The U.S. Women's National Team will, for the first time, open a calendar year with qualifying matches for a world championship when it faces the Dominican Republic on Friday, Jan. 20, at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada. It will be the USA's first meeting ever with the island nation and 14 th meeting with a team from the Caribbean, of which seven have been with Trinidad & Tobago. All the U.S. group matches can be seen live on Universal Sports Network. U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage chose a 20-player roster for the competition after an extended training camp in December and a week of training in January, both at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The USA is hoping to play five matches in 10 days throughout the 2012 Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament that runs from Jan. 19-29, and fans can also follow the games via ussoccer.com's MatchTracker, on Twitter @ussoccer_wnt and via online video at UniversalSports.com and CONCACAF.com.
All the matches in the 2012 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament will be held at BC Place, the first time this competition has been held indoors. The tournament will send its top two finishers to the 2012 Summer Olympics. The competition will feature two groups of four teams each, with the top two finishers in each group "crossing-over" for the all-important semifinals on Friday, Jan. 27. The winners of those semifinal matches will earn the region's two berths to London. The USA was drawn into Group B and will open the tournament against the Dominican Republic, squaring off against the Caribbean nation for the first time ever on Friday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET. The USA will then face Guatemala on Sunday, Jan. 22 (4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 ET) and finish group play against Mexico on Tuesday, Jan. 24 (7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 ET). The championship game will be played on Sunday, Jan. 29. Host Canada heads Group A, which also features Costa Rica, Cuba and Haiti.
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