With two months to go until the 2023 Gold Cup is held, CONCACAF announced the official schedule for the tournament and its respective group stage, with the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada as seeded teams. In addition, there will be preliminary rounds to define the final qualifiers.
CONCACAF announced this Friday the official schedule for the Gold Cup to be held from June 16 to July 16 in the United States and Canada. Precisely the highlights of the first day have as protagonists the host U.S. against Jamaica and Mexico vs. Honduras.
The draw for the event was held at SoFi Stadium in the city of Los Angeles, where the Gold Cup final will be played and the usual home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, as well as the venue where the 2022 Super Bowl was played.
The U.S. team, reigning champion of this tournament and one of the four seeded teams for this edition, was paired in Group A with Jamaica, Nicaragua and another team that will emerge from the preliminary rounds.
Mexico, the current Cup runner-up and another of the seeded teams, was placed in Group B, along with Haiti, Honduras and guest Qatar.
The third seed, Costa Rica, is in Group C, where it will face Panama, El Salvador and a team from the preliminary rounds as its first opponents.
Meanwhile, the other host nation, Canada, was drawn in Group D with Guatemala, Cuba and a preliminary round team.
Gold Cup Dates
The preliminary rounds will begin on June 16 with 12 national teams battling for the three berths for the group stage, which is scheduled to begin on June 24.
The quarterfinals will be held on July 8 and 9 with the first two teams from each group. The semifinals are scheduled for July 12, while the grand final will be played on July 18 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Preliminary Rounds
CONCACAF also announced the pairings for the preliminary rounds, which are as follows: Trinidad and Tobago vs. Guadeloupe, Martinique vs. St. Lucia, Curacao vs. St. Kitts and Nevis, French Guiana vs. St. Maarten, Suriname vs. Puerto Rico and Guyana vs.
The six winners of these matches will meet in a second preliminary round to determine the final three national teams for the group stage.
In addition to SoFi Stadium, the Gold Cup will be held at 14 other venues: AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, Soldier Field in Chicago, TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NRG Stadium and Shell Energy Stadium (both in Houston).
Rounding out the list are Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CITYPARK in St. Louis and BMO Field in Toronto (the only one on the list on Canadian soil).