The 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup will be taking place from July 7 to July 26 in the U.S. and Canada this summer with the Final being held in Philadelphia. There will be a total of 26 games played in the event. The winner of the tournament will play off against the U.S., who are the reigning Gold Cup champions, with the winner representing CONCACAF in the upcoming 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. However, if the U.S. wins the Gold Cup again this year, the nation will advance directly to the 2017 Confederations Cup.
There are 12 countries in the event with three coming from North America, four from Central America and four from the Caribbean. The participating nations and their current rankings by FIFA are the 27th-ranked USA, 23rd-ranked Mexico, 109th-ranked Canada, 14th-ranked Costa Rica, 93rd-ranked Guatemala, 54th-ranked Panama, 89th-ranked El Salvador, 65th-ranked Jamaica, 67th-ranked Trinidad and Tobago, 76th-ranked Haiti, 107th-ranked Cuba, and 75th-ranked Honduras. The U.S., Mexico and Canada have all won the tournament before.
2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup Soccer Betting Preview
The current bet365 odds to win the tournament are:
- Mexico 6/5
- USA 6/4
- Costa Rica 6/1
- Panama 16/1
- Honduras 25/1
- Jamaica 66/1
- Canada 66/1
- Trinidad and Tobago 80/1
- Guatemala 100/1
- El Salvador 100/1
- Haiti 200/1
- Cuba 1000/1
Mexico and Jamaica have already played in the Copa America tournament this year, but their squads in that tournament were limited to under-22-year-olds. Both nations will have access to their full senior sides in the Gold Cup. The Gold Cup will feature 14 host cities, which are: Philadelphia, Chester, East Rutherford, Charlotte, Atlanta, Baltimore, Carson, Glendale, Frisco, Houston, Kansas City, Chicago, Foxborough, and Toronto.
Each team will be made up of 23 players with three of them being goaltenders. Teams that qualifying for the quarterfinals will be allowed to replace as many as six players as long as the replacements were named to the provisional rosters of 35 that were announced a month before the event. The top two nations from each group will advance to the quarterfinal stage along with the top two third-placed teams. If two or more teams are tied on points after the group stage the tie will be decided by goal difference. If it’s still level, the next tiebreaker is goals scored and if that’s also the same, then the head-to-head stats between the teams will be used.
Group A consists of the USA, Panama, Haiti, and Honduras. Group B is made up of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Canada. In Group C, we have Mexico, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and Cuba. Once the knockout stage arrives each game will be a do-or-die elimination affair. No two teams from the same group can face each other in the quarter-finals, but from then on it doesn’t matter. Once the quarterfinals arrive the games will go to 30 minutes extra time if they’re tied after 90 minutes. If there isn’t a winner after extra time the contest will be decided by a penalty shootout.
As well as picking the winners, bettors will also be able to wager on the Most Valuable Player Award known as the Golden Ball, the Top Scorer known as the Golden Boot, the Best Goalkeeper Award, which is called the Golden Glove and the Fair Play Award.
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Written by Ian S. Palmer
