CanW20's path to 2024 U20 World Cup drawn out ahead of qualifiers
The Canadian Women’s U20 team learned their fate for the 2024 U20 World Cup qualifying cycle on Thursday, as they were drawn into groups for the 2023 CONCACAF Women’s U20 Championship qualifiers.
There, Canada was drawn in Group A with El Salvador, Cuba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Martinique and the US Virgin Islands, whom they’ll take on from April 14-23 in round-robin play.
The results are in!
— Concacaf W (@ConcacafW) February 16, 2023
Check out the groups for the #CWU20 Qualifiers 👀
🔗 https://t.co/kH5aBspbKz pic.twitter.com/KidcyDvKoj
As part of CONCACAF’s revamped youth tournaments format, teams were ranked from #1 to 34 based on their performance in the 2022 U20 cycle, with the top two teams getting a bye to the CONCACAF Championships proper, leaving teams #3 to 34 to begin in qualifiers.
Therefore, Canada, who finished third at the 2022 Championships, will have to begin their journey towards the 2024 World Cup in qualifiers, where they’ll need to win their group to make it to the CONCACAF Championships proper, held in the Dominican Republic, from May 24 to June 3rd.
There, the two top-ranked teams, the US and Mexico, will be joined by the six group winners from qualifiers, where all eight teams will then be split into groups of four for another round-robin.
Then, after that, the top two from each group will go to the semi-finals, where the two finalists and the winner of the third-place game will qualify for the World Cup, with the first-place team also being crowned U20 Champions.
Concacaf launches exciting new youth competitions format https://t.co/rVu2ym5VmG
— Concacaf (@Concacaf) February 16, 2023
Concacaf lanza nuevo y emocionante formato para competencias juveniles https://t.co/1rzznAMUQf pic.twitter.com/AZJJHWitIP
Canada will be looking for redemption this cycle, as while they did well to make it back to their first U20 World Cup since 2016 last summer, they flamed out in Costa Rica, losing all three games.
Plus, continentally, they haven’t won the CONCACAF U20 Championships since 2008, where they defeated the US in the final, something they’ll also look to change this summer.
Before then, however, Canada will have to begin by taking care of business in qualifiers, which kick off in less than two months. Per CONCACAF, the schedule and other key details are set to be announced in the days to come.
