USA hosting CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship in Dallas, Houston

CHICAGO (Via U.S. Soccer) – The United States will host the 2016 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship from Feb. 10-21 in Dallas and Houston.

The two venues for the competition are BBVA Compass Stadium, home to the Houston Dash of the NWSL and the Houston Dynamo of MLS, and Toyota Stadium, home to FC Dallas of MLS, which is located in the Dallas suburb of Frisco.

The tournament will feature eight nations divided into two groups of four, with the top two finishers in each group after round-robin play advancing to the semifinals. The winners of the semifinal matches qualify for the Olympics.

The United States will be in Group A and will play all of its group matches in Frisco. The round-robin stage of the tournament will be conducted with three doubleheaders in each group. Group A will play doubleheaders at Toyota Stadium on Feb. 10, 13 and 15 and Group B will play doubleheaders at BBVA Compass Stadium on Feb. 11, 14 and 16. The all-important semifinal matches will be on Feb. 19 in Houston with the championship game on Feb. 21, also in Houston.

The top two finishers in the tournament will qualify for the 2016 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament that will run from Aug. 3-20 in six Brazilian cities including the host city of Rio de Janeiro.

“The Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship is a tremendous platform for our brightest stars on the women’s stage,” said CONCACAF Acting General Secretary Ted Howard. “At CONCACAF we take pride in the quality of our women’s football, and look forward to following our teams on their path to Rio.”

The eight participating nations will include host United States as well Canada and Mexico, which get automatic berths into the tournament. Those three countries will be joined by three nations from the Caribbean region and two from Central America, with qualifiers in those regions beginning in late September.

“We’re excited to host this event at two excellent venues and look forward to some entertaining matches in what will be the first tournament competition for our team since the Women’s World Cup,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati. “The quality of women’s soccer in CONCACAF continues to improve during every cycle and we expect that to be the case once again over the 15 matches in Texas.”

The final tournament schedule and kick-off times will be set following the qualifying tournaments in Central America and the Caribbean.

2016 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship Schedule