SAN DIEGO — The first-ever CONCACAF W Gold Cup is under way, and the most important matches of the soccer tournament will take place in San Diego this week: Wednesday’s semifinals and Sunday’s championship match.

Here’s a look at the tournament, its participating teams, how to watch and what’s at stake at Snapdragon Stadium.

What is the CONCACAF W Gold Cup?

It’s an international soccer tournament organized by the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, a regional governing body known as CONCACAF. The CONCACAF’s men’s teams have been playing in Gold Cup tournaments every two years since 1991. This is the first W Gold Cup.

Teams from CONCACAF are joined in the Gold Cup by teams from the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), with a total of 15 countries and territories competing for gold.

Preliminary Gold Cup games began Feb. 17. Those games were followed with group stage play, which ran from Feb. 20-28. The quarterfinal matches were played last weekend.

Which teams are in the semifinals and when do they play?

The semifinal matches will take place at Snapdragon Stadium on Wednesday. Brazil will face Mexico at 4 p.m., with the United States squaring off against Canada at 7:15 p.m.

The winners will play Sunday for the W Gold Cup championship. The final begins Sunday at 5:15 p.m. at Snapdragon.

How did the teams get to the semifinals?

The remaining teams battled through a group stage and the quarterfinals before landing in the final four.

Brazil ran away to a 5-1 win over Argentina in the quarterfinals. Brazil reached the quarterfinals with the second-highest standing in the tournament, following Canada, after winning all its games in Group B over Colombia (1-0), Puerto Rico (1-0) and Panama (5-0).

Canada reached the quarterfinals with the top ranking in the tournament based on points earned, goals scored and goal differential. Saturday, Canada got an extra-time goal from Evelyne Viens to beat Puerto Rico 1-0 and advance to the semifinals. This came after Canada dominated its games in Group C, beating Paraguay (4-0), Costa Rica (3-0) and El Salvador (6-0).

San Diego Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan plays for Canada.

Mexico defeated Paraguay 3-2 last weekend to earn a spot in the semis. The win followed a stunning defeat of the U.S. in the third game of the group stage, a 2-0 victory that marked the first time Mexico beat the Americans since 2010. Mexico won its group after tying Argentina (0-0) and beating the Dominican Republic (8-0).

The United States defeated Colombia 3-0 on Sunday to earn a semifinal spot, scoring all three goals — by Lindsey Horan, Jenna Nighswonger and the San Diego Wave’s Jaedyn Shaw — in the first half. Earlier in the tournament, the U.S. defeated Argentina (4-0) and the Dominican Republic (5-0) before a shocking loss to Mexico in group stage, landing the team in second place in Group A. Four Wave players are on Team USA’s W Gold Cup roster: Abby Dahlkemper, Naomi Girma, Alex Morgan and Shaw. Shaw has a team-high three goals for the Americans, while Morgan has two.

Where are the games being played?

The matches will be played at Snapdragon Stadium, home of the NWSL’s Wave.

Since opening in 2022, Snapdragon has fast become a soccer hotbed. The Wave set the NWSL single-game attendance record when they drew 32,000 fans for a September 2022 match against Angel City FC. Snapdragon’s single-game sports attendance record was set in July, when 34,248 fans packed the stadium for a friendly between Manchester United and Wrexham A.F.C. Earlier that month, the U.S. Men’s National Team fell to Panama in a penalty shootout after playing to a 1-1 tie. That match drew 31,690 fans.

Snapdragon hosted the NWSL Championship Game in November, and a title-game-record 25,011 fans watched NJ/NY Gotham FC beat OL Reign.

How to watch the games

Soccer fans can watch the W Gold Cup semifinals and finals on Paramount+ (English) and ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes (Spanish).

Fans can also watch the games in person by purchasing tickets at Ticketmaster.com. Tickets start at $35 per session.

What’s at stake

The winner of this year’s tournament will get the W Gold Cup trophy.

Four of the competing teams are preparing rosters for competition in this summer’s Paris Olympics. Canada, Brazil, the U.S. and Colombia will all compete for medals this summer.

Abby Hamblin contributed to this report.

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