The twenty-seventh edition of the Gold Cup of the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), which begins this Saturday in the United States and Canada, will define this week which are the three final teams to advance to the group qualifying stage of the tournament.

Six teams will compete for the three places that will complete the four groups of the 2023 Gold Cup in which 16 countries will compete in the final phase.

The competition has the United States as the current champion.

On Tuesday, June 20, the matches that will define these teams’ access to Concacaf’s most important national team tournament will be played at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale (Florida, United States).

From the morning, Guadeloupe and Guyana will compete for a place in Group D. Then Puerto Rico and Martinique will try to occupy a place in Group C, and finally Saint Kitts and Nevis will face French Guiana to enter in group A.

With the Nations League barely defined this Sunday between the United States and Canada, the two countries receiving the Gold Cup, and the defeat that the United States inflicted on Mexico – the best champion of the tournament – in the semi- final of this tournament, a leading role he expects absolutely from those led by Brian Joseph Callaghan.

GROUPS AND RIVALS

The group stage will be played from June 24 to July 4.

Group A: United States, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and winner between Saint Kitts and Nevis and French Guiana.

Group B: Mexico, Haiti, Honduras and Qatar.

Group C: Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and winner between Puerto Rico and Martinique.

Group D: Canada, Guatemala, Cuba and the one who triumphs this Tuesday between Guadeloupe and Guyana.

Two teams will qualify from each group and will compete in the quarter-finals between June 8 and 9. The semi-finals will be played on July 12 and the final on Sunday July 16 at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles (California).

PREMISES FILE

This Gold Cup, which will be inaugurated on Saturday June 24 by the United States and Jamaica, will have 11 sites, one of the editions with the most stadiums to play football.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; Bank of America of Charlotte, North Carolina; Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois; TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio; DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona; the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey; NRG Stadium and Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas; SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California; Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada; Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California; Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California; City Park in St. Louis, Missouri and BMO Field in Toronto, the only venue in Canada.

THE GOLD CUP IS LEFT WITHOUT KEYLOR NAVAS

Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas has been ruled out of the Concacaf Gold Cup because he was unable to recover from a season-ending injury suffered with his last club, England’s Nottingham Forest, according to the Costa Rican Football Federation .

Costa Rica national team doctor Alejandro Ramírez said in a statement that despite medical and player efforts, it was not possible for Navas to recover from a torn muscle in his left captor. .

NICARAGUA, FROM OUTSIDE

Concacaf expelled Nicaragua from this version of the 2023 Gold Cup for inappropriately fielding a player born in Uruguay for eight matches, to which the Nicaraguan Football Federation (Fenifut) responded by rejecting last Tuesday the sanction adopted by the head of football for Central and North America and announced that he would appeal the decision.

Nicaragua had qualified for the Gold Cup for the fourth time, but according to Concacaf, the team had inappropriately fielded Richard Rodríguez Alvez, born in 1992 in the Uruguayan city of Toledo.

For his part, Nicaragua’s coach, Chilean Marco Figueroa, declared on Sunday that his players would return to Managua “sad and injured” after completing a friendly tour with three defeats and an exclusion from the Gold Cup.

“We are going sad and hurt to Managua and hope that there is still a possibility” of being able to play the Gold Cup, Figueroa said at a press conference at the end of the friendly match between Paraguay and Nicaragua.