Sporting Park will host the first four Group A matches during the 2015 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship 2015, U.S. Soccer announced today. The international doubleheaders, headlined by the United States U-23 Men’s National Team, will be held on Thursday, Oct. 1 and Saturday, Oct. 3.
Sporting Kansas City Season Ticket Members will be guaranteed seats for all four games by using Special Games B (Oct. 1) and Special Games C (Oct. 3) in their 20-game season ticket packages. Additional ticket information, including prices and on-sale timelines, will be released at a later date.
Sporting Park is one of four host venues for the tournament along with the StubHub Center (Carson, California), Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (Commerce City, Colorado) and Rio Tinto Stadium (Sandy, Utah). The state-of-the-art stadium in Kansas City, Kansas also served as the site of the semifinals and championship matches in the previous CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship in 2012.
“One of the great things about all of these venues has been the amazing support the fans have given the National Team,” U.S. U-23 MNT head coach Andi Herzog said. “We have seen how much of an impact our fans have, and we need them more than ever as we strive to represent the United States in the 2016 Olympics.”
The competition will feature the top eight teams from North America (U.S., Canada and Mexico), Central America (three nations TBD) and the Caribbean (two nations TBD) in pursuit of the region’s two automatic berths into the 2016 Olympic Games next summer in Rio de Janeiro. The official draw for the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship 2015 will be held in August to set the complete tournament schedule with match-ups and kick-off times.
Countries qualify using under-23 national teams (player born in 1993 or later) and the U.S. U-23 MNT features three players who played in the 2014 FIFA World Cup: John Brooks (Hertha BSC), Julian Green (Bayern Munich) and DeAndre Yedlin (Tottenham). Other eligible players include Sporting Kansas City homegrown goalkeeper Jon Kempin and Stanford sophomore Jordan Morris, who scored the game-winning goal for the full U.S. MNT in a 2-0 victory over Mexico last month.
