Puerto Rico (pictured) will open its 2014 CFU Women's Caribbean Cup campaign against visiting Barbados on May 25, 2014, at the Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel in Bayamon. (Photo courtesy of the Federación Puertorriqueña de Fútbol)
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Caribbean qualifying for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup opens Friday as 11 of the region’s 19 entrants enter into the process of securing berths in the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship.
Those places will be earned through the inaugural Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s Caribbean Cup. Each of the five first-round winners and the two teams with the best runner-up records will advance to the Caribbean final round, where they will join host Trinidad & Tobago for an eight-team tournament, August 19-26.
The pair of sides that ultimately vie for the Caribbean title -- as well as the winner of the match for third place -- will advance to the CONCACAF event, which is scheduled to be played in the United States.
The top three teams to emerge from the Confederation competition will qualify for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. The fourth-place team will contest a playoff with a South American rival with another World Cup ticket at stake.
Antigua, Puerto Rico and Turks & Caicos will each host one of five first-round groups, May 23-27, while Haiti (May 30-June 3) and the Dominican Republic (June 18-22) will welcome the remaining quartets.
Four years ago, Guyana, Haiti and Trinidad & Tobago represented the Caribbean at the CONCACAF finals in Cancun, Mexico.
2014 CARIBBEAN WOMEN’S WORLD CUP QUALIFYING SCHEDULE
FIRST ROUND
GROUP 1 (at St. John’s, Antigua & Barbuda – Antigua Recreation Grounds)
Friday – May 23, 2014
Aruba v St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Antigua & Barbuda v U.S. Virgin Islands
Sunday – May 25, 2014
St. Vincent & the Grenadines v U.S. Virgin Islands
Antigua & Barbuda v Aruba
Tuesday – May 27, 2014
U.S. Virgin Islands v Aruba
Antigua & Barbuda v St. Vincent & the Grenadines
GROUP 2 (at Bayamon, Puerto Rico – Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel)
Friday – May 23, 2014
Martinique v Barbados
Sunday – May 25, 2014
Puerto Rico v Barbados
Tuesday – May 27, 2014
Puerto Rico v Martinique
GROUP 3 (at Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands – TCIFA National Academy)
Friday – May 23, 2014
Cayman Islands v St. Kitts & Nevis
Turks & Caicos Islands v Bermuda
Sunday – May 25, 2014
Bermuda v Cayman Islands
Turks & Caicos Islands v St. Kitts & Nevis
Tuesday – May 27, 2014
St. Kitts & Nevis v Bermuda
Turks & Caicos v Cayman Islands
GROUP 4 (at Mirebalais, Haiti – Park Bayas)
Friday – May 30, 2014
Cuba v Suriname
Haiti v Guadeloupe
Sunday – June 1, 2014
Guadeloupe v Cuba
Haiti v Suriname
Tuesday – June 3, 2014
Suriname v Guadeloupe
Haiti v Cuba
GROUP 5 (at San Cristobal, Dominican Republic – Estadio Panamericano)
Wednesday – June 18, 2014
Jamaica v St. Lucia
Dominican Republic v Anguilla
Friday – June 20, 2014
Anguilla v Jamaica
Dominican Republic v St. Lucia
Sunday – June 22, 2014
St. Lucia v Anguilla
Dominican Republic v Jamaica