The draw for the upcoming AmeriCup was conducted on Saturday in Puerto Rico’s host city of San Juan. The ten teams were drawn into two groups as the top four teams in the tournament will advance to the next round of world championship qualifying.
With the South American Championship unable to be played, the top four ranked teams in the region, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela joined the four teams from Centrobasket and the two teams in the North America region to complete the field. The teams will play their four group stage games over five days from the 11th through the 15th. The bottom team in each group will be eliminated at that time with the all-important quarterfinals being played on June 17th. The rest of the knockout stage will be played on the 18th and 19th. El Salvador is happy to have gotten the final place in the qualification process, but will face an uphill task in upsetting any of the other Group A teams with Canada and Brazil figuring to fight for the top two spots and Colombia and the US Virgin Islands expecting the quarterfinals. Group B offers a number of intriguing contests with all teams believing that they can play themselves into a good matchup to quality. The team of current college players that the United States will send will be watched closely. Puerto Rico has made big strides since the last tournament that they also hosted and will be tough as they will face their big rivals the Dominican Republic. Venezuela will be looking to make a splash after missing out on the last tournament and Argentina will be bringing a tough team.