TT U-20 women footballers in Group A

In the draw Monday for the two four-team groups, the Jamaicans were placed with the USA, Suriname, and the winner of the Central America series this week in Guatemala.

Hosts Mexico were placed in Group A alongside defending champions Canada, a yet to be decided Central American qualifier, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago in the January 18-27 tournament.

Jamaica qualified as the top Caribbean team when they played undefeated to win last week’s CFU tournament ahead of TT and Suriname. The eight-team CONCACAF tournament will qualify three nations to the 2006 FIFA Under-20 World Championship in Russia from August 17 to September 3.

CONCACAF says it will announce "in due course", the schedule of matches and kick-off times for the games.

The winners and runners-up of each group will earn a place in the event’s semi-finals with the winners of those games earning a place as CONCACAF representatives in FIFA’s Under-20 Women’s World Championship.

CONCACAF’s third spot in the FIFA event will be determined by a third-place play-off game between the two losing semi-finalists.

This is the first time that CONCACAF has staged a qualifying event for the Women’s Under-20 World Championship.

The other CONCACAF Women’s Youth Tournaments were at the Under-19 level in Trinidad and Tobago and Canada in 2002 and 2004, respectively.