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The United States men's national team will face Trinidad and Tobago while Mexico will take on Honduras in November's Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals, which will determine automatic qualification for the 2024 Copa América.
The home-and-away quarterfinal series announced Wednesday also feature Canada taking on Jamaica and Costa Rica facing Panama in the race for the four spots in next year's Concacaf Nations League Finals in March 2024.
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The winners of those quarterfinals will also earn four of the six Concacaf invitations for the Copa América, South America's top men's national team tournament that will be hosted in the U.S. next summer in a collaboration between Conmebol and Concacaf. Those six Concacaf teams will join the 10 South American nations in the competition.
The four losing teams in the Nations League quarterfinals will have an additional chance to claim the two remaining Copa América invites for Concacaf through a single-match play-in round that will also take place next March.
Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun helped the U.S. to a 4-0 friendly win over Ghana on Tuesday. Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images
Mexico, the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica were all given byes into the Nations League quarterfinal stage thanks to being placed as the top four teams in March's Concacaf rankings.
Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Honduras all earned quarterfinal spots after finishing in the top two of their respective groups in Concacaf Nations League A.
According to Concacaf, "to determine the Quarterfinal pairings the four pre-seeded nations have been ranked according to the Concacaf Rankings and the group winners and runners-up based on the number of points they accumulated during the Group Stage."
The Nations League semifinals will take place on March 21, 2024 and will be followed by a third place match and championship match on March 24. Semifinal pairings (No. 1 vs No. 4 and No. 2 vs No. 3) will be determined by performance in the quarterfinal round.
The U.S. is the current Nations League title-holder thanks to a 2-0 victory over Canada in June's championship match.
The USMNT came out on top in the last competitive meeting against Trinidad & Tobago, winning 6-0 in the group stage of the 2023 Gold Cup, however T&T claimed a famous win six years ago to stop the U.S. from qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.
The Copa America is expected to form a significant part of the preparations for the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada
CONCACAF NATIONS LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 16
United States vs Trinidad and Tobago
Costa Rica vs Panama
Friday, Nov. 17
Jamaica vs Canada
Honduras vs Mexico
Monday, Nov. 20
Trinidad and Tobago vs United States
Panama vs Costa Rica
Tuesday, Nov. 21
Canada vs Jamaica
Mexico vs Honduras
Source: espn.co.uk