Canada Opens FIFA World Cup Qualifiers In Saint Vincent The Grenadines

The Canadian Soccer Association announced today that the first leg of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Qualifiers will be played on 15 June 2008 in Saint Vincent the Grenadines. The 15 June match will be played at the Amos Vale Playing Field in Kingstown on the Saint Vincent island.

The return leg will be played the following week in Canada, with date and location to be announced in the near future. The original CONCACAF schedule had Canada opening at home before playing St. Vincent the Grenadines on the road a week later. Both countries agreed to the switch this week.

The two-leg match will be Canada’s first official steps on the road to the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010. The winner of the two-game series will advance to the CONCACAF Group B semi-final, a four-team, six-game round-robin series played between August and November 2008.

Canada’s senior team has not faced Saint Vincent the Grenadines since the SVG Football Federation became a FIFA member in 1988. The SVGFF was only formed nine years earlier in 1979. Canada won 2:1 over Saint Vincent the Grenadines on 8 March 1985 in an exhbition match in Kingstown.