Victoria Named A Host City For Gold Cup

Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Soccer Association, in conjunction with the Football Confederation, today announced that Victoria, BC, will serve as one of the four host cities for the Women’s Gold Cup 2002, the championship for women’s national teams in the Football Confederation from October 27 to November 9.



The second edition of the continental championship will also serve as FC qualifying for the FIFA 2003 Women’s World Cup, to be held in the People’s Republic of China from September 28 to October 18, 2003. The FC has two direct berths with the possibility of a third through a playoff against the third-place finisher in qualifying in the Asian Football Confederation.



Eight teams will participate in the Women’s Gold Cup final tournament, divided into two groups of four teams each. One group will play in Pasadena and Fullerton, California and Seattle, Washington in the USA, with the other in Victoria. The semi-finals will be held in Seattle, with the Women’s Gold Cup final set for Pasadena, California on November 9, 2002.



The venues for Group A include 45,000-seat Safeco Field in Seattle and the 100,000-seat Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which has hosted a pair of FIFA World Cup finals (USA 1994 and the 1999 Women’s World Cup). The third venue will be 9,500-seat Titan Stadium in Fullerton. All of the Group B matches will be played in 6,000-seat Centennial Stadium in Victoria, one of the three stadia that will be used for this summer’s inaugural FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Championship in Canada.



Ticket information for all four venues and the tournament as a whole will be announced in the very near future.



As with all Confederation championships, the eight finalists will come from the three zones. Three of the teams will come from the North Zone, three from the Caribbean Zone and two from the Central Zone.



Caribbean qualifying will begin at the end of June, to be completed by the end of August. Twelve teams have entered, placed into two groups (A and B), with each group winner advancing to the FC Women’s Gold Cup. The two group runners-up will playoff for the third Caribbean slot available.



The Central Zone qualifying tournament is tentatively scheduled to be held in August, with the top two advancing to the Women’s Gold Cup finals, the winner placed into Group 2, the runner-up to Group 1. All three North Zone countries – Canada, Mexico and USA – advance directly to the final competition.



The inaugural edition of the FC Women’s Gold Cup was held in 2000, an invitational tournament which also included a pair of powerful sides from outside the Confederation in Brazil and China PR. The USA defeated Brazil 1-0 in the final held at Foxboro Stadium, with China knocking off Canada to claim third place.



SCHEDULE – FC WOMEN’S GOLD CUP 2002



GROUP 1: USA, MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA 2nd, CARIBBEAN A

GROUP 2: CANADA, CENTRAL AMERICA 1st, CARIBBEAN B, CARIBBEAN 3rd



Sunday 27 October 2002 (Pasadena, California USA)

CENTRAL 2 v CARIBBEAN A (13:00); USA v MEXICO (15:00)



Tuesday 29 October 2002 (Fullerton, California USA)

USA v CARIBBEAN A (19:00); CENTRAL 2 v MEXICO (21:00)



Wednesday 30 October 2002 (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)

CARIBBEAN 3 v CARIBBEAN B (18:00); CANADA v CENTRAL 1 (20:00)



Friday 1 November 2002 (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)

CARIBBEAN 3 v CENTRAL 1 (18:00); CANADA v CARIBBEAN B (20:00)



Saturday 2 November 2002 (Seattle, Washington USA)

MEXICO v CARIBBEAN A (17:00); USA v CENTRAL 2 (19:30)



Sunday 3 November 2002 (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)

CARIBBEAN B v CENTRAL 1 (12:00); CANADA v CARIBBEAN 3 (14:00)



Wednesday 6 November 2002 (Seattle, Washington USA)

SEMI-FINAL 1: WINNER GROUP 2 v RUNNER-UP GROUP 1 (17:00*)

SEMI-FINAL 2: WINNER GROUP 1 v RUNNER-UP GROUP 2 (19:30*)



Saturday 9 November 2002 (Pasadena, California USA)

THIRD-PLACE MATCH (16:30); FINAL (19:00)



*Semi-final timings subject to change depending upon television

consideration