No one is going to argue that the CONCACAF Gold Cup is the world’s biggest tournament. And winning the 2009 Gold Cup doesn’t even qualify you for the next Confederations Cup in 2013 (the 2011 Gold Cup will do that). But it’s still an international tournament, and it kicks off today.
For the uninitiated, this is the regional tournament (think Euros, Copa America, Africa Cup of Nations etc) for CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football). The USA is hosting, as usual (since the CONCACAF Championship became the Gold Cup in 1991, the USA has either hosted or co-hosted every edition).
The 2009 Gold Cup teams, schedule and TV listings are after the jump…
It’s twelve teams split into three groups of four:
Group A:
Canada
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Jamaica
Group B:
Grenada
Haiti
Honduras
United States
Group C:
Guadeloupe
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
After that it’s quarter-finals, leading to the obvious question: How do you get eight quarterfinalists from three groups?
Here’s how:
The top two teams from each of the three groups and two wildcards, the
two third-place teams with the most points, shall qualify for the
Quarterfinals.
At the end of group play, if two or more teams are equal on points
(including ties among third place teams), the manner in which teams will
advance to the next round will be resolved as follows and in the order
indicated:
a. Greater number of points in matches between the tied teams.
b. Greater Goal Difference in matches between the tied teams (if
more than two teams finish equal on points).
c. Greater number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams
(if more than two teams finish equal on points).
d. Greater Goal Difference in all group matches.
e. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches.
f. Drawing of lots.
Source: CONCACAF Gold Cup 2009 regulations pdf
The USA games are all on Fox Soccer Channel in the United States, with other games on Spanish language channels Univision, Galavision or Telefutura. Here’s the schedule and TV listings taken from USSoccer.com:
If you’re in Canada, then Rogers Sportsnet will be broadcasting all of Canada’s games.
So, who’s looking good? Well, the US initially named a weakened 23 man roster that looked a lot like Freddy Adu’s last chance to do something at international level this year. But due to their Confederations Cup involvement they’ve been allowed to add seven Confed Cup players (including Jozy Altidore) to make a 30-man megaroster. USA WCB has the final USA 2009 Gold Cup roster.
Mexico have named a semi-strong roster (Mexico WCB has it here) featuring Carlos Vela and Gio dos Santos. Javier Aguirre will be keen to restore some Mexican pride after all that Sven business, and I think it’s fair toc all US and Mexico joint favourites here.
Costa Rica have to be third favourites given their recent form, and that impressive win vs the USA at home in World Cup qualifying. Honduras should be capable of making challenge too, and you can see their roster on Honduras WCB.
Canada (the only nation outside of US and Mexico to have won this thing since 1991) have gone with some fresh faces, so Mike at Canada WCB is providing squad bios for their complete roster.
Complete 2009 Gold Cup squads/rosters can be found on Wikipedia. Team profiles on the official Gold Cup website.
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