More information about the schedule of the 2016 Copa America Centenario was released on Thursday and Chicago did quite well in the draw.
Group seeds and game dates for the tournament were announced Thursday and both the U.S. men’s national team and Argentina will be playing group matches at Soldier Field in June. The Americans will play in Chicago on June 7, which will be their second group match, while Argentina will play its second group match at Soldier Field on June 10.
The Copa America Centenario is celebrating 100 years of the Copa America, South America’s continental championship. Typically, the tournament is comprised of the 10 CONMEBOL nations and two guest countries, but the Centenario edition will take place outside South America for the first time ever and will involve six CONCACAF nations to round out the field at 16 teams. The U.S. and Mexico were given automatic berths, Costa Rica and Jamaica have already qualified and the two other CONCACAF spots are still to be determined through playoffs.
[SHOP FIRE: Get your Fire gear right here]
As host nation, the U.S. is the seeded team in Group A and will open the tournament on June 3 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The U.S. will also play in Philadelphia on June 11. The other seeded teams are Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
The rest of the draw, along with the release of the full schedule, will take place in February. In addition to the two group matches, Chicago will host one of the semifinals.
Current Chicago Fire season ticket holders will be eligible to have preferred access to purchase tickets. According to the tournament’s official website, general ticket sales will begin in February.