GROUPS ANNOUNCED FOR QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT

May 15th, 2012 - At an informal ceremony at the New York Cosmos office, the twenty teams competing to qualify for Cosmos Copa 2012 learned who they will have to defeat to make it to this year's tournament. The qualifying tournament will be made up of four groups of five teams, with the top two teams in each group advancing. The eight teams that advance from the qualifying tournament will join the eight pre-qualified teams in Cosmos Copa 2012.

The random draw created many unique pairings. In Group 1, there is a local rivalry match between Argentina and Uruguay, Group 3 has an Iberian derby as Spain and Portugal face off and Group 4 will feature newcomers Afghanistan playing the USA.

The qualifying tournament will take place on Randall's Island on June 17th and June 24th, 2012 on fields 72, 74, and 75. All fans are welcome to come and check out the best grassroots soccer in the city. 

For more info on Cosmos Copa, you can find the tournament on facebook and twitter.

Here are the groups for this year's tournament:

Here is the full schedule for this year's Qualifying Tournament: