleming, will have to take on more prominent roles as national figures step down.

What is the purpose of the competition?

With the success of the 2021 European Championship and the 2023 World Cup, women’s soccer is receiving increasing attention. With the exception of North American countries, many countries in the CONCACAF region lag behind. According to the organization itself, this tournament is an attempt to rectify that.

“These new competitions will be transformational for the federation by providing a consistent match structure for all member associations. These competitions will accelerate the growth of CONCACAF’s women’s game. Starting next year We can’t wait to meet you,” CONCACAF said. Karina LeBlanc, head of women’s soccer and goalkeeper, earned 110 caps for Canada.

Editor: Mark Meadows