ARLINGTON, Va. With a busy June featuring three World Cup qualifiers serving as the chief priority for the U.S. Men's National Team this summer, the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup has long been as seen as a secondary task, and a likely showcase for the plethora of young American players currently on the fringes of the national team radar.
Tonight, the United States kicks off their absolutely critical calendar year with a friendly against Canada in Houston, Texas. While most of the "regulars" have been given the camp off to stay with their club teams, tonight marks the beginning of an incredibly crucial stretch for the USMNT.
There's quite simply no way to overstate the importance of the 2013 calendar year for the United States Men's National Soccer Team.
There's quite simply no way to overstate the importance of the 2013 calendar year for the United States Men's National Soccer Team. The final round of World Cup Qualification (admirably referred to as "The Hex"), the CONCACAF Gold Cup, as well as several friendlies that will help coach Jurgen Klinsmann decide who will be a part of the next generation of American soccer.
About five months from now, U.S. Men's National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann will have some serious decisions to make. A trio of World Cup qualifiers will be looming in June, a mini-tournament of sorts that will go a long way in determining how well the USMNT qualifying campaign is going.
That is how many times, and over how long a period of time, the U.S. Men's National Team had
traveled south of the border looking for a win against Mexico. Twenty four times they tried and 24
times they failed to win, and 23 of those times they lost.
Just 54 days before the start of the tournament, CONCACAF debutedthe 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup trophy at a press conference on Tuesday in Mexico City.
The new trophy uses the original design of the cup and is sculpted in metal with gold plating. It also features larger handles than the prior version, formed at a sharper angle.
One issue that had plagued the Gold Cup in the past is that countries have stacked their rosters with back-up players in the year that the winners did not qualify for the Confederations Cup.
Not anymore!!
CONCACAF announced on Friday that the winners of the 2013 Gold Cup will play the winners of the 2105 Gold Cup in a single-game playoff for a place in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.
The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup schedule was announced on Wednesday and the U.S. Men's National Team was placed in a group alongside Costa Rica, Belize and Cuba.
The Americans will face Belize at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland on July 9th before traveling to Salt Lake City to take on Cuba on July 13th.
Today US Soccer and CONCACAF announced the schedule and host cities for the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The regional championship returns to Seattle as CenturyLink Field will host Panama v Martinique and Mexico v Canada in the second match of Group A on July 11th. With British Columbia residents rarely seeing their nation's men's team plenty of border crossers should supplement the strong Canadian expat community in the greater Puget Sound, but it will almost certainly feel like a road game for them.
Just two days after CONCACAF announced that the 2013 Gold Cup would open at the Rose Bowl with the Mexican National Team, sources have confirmed to SBI that the 2013 Gold Cup Final will take place at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Soldier Field hosted the 2007 Gold Cup Final won by the United States (which defeated Mexico thanks to Benny Feilhaber's memorable game-winning goal).
CONCACAF announced the Gold Cup host venues Wednesday and fans in the Pacific Northwest will be happy with the news. Seattle's CenturyLink Field and Portland's JELD-WEN field will both host matches in the biannual tournament.
The Gold Cup is expanding its US footprint by going to several cities that have never hosted one of its matches, including Portland.
Today CONCACAF announced the host cities for the 2013 Gold Cup. Seattle and CenturyLink Field will host for the third time in the last nine years. Our southern neighbors in Portland for the first time. CONCACAF follows the FIFA rules and allows artificial surfaces to host matches as long as they meet certain standards.
CONCACAF announced Wednesday the 13 venues and host cities that will welcome the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup from July 7-28, 2013.
There will be more venues and five of them will be MLS stadiums.
The region's premier National Team tournament will again expand its footprint by visiting eight new world-class venues in this year's edition: Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA; M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, MD; Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, CO; Rentschler Field in East Hartford, CT; BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, TX; Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL; JELD-WEN Field in Portland, OR and Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City, UT.
League Two side Bradford City have achieved the near-impossible, beating Aston Villa 4-3 over two legs to make it to the League Cup Final next month at Wembley Stadium.
Despite playing in the fourth division of English football, the team from the north of England took down three Premier League sides on their way to the finals, starting with Wigan, then Arsenal, before finishing with Aston Villa on Tuesday.
ESPN is reporting that the U.S. and Mexican national teams will join four other CONCACAF teams and 10 CONMEBOL teams in Copa America 2016, to be played in the United States that year.
ESPN's Jorge Ramos said as much in a tweet (in Spanish) earlier today.
The U.S. Men's National Team takes on Jamaica in World Cup qualifying on Friday and with stars
Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley set to miss out, Jurgen Klinsmann will have some important
decisions to make on how he shapes his lineup without those two stars.
Without Donovan and Bradley, and potentially without Clint Dempsey, the U.
Jamaica's lineup against the United States for the pair of World Cup qualifiers next month
certainly won't be lacking speed.
Vancouver Whitecaps rookie Darren Mattocks and winger Dane Richards, and Colorado Rapids forward
Omar Cummings were named to Jamaica's 24-man roster and will spearhead the attack for the Reggae
Boyz in games in Kingston, Jamaica, on Sept.
FOX Soccer will be the home for the biggest CONCACAF competitions for the next four years after
signing a four-year deal with the Confederation to air the next two Gold Cups and the CONCACAF
Champions League through the 2015/2016 competition.
FOX Soccer announced the deal on Tuesday, and revealed that not only will the network broadcast
the two tournaments on FOX Soccer Channel, but will also be able to carry all of the tournament's
matches on FOX Soccer's digital platforms:
Additionally, FOX Soccer has the option of showcasing all CONCACAF Champions League and Gold
Cup matches through its wide array of digital platforms, including FOXSoccer.
American soccer fans have grown to expect that the CONCACAF Gold Cup will be held on U.S. soil,
but that might not be a given going forward.
In an interview with Reuters, new CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb said that the organization is
going to explore options outside of the United States to host the regional tournament.
The long-discuscced special Copa America is no longer just a rumor.
New CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb revealed on Wednesday that the confederation is in talks
with CONMEBOL about a possible 2016 Copa America that would include teams from both regions.
The U.S. Men's National Team's busy summer is ready to get a little busier as word has emerged that the team is set to return to San Diego for the first time since 2006.
The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that the U.S. will face Guatemala on July 5th at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego in the team's final tune-up match before the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was shaping up to be the tournament nobody cared about, what with World Cup qualifying in June and Mexico's participation in the Confederations Cup taking priority. Without a berth in the next Confederations Cup on the line, there just wasn't much reason for the region's powers to devote maximum resources to this summer's Gold Cup.
Costa Rica reached the final in fine style, winning two and drawing one of their three matches in the group stages, going on to defeat El Salvador 1-0 in the semi-final.
The Honduran National Team coach says that Andy Najar will not be called in for the Copa Centroamericana due to the fact that he will be with Anderlecht.
Luis Fernando Suarez, head coach of the Honduran National Team, has told Honduran press that Andy Najar will not be on the team that is competing in the Copa Centroamericana due to the fact that Suarez does not want to interfere with Najar's time with Anderlecht.
Luis Fernando Suarez, head coach of the Honduran National Team, has told Honduran press that Andy Najar will not be on the team that is competing in the Copa Centroamericana due to the fact that Suarez does not want to interfere with Najar's time with Anderlecht. The top five teams from the Copa Centroamericana, which runs from 18 January to 27 January 2013 and was formerly known as the UNCAF Nations Cup, advance to this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup; that being said, it is five teams out of seven participants, with Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama the nations who contest this Cup.
Mario Martinez has officially been called up to the Honduras national team for a series of upcoming matches, including their World Cup qualifier against the United States on Feb. 6. Martinez could play as many as four additional games for Honduras in the Copa Centroamericana, which serves as the qualifying tournament for the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Varying reports out of Honduras are stating that Los Catrachos striker Jerry Bengtson, a veteran
of the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup and a member of the Honduran Olympic Squad, has signed for the New
England Revolution and will be arriving for a medical this week. Some sources place the date of
that examination to be Tuesday the 3rd.
Bedoya has left Rangers and signed with Helsingborg, a team currently in the mix for a place in
the UEFA Champions League group stage, through the rest of the Allsvenskan season, according to
Yanks Abroad. Ironically, Helsingborg's opponent in the final UCL qualifying round is Rangers'
rival, Celtic.
Luis Robles is a member of the New York Red Bulls after all.
The Red Bulls used their place in the allocation order to select Robles, who signed with MLS
Tuesday night. The club had initially tried to sign Robles during the winter, but when it became
apparent that he could not sign directly with the club and would have been subjected to the
allocation order, the deal came off the table.
Union eye up the Crew for return to winning ways. Jeff Cook hired as new Union academy director of recruiting. Happy birthday US Soccer Federation. More news.
The US hosts Costa Rica in a FIFA World Cup Qualifier tonight at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado, tonight (ESPN, WatchESPN and UniMas from 7 p.m. CT.). Inpreparation for the matchUS Soccer has posted some classic video's of the two sides. So I'm putting them up here for your enjoyment.
Here are the groups and match schedule for this summer's CONCACAF championship tournament.
Group A Canada Martinique Mexico Panama
Group B El Salvador Haiti Honduras Trinidad + Tobago
Group C Belize Costa Rica Cuba USA
Group Stage -Sun Jul 7 Canada v Martinique - 4:30pm CT Mexico v Panama - 7:00pm CT Venue: Rose Bowl - Pasadena -Mon Jul 8 El Salvador v Trinidad + Tobago - 6:00pm CT Haiti v Honduras - 8:30pm CT Venue: Red Bull Arena - Harrison -Tue Jul 9 Costa Rica v Cuba - 7:30pm CT Belize v USA - 10:00pm CT Venue: JELD-WEN Field - Portland -Thu Jul 11 Panama v Martinique - 7:30pm CT Mexico v Canada - 10:00pm CT Venue: CenturyLink Field - Seattle -Fri Jul 12 Trinidad + Tobago v Haiti - 6:00pm CT Honduras v El Salvador - 8:30pm CT Venue: Sun Life Stadium - Miami Gardens -Sat Jul 13 USA v Cuba - 2:30pm CT Costa Rica v Belize - 5:00pm CT Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy -Sun Jul 14 Martinique v Mexico - 3:00pm CT Panama v Canada - 5:30pm CT Venue: Mile High Stadium - Denver -Mon Jul 15 El Salvador v Haiti - 6:00pm CT Honduras v Trinidad + Tobago - 8:30pm CT Venue: BBVA Compass Stadium - Houston -Tue Jul 16 Cuba v Belize - 4:30pm CT USA v Costa Rica - 7:00pm CT Venue: Rentschler Field - East Hartford
Quarterfinals -Sat Jul 20 Q1 A2 v B2 - 2:00pm CT Q2 A1 v B3 or C3 - 5:00pm CT Venue: the Georgia Dome - Atlanta -Sun Jul 21 Q3 B1 v C2 - 3:00pm CT Q4 C1 v A3 or B3 - 6:00pm CT Venue: M&T Bank Stadium - Baltimore
The CONCACAF Gold Cup is played every two years and to secure a spot in the Gold Cup teams from the Caribbean and Central America have to play well in their respective sub tournaments. The United States, Mexico and even Canada automatically qualify because they are they only three teams that make up the North American Zone.
Hartford will playhostto CONCACAF Gold Cup action for thefirst time after the venues for the 2013 tournament were released on Wednesday.
Rentschler Field, located in nearby East Hartford, is among 13 stadiums that won bids following the selection process, which was conducted by Soccer United Marketing (SUM).
Se viene el Digicel Caribbean Championships 2012, con la participación de 28 selecciones: 23
arrancan en la fase inicial, en la segunda se suman Grenada, Guadalupe y Cuba, y en la fase final
Antigua & Barbuda (paÃs anfitrión) y Jamaica, poseedora del tÃtulo.
Iniciado en 1989 bajo el auspicio de la petrolera Shell, se llamó Caribbean Cup y comenzó a
oficiar como una previa clasificatoria para la Gold Cup de la Concacaf.
The U.S. men's national team meets rival Mexico for the first time in more than a year when the
two CONCACAF powers meet at Estadio Azteca later tonight (8 p.m., ESPN2/ESPN3.com/Univision).
The U.S. men have enjoyed some of their finer moments in their history at Mexico's expense, but
the recent meetings against El Tri have gone the way of Mexico, whose golden generation has
captured a FIFA U-17 World Cup, third place in a U-20 World Cup, a CONCACAF Gold Cup and an Olympic
gold medal all since the summer of 2011.
The CONCACAF Champions League is taking a step towards it's UEFA counterpart in it's United States
distribution. For American consumers who have enjoyed free, legal feeds from the Confederation's
site, that convenience should soon go away. CONCACAF and FOX Soccer, ...
The New England Revolution have announced the signing of Honduran forward Jerry Bengtson on a
transfer from Honduras' CD Motagua.
Bengtson, who recently led La Liga Nacional de Honduras in scoring for three straight seasons,
will be formally added to the team's roster upon receipt of his U.
