Bolivia to attend 2016 Centennial Copa America in US

Bolivia's national soccer team will leave for the United States on May 26 to participate in the international 2016 Centennial Copa America tournament which will run from June 3 to 26.

The President of the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF), Rolando Lopez, told local media in the city of Cochabamba on Saturday that there is a training plan that he hopes the team are able to fulfill and that the local league teams will not affect preparation.

"The delegation will leave in two groups for the United States on May 26. They will head to Kansas City to first play friendlies with other teams and then they will face the international competition," said Lopez.

According to FBF's planned schedule, the Bolivian team will play a friendly in Kansas City on May 28 against the United States ahead of the tournament.

Bolivia will play their first match in the 2016 Centennial Copa America on June 6 against Panama in Orlando. The two Latin American countries are part of Group D along with Argentina and Chile.

Twenty-six teams will participate in the 2016 Centennial Copa America, including the 10 South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) members - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

These teams will be joined by six members from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football Concacaf), including the United states who will host the tournament and have previously won the Concacaf Gold Cup in 2013. Six times winners of the Gold Cup, Mexico, and the 2014 champion of the Central American Cup, Costa Rica, will also participate in the tournament.

Lopez also said that coach Julio Cesar Baldivieso announced the shortlist of players on Friday and on May 20, the official final 23-man squad to play in the international championship will be announced.

Baldivieso has included six new players in the preliminary list which includes 40 players.

Training will take place in the central city of Cochabamba, according to Lopez, while Baldivieso said on Friday that Santa Cruz is also an option.