Gold Cup schedule out Thursday

The Gold Cup schedule will be announced Thursday.

The dates and venues have already been announced and are as follows:

First Round

July 3 – The Home Depot Center (Los Angeles)
July 4 – Qwest Field (Seattle)
July 5 – Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (San Francisco)

July 7– Crew Stadium (Columbus, Ohio)
July 8 – RFK Stadium (Washington)
July 9 – Reliant Stadium (Houston)

July 10 – Florida International University Stadium (Miami)
July 11 – Gillette Stadium (Boston)
July 12 – University of Phoenix Stadium (Phoenix)

Quarterfinals
July 18 – Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia)
July 19 – Dallas Cowboys New Stadium (Dallas)

Semifinals
July 23 – Soldier Field (Chicago)

Final
July 26 – Giants Stadium (New York)

Now, I'm just guessing here, and I already did this in a way but wanted to do it again, but my guess is that Mexico will play in Oakland, Houston and Phoenix, while the US will play in Seattle, DC and Boston during the first round, respectively.

The cash cow, I mean, the final will be played at Giants Stadium, and I'm sure the chances of the US and Mexico meeting before then will be virtually impossible. Like, the US would have to finish third in their group and Mexico second, and they'd each have to have a plus-one goal differential while having scored seven goals and surrendered six in the first round. Something like that.

Now, here are the teams: United States, Panama, Honduras, Grenada, El Salvador, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Haiti.

I'm going to try and put together some groups here just for kicks

A: Costa Rica, Honduras, Guadeloupe, Haiti
B: United States, El Salvador, Canada, Grenada
C: Mexico, Jamaica, Panama, Nicaragua

I'm probably off but those seem somewhat balanced. Not sure if they'll account for geography, ie will they put three Caribbean teams in one group, will they make sure each group has at least on Caribbean team and one Central American team, things like that.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow morning. In the meantime, is it kickoff yet? US-TRI, MEX-HON... can't wait.