That's right folks, it's time once again to compete for the highest honour in all the land, the Gold Cup!



Note: not featuring Portugal


Tournament History:




Group A:



Honduras: The usually solid, scrappy, and dirty team looks ready to compete once again with a squad that will likely feature some MLSers that you might know (though 3 of them play for Houston, so probably not). Leading the way could be Andy Najar who is now at Belgian giants Anderlecht, Eddie Hernández who is playing in Colombia, and forward Anthony Lozano who is scoring some goals in Spain.



Costa Rica: An emerging power in the region over the past decade or so, the RICH COAST TICOS will surely once again delight fans as they score goals for fun. Undoubtedly the man to watch in this squad is the soon-to-be 25yo superstar Joel Campbell, the Arsenal man currently on loan at Sporting Lisbon of Portugal.

French Guiana: These lads defeated Haiti & Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean Cup, earning them their 1st ever appearance in Gold Cup. Welcome! Their squad will likely be majority mediocre French dudes who have zero chance of ever playing for their national team.



Canada: These perennial underachievers will likely limp into this tournament with a young squad without their best player of the last 10 years (ever?) Atiba Hutchinson, and all-time cap leader and captain Julian de Guzman, both due to international retirement. I refuse to get my hopes up and have any expectations for this at all. Costa Rica are good, Honduras always beat us like a rented mule, and we lost to Martinique in one of these not too long ago, so we'll probably lose to ****ing French Guiana too. The only real player of note is soon-to-be 22yo forward Cyle Larin, but as Kaka is apparently not a Canadian citizen, Larin doesn't score goals at the same rate for us as he does Orlando City FC. In summary - LOL!


Group B:





United States: People are saying that the-powers-that-be have deported some Nazi, and now will be playing all their games at the fantastic Bruce Arena. This is tremendous news! Also they are building a wall around their goal using John Brooks, and making Mexico pay for it with losses. The Gooolllddd Cup will soon be theirs once again! I'm sure many are hoping that this tournament will be the coming out party, on domestic soil anyway, for 18yo Dortmund superstar Muslim Christian Pulisic. He could become a very bigly name in this country with a strong tournament. =sugar-->power-->women

Panama: This team always seems so boring and annoying. Most of their key players are old. Do they have any good young prospects? Maybe. I dunno. I can't muster up the energy to care about these guys.

Martinique: Like French Guiana, a team full of mediocre French dudes. Making their 2nd Gold Cup appearance since 2003. They should be cannon fodder.

Haiti or Nicaragua: Who cares? They both suck. (prove me wrong!)


Group C:





Mexico: Javier Hernández! Carlos Vela! Andrés Guardado! Giovani dos Santos! Miguel Layún! Héctor Herrera! Marco Fabián! Raúl Jiménez! Jesús Manuel Corona! Diego Reyes! Guillermo Ochoa! That's right, all your favourite stars will be ... turned away at the border, most likely. Sad!

El Salvador: A bunch of their players are now back from their match fixing suspensions, hooray! Player to watch? I dunno, maybe this 26yo forward Nelson Bonilla who is playing in Portugal.

Curaçao: Drink! "This is Curaçao's first appearance since the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, as its direct successor (with regards to membership in football associations)", and unsurprisingly their squad appears to be made up of mediocre Dutch players. Oh wow, midfielder Leandro Bacuna is one of their players, some might remember him from his days in the English Premier League with Aston Villa (now, not).



Jamaica: Fast & the furious stoned, they have need for speed, and so on. It appears as though most of their team plays either at home in Jamaica, or in the United States, but also with a few in England. And speaking of which, they should be led once again by leader of the EPL champions, Captain Wes Morgan. They'll be looking to improve on their personal best runner-up finish in the 2015 edition of the tournament where they defeated the host United States team in the semifinals, but don't count on it because that was mostly a fluke.


Knockout Round:




- Fox Sports will televise the tournament in English in the United States.
- Univision Deportes will televise the tournament in Spanish in the United States.





Let us soccer!

dare to dream

I feel like this is Canada's year, Trudea will will them to victory.

And who is televising it in French? North America's 3rd most important language.

Very nice preview. Thanks for the effort..

nice OP 72

if the US can't get out of that group just permanently cancel soccer in this country

shocker mexico gets 2 "neutral" site games in san diego and san Antonio

that reminds me, i remember DeVos saying that one of the reasons he brought Forrest over to lift the Cup with him was that, not only was it quite large as we can all see, but it was also really ****ing heavy lol
(they made a new one in 2013)

TV5

thanks, happy to do it

always enjoy this tournament ... for about 30 minutes

(actually that's a lie, i'm usually super RUSTLED by the time i see the 1st team sheet)

i mean, this tournament is always constructed to get a USA/Mexico final
has USA ever played a GC match outside of the country?
and as you said, group this year couldn't be caker (unless Canada was in it amirite)

come on, now

also totes kool that we get to play Costa Rica & Honduras in Texas, instead of say Cleveland or Jersey ugh
#nochance

boom goes the dynamite





Davies > Pulisic

Where the F is Ballou? Ballou > Wondo

NEVER FORGET

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKpR3fW3ZR4

I voted TICOS.

Mexico sending A team to Confed Cup right?

yes. the gold cup prelim list came out for Mexico today and i gotta say, it's pretty damn good. i'm liking our chances to ship.

Looking forward to more DEFECTIONS and REF RIGGAGE this summer.

Mexico has a team mostly filled with (really solid) domestic players. I think they still have to be the favorites. Not sure what Arena is ultimately going to do with this team. I think he's leaning toward blooding guys and not taking all vets. Lots of Euros didn't even make the 40 man roster. It's mostly MLS and lower tier English league guys.

Though no Danny Williams again even though he was probably the best England-based player (come at me, yedlinny) on our team throughout last season. Would very much like to see him play the 6 on the first team while Bradley hits the bench. He didn't get called for the qualifiers either. Frustrating.

American guys who are in need of a big tournament:

Jordan Morris - Starting to get lost in the shuffle. He should start for this team and score regularly if he's a legit international player. He'll be 23 this fall so it's not like he's all that young. Needs to prove he's not just the next Wondo. Hell, even Wondo lights up the reserve GC.

Paul Arriola (heh) - Same age as Morris though he's seemingly been a hot name in the youth picture for a decade, actually has had some success for Tijuana after being used as a super sub last year. Has a reputation for being a great team player but not likely to take someone on and make something special happen. He would've been a fixture in US teams 15 years ago but the skill/physicality of our player pool has risen to the point where he's got something to prove. If he can show good link and a willingness to defend he's got a shot to play 1st team minutes with the senior side. Pulisic and Altidore actually pair pretty well if they have a guy like Arriola around imo.

Matt Hedges - The sun rises, the sun sets, and FC Dallas has a great defense. They're led by 2016 MLS defender of the year Hedges and I still don't understand why JK didn't rate him. He's the missing link CB we've needed when guys like Omar G and Brooks were up and down. Now it seems like he's in danger of getting passed by when, at 27, he's not in the A team and there are legit talents behind him like Cameron Carter-Vickers and Erik Palmer-Brown not to mention Hedges own teammate Walker Zimmerman. In all honesty Hedges should be filling the Matt Besler role for the next WC team and he likely has the most to gain out of anybody on this roster. He could be anything from never called again to starting in Russia depending on how this tournament goes.

Dax McCarty - we know Arena rates the 30 year old who seems to win wherever he goes, which now includes even formerly perennial ****house Chicago Fire. Schweiny gets the attention, but that's Dax's team already. He was always too small and too slow to play DM anywhere (still is in fairness) but he's got one last chance to make this happen. Dax, like many defensively responsible MFs, is probably a better partner for Pulisic than Bradley, and if he goes and bosses this tourney he may get the chance to show he is. He exited January camp with a lot of momentum, continued winning in MLS, and now has his chance with a manager who isn't going to be afraid to use him.

friendly vs Curacao in Montreal, kicks off in ~45 minutes




+Alphonso "Da God" Davies on the bench, likely to earn his 1st cap tonight i would guess


leggo!

Bernier looking laid back, arms down by his side like a boss.

Edwards doesn't even know how to cross his arms.

haha! ya Edwards looking pretty scared & confused there




1st half report: the Moonraker giveth, and the Moonraker taketh away


need one of the 3 CMs to get forward and do things, if possible will probably require a sub
this is why Arfield is so valuable to the team


hopefully Davies gets 30-45 minutes, coming on for Hoilett probably

2nd half report: WOOOOOOOOO, WE'RE GONNA WIN THE GOLD CUP!!!

Québec saves the day!

Canada/F.Guiana: FS2 · TSN5 · UDN · FOX Sports GO · FOX Soccer 2Go · TSN GO · univisiondeportes.com
Costa Rica/Honduras: FS2 · UniMás · UDN · FOX Sports GO · FOX Soccer 2Go · TSN GO · univisiondeportes.com · TSN2 in Canada (tape delayed at 11 pm ET)


news:

https://www.wakingthered.com/2017/7/...lorent-malouda

CONCACAF!

but knowing CONCACAF, and Canada, here's exactly how this is gonna play out
- Malouda will play
- French Guiana will win
- Canada will want the game forfeited to them
- FIFA will rule in French Guiana's favour for some reason
- weeeeeeeee!!!

First off, seems dumb that French Guiana, Martinique, and Guadeloupe even have teams. They are regions of France, it'd be like Alaska having an AFC team and Hawaii being in Oceania's group.

Second, if we're accepting that French Guiana is a separate entity, then sorry, Malouda is already tied to a different team. It would set an idiotic precedent to allow it. What if Alexandre Lacazette doesn't get called up for France and just decides he wants to play a couple matches for Guadeloupe?

Lol@ Cheating vs Canada. French Guiana beat Haiti 5-2 to qualify for the Gold Cup in a game Malouda did not play in(to my knowledge). They could beat very well get a result without him against Canada.

holy empty stadium batman

no Canadians wanted to go to NY to see this?

Everyone is at Akwesasne Casino

not enough >>>>>>>>>>>s obv


luckily there is still time for y'all to accept Alphonso as your lord and savior