CONCACAF: Win (or Place or Show) and In

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It’s time to get serious about the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. For the USWNT and their regional foes, everything is on the line as the 2018 CONCACAF Championship unfolds over the next couple of weeks.

Starting on Thursday night, the United States will face Mexico, Panama (Sunday) and Trinidad & Tobago (next Wednesday) in Group A, all at the home of the NWSL’s newly-crowned Champion North Carolina Courage.

Group B features Canada, Jamaica, Cuba and Costa Rica. They’ll be fighting it out in Texas on Friday, then on Monday and Thursday next week.

The top two sides from each Group will advance to the Knockout Stage, to be played at Toyota Park in Frisco, TX on October 14th and 17th. The top 3 teams get an automatic trip to France, so that’s where everyone will want to be.

The United States Group A matches will be covered by FS1 and FS2. In the Knockout Stage, FS1 will broadcast all but the 3rd/4th place match on the 17th. That match will appear on FS2.

USSoccer has stated that “all matches can be live-streamed via FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app on iOS and Android, as well as connected devices, including Apple TV, Android TV, FireTV, Roku, Chromecast and Xbox One.” Details:

Group B? No TV. Sorry, Canada fans not in Canada. “All matches” seems to mean “All Group A matches.” Don’t complain too much; getting non-USA matches on TV and/or a live-stream has been a major hurdle in past years. In any case, Canada is directing their domestic fans to watch via ConcacafGo.com, which re-directs to an OZ page that seems to be dead. Maybe they’ll fix it by Friday. Good luck!

Alex would appreciate it if you watch the games.

Squads:

Your USWNT 20-woman roster:

And, all the other sides:

Predictions!

I’d expect the United States and Mexico to come out of Group A as the 1st and 2nd place teams. In Group B, it’s likely to be Canada and Costa Rica. That would set up a USA v Costa Rica and Canada v Mexico knockout round. That final might get interesting…

In any case, I’ll do in-depth previews for the knockout games as the tournament reaches that stage. For now:

Thursday at 7:30PM Eastern on FS2:
USA 4-2 Mexico
This match has potential to be closer, as Mexico is better and benefitting from a domestic women’s league that is growing in popularity, the Liga MX Feminil. Several players also compete abroad.

Sunday at 5:00PM Eastern on FS1:
Panama 0-3 USA
If there are deficiencies vs Mexico, they’ll be fixed vs Panama.

Wednesday at 7:30PM Eastern on FS2:
Trinidad & Tobago* 1-6 USA
Can’t you just see T&T opening the scoring in this match? Everyone will have a heart attack. Well, everyone not on the pitch. The steely USWNT won’t take long to get level before stomping on the pedal and running up the score.

*Thou shalt not talk smack about the USMNT and Trinidad & Tobago: bad Karma!