Argentina is about to get some company for this summer's historic Copa America Centenario games at CenturyLink Field.
The official draw will take place on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. PT at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The draw will finalize the groups and set the full schedule full the tournament. CenturyLink Field will host three matches, including a match between two teams from Group B on Saturday, June 10, Argentina vs. a team from Group D on Tuesday, June 14, as well as a quarterfinals match on Thursday, June 16.
The draw will be executed with a double-blind system involving the use of eight pots. The first four pots - the "team pots" - will contain groupings of four nations each. The final four pots - the "group pots" - will be used to randomly sort the nations, once drawn from the team pots, into the four groups.
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Pot 1 will contain the four previously announced seeded teams. In efforts to maintain balanced representation of both Confederations in each of the four groups, the remaining 12 nations - four from CONCACAF and eight from CONMEBOL - will be sorted by Confederation into the three remaining pots - one for CONCACAF and two for CONMEBOL. The two pots containing CONMEBOL nations have been divided based on the December 2015 FIFA World Rankings, yielding the following:
- Pot 1 (Seeded Nations): United States, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina
- Pot 2 (CONMEBOL - higher ranked nations): Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay
- Pot 3 (CONCACAF - qualified nations): Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama
- Pot 4 (CONMEBOL - remaining nations): Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela
The four group pots will contain four positions each, one from each group, as follows:
- Pot 5: A1, B1, C1, D1
- Pot 6: A2, B2, C2, D2
- Pot 7: A3, B3, C3, D3
- Pot 8: A4, B4, C4, D4
CenturyLink Field will play host to two group-stage matches: B3 vs. B4 and Argentina vs. D4.
The draw will begin with the pulling of the four seeded teams, in order of group, from Pot 1. As each team is drawn, the corresponding ball from Pot 5 will be drawn, and the seeded team placed in the respective head position of its pre-determined group - United States (Group A), Brazil (Group B), Mexico (Group C), Argentina (Group D).
Next, the team pots will be drawn in order, backwards from Pot 4 to Pot 2. The teams from Pot 4 will be pulled one by one, and a ball drawn from the corresponding Pot 8 to identify the group in which each nation will be placed.
As the teams in Pot 4 will be drawn into groups using Pot 8 (group position 4), those from Pot 3 will be sorted using Pot 7 (group position 3), and the nations from Pot 2 will receive their group assignment by pulling a ball from Pot 6 (group position 2). In this way, group positions are pre-determined by the pot from which a nation is drawn, while the group to which each nation from Pots 2, 3 and 4 is assigned remains in suspense until its ball is pulled from the corresponding group pot.
The evening will conclude with the dramatic drawing of Pot 2 - the highest seeded CONMEBOL sides - pitting continental giants against one another and revealing the full calendar and all the most noteworthy matchups for this summer's historic Copa America Centenario.
Tickets for the historic tournament are now on sale and suites at CenturyLink Field are also available.
