Cuba vs. Panama at Soccer Pre-Olympics

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 2 (acn) The Cuban U-23 soccer team and its Panamanian counterpart opened on Thursday the actions of group A of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament, to be held in several US cities.

The event will bring together eight teams into two groups and pool A also includes the squads of United States and Canada, while Costa Rica, Haiti, Mexico and Honduras appear in group B.
The two teams reaching the finals will earn a direct ticket to the Rio Olympics, while the bronze medalist will play a playoff against Colombia, according to the event's organizers.
This first game against Panama will be held at the Sporting Park, in Kansas City, where Cubans need to win and get the three points, because then they will have two games against the strongest teams in the group.
The Cuban squad reaches the contest with only two friendly matches against Nicaragua and will face the United States (October 3 in Kansas) and Canada (October 6, at the Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado).