It became a routine during the summer: Every week there is another big tournament, full of expectations and dramas. Tonight, it’s the CONCACAF Gold Cup’s turn.
Like each of the previous Gold Cups, it will take place in the USA, but this year we will have a little twist, as two games will be played in Toronto, Canada.
Another change is the fact that the winner of the tournament would not get an automatic spot in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. Instead, the winner will face the USA, the previous title holder, in a decisive match for the qualification, unless the USA will win the title once again.
So let's start – 12 teams, 3 groups and just 1 Golden cup.
Group A
The teams: USA, Panama, Haiti, Honduras.
There is no need to introduce you once again to Team USA. The current title holders with 4 titles out of the last 7 competitions, will try to repeat their success and equalize Mexico’s number of triumphs.
Honduras, another team with World Cup and Gold Cup experience will be their main opponents in this group, but they barely qualified to this tournament, struggling to win in the playoffs against French Guiana.
Panama proved at the last tournament that they could be a competitive side, after they defeated Mexico twice, and qualified to the Gold Cup final. Now they want to show that their performance wasn't a fluke.
Watch out for: The American squad has a few talented players that made great performances at the last World Cup such as DeAndre Yedlin, Aron Jóhannsson, and Mix Diskerud. In Honduras, it will be an interesting combination between the veteran Maynor Figueroa and the next generation leader Andy Najar. Panama’s national team will be based on St. Pauli’s player, Armando Cooper, and the 33-year-old Luis Tejada, who plays in the Peruvian league. Haiti’s dominant players will be Jean Sony Alcénat, who made a great season in Romania, and Réginal Goreux, who plays for Rostov in Russia.
Only at the Gold Cup: Two players in Haiti’s squad play in interesting leagues. Jean Alexandre spent many years in the USA, but in the previous few seasons, he plays for Negeri Sembilan in the Malaysian league. The second one, Kevin Lafrance, plays for Miedź Legnica, second-tier team in Poland.
Group B
The teams: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, Canada
If there is a team who has more aspirations to win the title than any other, it will be Costa Rica. The only CONCACAF team to reach the last World Cup quarter-finals and the top-ranked team in the confederation (according to FIFA Rankings), wants to make another great run in an international cup. Even though Canada will host one of their matches in Toronto, they still are not considered to be a threat for Los Ticos, and so is Jamaica, who arrives after a short trip in the Copa América, and neither are weak El Salvador.
Watch out for: The Costa Rican squad has some absentees, but still consists two young players who will try to lead the team for their first title ever - 23-year-old Joel Campbell and 25-year-old Cristian Gamboa. El Salvador will count on Nelson Bonilla from Romanian side Viitorul and Darwin Cerén, who plays for Orlando City. As usual, the Canadians will be led by Julian de Guzman, but also by MLS player’s Russell Teibert and Jonathan Osorio who will bring their impact. Jamaica will be based on English Football League players like Crystal Palace's Adrian Mariappa, Leicester City's Wes Morgan and Preston's Chris Humphrey.
Only at the Gold Cup: Canadian striker Tosaint Ricketts played for Hapoel Haifa from Israel, and has an impressive record of just one league goal last season. Costa Rica's Michael Umaña made a great performance in the last World Cup, which earned him a move to Iranian club Persepolis. Besides players from the English league, Jamaica’s goalkeeper Dwayne Miller plays for Syrianska FC, a second division Swedish team that represent the Syriac minority in Sweden.
Group C
The teams: Mexico, Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba
Even though they were eliminated in the Copa América group stage, Mexico’s main goal is to win the Gold Cup. The team who made an impressive run in the World Cup is based on the same combination of local talented players and a few European based stars. Guatemala is making their comeback after they failed to qualify to the previous Gold Cup, and are coming as the Copa Centroamericana’s runner-ups. Trinidad & Tobago’s squad doesn’t have legends such as Shaka Hislop and Dwight Yorke and presents a rather weak side. The final team in the group, Cuba, will have only one interesting story as they are making their first visit to the USA since the revival of the diplomatic relations between the countries.
Watch out for: Despite the absence of Javier Hernández from Mexico, you should look at interesting names such as Jesús Corona, Miguel Layún, Guillermo Ochoa and Héctor Herrera. The leaders of Trinidad & Tobago will be Cardiff City's Kenwyne Jones and Genk's Khaleem Hyland. In Guatemala, the main player is Stefano Cincotta, who plays for Chemnitzer FC, a third division team from Germany, where he grew up and even representing Germany’s youth teams. Cuba's star is Yénier Márquez, who at 36-year-old is still one of the leading players of the team.
Only at the Gold Cup: In Guatemala's squad, you can find Minor López, who plays for Atlético Clube from the third league in Portugal. The squad of Trinidad and Tobago contains players such as Daniel Cyrus, who plays for the Vietnamese club Hanoi T&T (not related to the abbreviation of his country's name), Jonathan Glenn, who plays for the Icelandic team ÍBV, and Lester Peltier, who plays for Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia.