Canada-Bélize le 13 juin à Kingston.

[François]

Kingston to host World Cup qualifying game between Canada and Belize



posted January 9 @ 12:45, EST

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's opening World Cup qualifying game will be held in Kingston, Ont., on June 13, the Canadian Soccer Association announced Friday.

The Canadian men, currently ranked 87th in the world, will take on No. 174 Belize in the first leg of a home-and-away qualifying tie in the CONCACAF region, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean. The return leg will be played on June 20 in Belize. The winner of the tie will advance to one of three four-team groups in the semifinal round of qualifying in the region. The top two countries from each of those groups will advance to a final round of qualifying after round-robin play.

CONCACAF has three automatic berths in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. A fourth country will take on an Asian team in a playoff for another World Cup berth.

The Canada-Belize game will take place in Richardson Stadium at Queen's University. The venue, which seats 10,000, was used by the Canadian women's team in September for an exhibition game against Australia prior to the World Cup.

Notes: Ottawa will host the W-League championship game this summer. The host Ottawa Fury will be joined by the winners of the Eastern, Central and Western Conferences in a final four competition Aug 7-8. Ottawa won the Eastern Conference last year to make it to the final four. Vancouver was the first Canadian team to host the championships, in 2002.

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