Gold Cup 2017: Schedule, teams, TV coverage & guide to the CONCACAF championship

Oliver Platt

Gold Cup 2017: Schedule, teams, TV coverage & guide to the CONCACAF championship image

The top teams in North and Central America and the Caribbean are battling it out for continental supremacy this summer at the 14th edition of the Gold Cup.

Currently held every two years in the United States — with an occasional co-host — the reigning champions are Mexico, who beat Jamaica in the 2015 final.

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El Tri have won three of the past four tournaments, with only the USA breaking up their recent dominance and Canada the only nation aside from that big two to have ever won the trophy.

Costa Rica will hope to change that this year, while Honduras and Panama can also be considered outside shots to go all the way.

With the Gold Cup having kicked off on July 7 and running until the final on July 26, Goal has your complete guide to the tournament ahead.


GOLD CUP TV COVERAGE


In the US, the Gold Cup will be available to watch live on Fox in English. Games will be shown across Fox, FS1 and FS2 and can be streamed via Fox Sports Go.

In the UK, BT Sport hold the broadcasting rights to the tournament but will only show a limited number of games. Those that are screened can also be streamed via the BT Sport app.

A complete list of rights holders can be found below.

Country Rights holder
Albania SuperSport
Australia beIN Sports
Brazil SporTV
Canada TSN (English) & RDS (French)
China CCTV
Croatia SportKlub
France beIN Sports
MENA beIN Sports
Mexico Televisa, TV Azteca & Sky Sports
Netherlands Fox Sports
Portugal Sport TV
South Africa SuperSport
South America DIRECTV Sports
Spain beIN Sports & GOL
Turkey Tivibu Spor
UK BT Sport
USA Fox Sports (English) & Univision (Spanish)

GOLD CUP GROUPS


Mexico Gold Cup

The teams that finish first and second in each group progress to the knockout stage automatically.

The teams that finish third in each group are then ranked by points, with goal difference, goals scored and the drawing of lots used as tiebreakers in that order. The top two third-place finishers also progress to the knockout stage.

Group A:

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Costa Rica 3 2 1 0 5 1 4 7
2 Canada 3 1 2 0 5 3 2 5
3 Honduras* 3 1 1 1 3 1 2 4
4 French Guiana* 3 0 0 3 2 10 -8 0

Honduras were awarded a 3-0 win over French Guiana due to the latter fielding an ineligible player. Their match was initially drawn 0-0.

Group B:

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 USA 3 2 1 0 7 3 4 7
2 Panama 3 1 1 0 6 2 4 7
3 Martinique 3 1 0 2 4 6 -2 3
4 Nicaragua 3 0 0 3 1 7 -6 0

Group C:

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Mexico 3 2 1 0 5 1 4 7
2 Jamaica 3 1 2 0 3 1 2 5
3 El Salvador 3 1 1 1 4 4 0 4
4 Curacao 3 0 0 3 0 6 -6 0

Ranking of third-place teams:

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Honduras 3 1 1 1 3 1 2 4
2 El Salvador 3 1 1 1 4 4 0 4
3 Martinique 3 1 0 2 4 6 -2 3

GOLD CUP FIXTURES & RESULTS


Group A:

Date Match Time (local / ET)
July 7 French Guiana 2-4 Canada 19:00 / 19:00
July 7 Honduras 0-1 Costa Rica 21:00 / 21:00
July 11 Costa Rica 1-1 Canada 18:30 / 19:30
July 11 Honduras 3-0 French Guiana * 21:00 / 22:00
July 14 Costa Rica 3-0 French Guiana 18:30 / 19:30
July 14 Canada 0-0 Honduras 21:00 / 22:00

*Honduras drew 0-0 with French Guiana before being awarded a 3-0 win due to their opponents fielding an ineligible player.

Group B:

Date Match Time (local / ET)
July 8 USA 1-1 Panama 15:30 / 16:30
July 8 Martinique 2-0 Nicaragua 18:00 / 19:00
July 12 Panama 2-1 Nicaragua 18:30 / 18:30
July 12 USA 3-2 Martinique 21:00 / 21:00
July 15 Panama 3-0 Martinique 16:30 / 16:30
July 15 Nicaragua 0-3 USA 19:00 / 19:00

Group C:

Date Match Time (local / ET)
July 9 Curacao 0-2 Jamaica 16:00 / 19:00
July 9 Mexico 3-1 El Salvador 18:00 / 21:00
July 13 El Salvador 2-0 Curacao 18:00 / 20:00
July 13 Mexico 0-0 Jamaica 20:30 / 22:30
July 16 Jamaica 1-1 El Salvador 17:00 / 18:00
July 16 Curacao 0-2 Mexico 19:30 / 20:30

Quarterfinals:

Date Match Time (local / ET)
July 19 Costa Rica 1-0 Panama 18:00 / 18:00
July 19 USA 2-0 El Salvador 21:00 / 21:00
July 20 Mexico 1-0 Honduras 16:30 / 19:30
July 20 Jamaica 2-1 Canada 19:00 / 22:00

Semifinals:

Date Match Time (local / ET)
July 22 Costa Rica 0-2 USA 20:30 / 21:30
July 23 Mexico 0-1 Jamaica 17:30 / 20:30

Final:

Date Match Time (local / ET)
July 26 USA 2-1 Jamaica 18:30 / 21:30


WHO ARE THE STAR PLAYERS?


Florent Malouda French Guiana

As mentioned, Mexico and the USA have won all but one of these tournaments but things could be made more interesting this year due to the fact that both countries have decided to experiment with their squads.

There will be no Javier Hernandez, Andres Guardado or Hector Herrera for the Mexicans, who have selected a group — with one exception — based exclusively in Liga MX as a result of their key players' participation at the Confederations Cup.

They were dealt a further blow when striker Alan Pulido suffered a fractured arm in a pre-tournament friendly, which resulted in that one exception being called up in Erick Torres of MLS' Houston Dynamo.

Torres, known as Cubo, has scored 12 goals in 17 games this season and could lead the line in Pulido's absence, while defender Edson Alvarez is promising.

Bruce Arena has only two players based in Europe in his USA squad: Matt Miazga of Chelsea and Eric Lichaj of Nottingham Forest. Another, Kenny Saief of Gent, pulled out due to an injury.

Young midfielders Kellyn Acosta and Cristian Roldan should provide plenty of energy in the middle of the park, though, and Dom Dwyer may lead the line with the highly touted Jordan Morris struggling for form this season.

Costa Rica should be genuine challengers, particularly as they have picked a strong squad that includes the likes of Joel Campbell , Bryan Ruiz and Bryan Oviedo , though Keylor Navas will sit the tournament out.

Perhaps the most interesting pre-tournament story, however, concerned Florent Malouda (yes, that one). The ex-Chelsea and France midfielder had signed up to play for French Guiana, where he was born, and was believed to be eligible to switch nations because of the fact that the French territory is not a FIFA member and therefore not subject to its rules.

A day before kick-off, though, it was revealed that CONCACAF apply FIFA's eligibility rules to all of the teams competing in the Gold Cup , meaning Malouda was ineligible to play.

After leaving him out in their first match against Canada, French Guiana named Malouda their captain against Honduras and drew 0-0 but the match was later awarded Honduras as a 3-0 win due to Malouda's ineligiblity.

That all but eliminated them from the competition as they had lost that first match against Canada, with teen sensation Alphonso Davies proved he is one very much worth keeping an eye on .

Clint Dempsey , Jozy Altidore , Michael Bradley and Tim Howard also joined up with the USA for the knockout rounds, starting the quarterfinal win over El Salvador. 


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WHICH STADIUMS WILL BE USED?


Fourteen stadiums have been selected for this year's tournament. Nine will be used for the group stage, where there will be three matchdays for each group and the two games on each matchday played back-to-back at the same venue.

The other five stadiums will be used for the knockout stage. Two will host back-to-back quarterfinal ties, and the other three will host one match — either one of the two semifinals or the final.

AT&T Stadium:

AT&T Stadium

City: Arlington, Texas
Capacity: 100,000
Games: Semifinal

FirstEnergy Stadium:

FirstEnergy Stadium

City: Cleveland, Ohio
Capacity: 67,431
Games: Group B (matchday two)

Sports Authority Field:

Sports Authority Field

City: Denver, Colorado
Capacity: 76,125
Games: Group C (matchday two)

Toyota Stadium:

Toyota Stadium

City: Frisco, Texas
Capacity: 16,000
Games: Group A (matchday three)

University of Phoenix Stadium:

University of Phoenix Stadium

City: Glendale, Arizona
Capacity: 63,400
Games: Quarterfinals (matchday two)

Red Bull Arena:

Red Bull Arena

City: Harrison, New Jersey
Capacity: 25,000
Games: Group A (matchday one)

BBVA Compass Stadium:

BBVA Compass Stadium

City: Houston, Texas
Capacity: 22,000
Games: Group A (matchday two)

Nissan Stadium:

Nissan Stadium

City: Nashville, Tennessee
Capacity: 69,000
Games: Group B (matchday one)

Rose Bowl:

Rose Bowl

City: Pasadena, California
Capacity: 90,000
Games: Semifinal

Lincoln Financial Field:

Lincoln Financial Field

City: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 69,596
Games: Quarterfinals (matchday one)

Alamodome:

Alamodome

City: San Antonio, Texas
Capacity: 65,000
Games: Group C (matchday three)

Qualcomm Stadium:

Qualcomm Stadium

City: San Diego, California
Capacity: 70,561
Games: Group C (matchday one)

Levi's Stadium:

Levi

City: Santa Clara, California
Capacity: 68,500
Games: Final

Raymond James Stadium:

Raymond James Stadium

City: Tampa, Florida
Capacity: 65,890
Games: Group B (matchday two)

Oliver Platt