The footballing powerhouses of the great North American countries will lock horns this summer for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. We bring you some exciting facts about the prestigious continental showpiece.
This year’s edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup will be the 15th edition of the North American soccer tournament. The competition is a biennial football championship that features the North, Central American, and Caribbean region of the continent.
The tournament is organised and regulated by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
The 2019 Gold Cup will be majorly hosted in the United States, while Costa Rica and Jamaica are also hosting doubleheaders in the first round of matches in groups B and C, respectively. It will take place from 15th of June to the 7th of July.
The 16 qualified teams for this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup are:
- Mexico
- Costa Rica
- Honduras
- Panama
- United States of America
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Haiti
- Curaçao
- Canada
- Martinique
- Cuba
- Bermuda
- Jamaica
- Guyana
- Nicaragua and
- El Salvador.
Here are some exciting facts about the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
1. This year’s edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup will feature 16 teams for the first time. On February 2018, the CONCACAF announced that the tournament would be expanded to 16 teams from 12.
2. In May 2018, the CONCACAF also announced that tournament matches would be held in Central America (Costa Rica) and the Caribbean (Jamaica) along with the United States. This will mark the first time that the Gold Cup is held in either region, after all, previous matches have all taken place in the either the United States, Mexico or Canada.
3. The expanded version of the CONCACAF allowed many teams the opportunity to participate. Bermuda and Guyana will be making their debuts in the Gold Cup this year.
4. Soldier Field in Chicago, United States was confirmed as the venue for the final match. The 62,000 capacity stadium was the venue of the final on 24 June 2007 when the United States defeated Mexico 2–1, to claim the Gold Cup that year.
5. Many soccer tournaments that took place in 2019 introduced the use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), like the 2019 AFCON and Copa America 2019. However, they will be no VAR at the CONCACAF 2019 Gold Cup.
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