Friday, March 13, 2009

Gold Cup field

The Gold Cup venues were announced earlier this week (13, lame) but the groups weren't. However, the field is set. Cuba dropped out and were replaced by Haiti.

The full field:

United States, Panama, Honduras, Grenada, El Salvador, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Haiti.

I know the field lacks a bit of luster as we used to see some South American nations in here but this is the way it should be. There are enough teams in CONCACAF to make it an all-CONCACAF tournament, and judging by the absences of Trinidad and Guatemala, it's not exactly easy for the second- or third-tier teams to qualify and reach the tournament in the first place.

Still, I would love the Gold Cup more if it were held every four years. Honestly, I'm not sure about rotating it around to other countries simply because it's a big tournament and I don't know if other nations have the venues necessary to host it. If anything, it should go from the US and Mexico and possibly Canada.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So was Cuba afraid that half the team would be gone the next day after there first game? LOL.

Anonymous said...

2 players from Cuba should defect.