Canada’s women’s soccer team begins its 2024 campaign with a new international tournament.

The CONCACAF W Gold Cup starts on Tuesday and runs until Mar. 10. The tournament features 12 teams from the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL regions, including top-tier opponents like the United States and Brazil. Canada kicks off their group stage on Thursday.

“I think the tournament's giving us totally different styles of play, which is brilliant,” Bev Priestman, Canada’s head coach, said during a recent media call.

The teams are divided into three groups. Canada will play out of Group C in Houston, with the other groups taking place in San Diego and Carson, Calif.

The top two teams from each group, along with the two best third-placed teams, advance to the knockout round. The quarter-finals will be played at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, while Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego will host the semifinals and final.

Here’s what you need to know about the tournament and the top storylines for Canada.

The Gold Cup is a new tournament that was initially announced by CONCACAF in late 2020. It’s not to be confused with the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup that ran in the early 2000s, which was the qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women’s World Cup at the time.

This iteration of the Gold Cup doesn’t serve as qualifiers for a major tournament. Instead, this is CONCACAF’s version of Nations League, with the goal to provide more national team matches for CONCACAF teams, particularly those nations that don’t have as many opportunities or resources for friendlies or matches outside of official qualifying tournaments.

Twelve teams will take part in the tournament. The United States, ranked second in the world, automatically qualified as winners of the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship (the qualifying tournament for the 2023 World Cup).

Canada qualified after beating Jamaica in the two-leg CONCACAF Olympic playoff last September.

Six other CONCACAF teams will also participate. Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica all qualified as winners of their respective groups in the Road to CONCACAF Gold Cup. The three remaining CONCACAF teams (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and El Salvador) earned their spots after winning their respective playoffs on Saturday.

The remaining four teams are invitees from CONMEBOL and qualified as the........

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