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Rose Bowl to be among 10 Copa America venues

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The Rose Bowl in Pasadena is one of 10 venues chosen Thursday to host games in next June’s prestigious Copa America soccer tournament.

Other stadiums chosen from a shortlist of 24 cities were Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.; Soldier Field in Chicago; Houston’s NRG Stadium; MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, M.J.; the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field; University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium; and Century Link Field in Seattle. The tournament is scheduled for June 3-26.

Which teams and which games will be played in each stadium won’t be determined until the early next year when the tournament draw is held. However, organizers said many venues will play host to as many as three games in the 32-game event.

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South American powers Argentina, Brazil and Chile are among the 16 teams in the field, which will also include Mexico and the U.S. Rose Bowl officials, who have applied for permission to stage four matches, have said privately they are hopeful Mexico plays at least one of its games in Pasadena. El Tri has played twice in Southern California this year and has drawn more than 88,000 people each time.

The Copa America, South America’s championships and the world’s oldest international tournament, is widely considered soccer’s third-most-important competition after the World Cup and the European Championships. Next summer’s 100th-anniversary edition will mark the first time the tournament will be played outside South America.

The tournament is being managed by CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, the ruling federations for soccer in the Americas. But it may be even more important for U.S. Soccer, which will serve as the local organizing committee.

That’s because the size and prestige of the nationwide event will provide U.S. Soccer with a chance to demonstrate its planning and organizational abilities before it makes its expected bid to bring the World Cup back to this country in 2026.

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