Gold Cup starts on Saturday with defending champion Mexico in action

Unlike the World Cup, the CONCACAF Gold Cup is often contested by B and C teams due to vacation, injuries and youth callups.

“We have a lot of young players that need more opportunities to play real minutes,” Canada coach Jesse Marsch said ahead of this year’s championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. “There [are] a lot ways I think to use the tournament to broaden our player pool and to strengthen what we’re doing with our team.”

Defending champion Mexico opens the 16-nation event Saturday against the Dominican Republic in a first-round group that also includes Costa Rica and Suriname. The reeling United States, on its first four-game losing streak since 2007, starts Sunday against Trinidad and Tobago, then plays invited guest Saudi Arabia and Haiti. Canada is grouped with Honduras, El Salvador and Curaçao, and Panama is together with Jamaica, Guatemala and Guadeloupe.

“We have the obligation of being the favorites,” Javier Aguirre, hired last summer for his third stint as Mexico’s coach, said through a translator. “We have to accept that title.”

Mexico has won nine Gold Cups, including 2023. The U.S. has won seven, including 2021, and Canada won in 2000. The tournament will be played at the same time as the Club World Cup, which has been given priority for players by FIFA.

“It’s not to say that if someone isn’t here now they won’t be here next year,” Aguirre said. “So many things can happen in a year.”

Gold Cup matches will be played at 14 stadiums in 11 areas, avoiding the Eastern seaboard. The championship is at Houston on July 6. 

El Tri will be missing forwards Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and Henry Martin, who have hamstring injuries.

Canada is without star winger Alphonso Davies, who tore his right ACL during the CONCACAF Nations League third-place game against the U.S. on March 23.

The Americans are without stars Christian Pulisic (wanted time off), Yunus Musah (personal reason not disclosed), Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna (headed to the Club World Cup), Antonee Robinson, Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun (injured) and Sergino Dest (regaining fitness).

“I don’t think there’s any denying that some of our performances have fallen short over the past year to 18 months,” defender Walker Zimmerman said. “When you look at Gold Cup and you look at some players maybe having their first experience with Gold Cup or even new guys coming into the team in general, it’s always such a great opportunity to have a month in front of a staff, get a lot of quality trainings in together and find yourself hopefully getting into a rhythm of playing multiple games where you can put everything on the line to try and make a World Cup team in a year’s time.”

The U.S. has won its group in 16 of 17 Gold Cups, along with a second-place finish to Panama in 2011, and its group stage record is 40 wins, one loss and five draws.

American players are aware of the criticism of their play since the 2022 World Cup.

“What you see online, all that media, all the opinions, it’s impossible this day not to see it,” defender John Tolkin said Friday. “We have a huge opportunity right now to kind of change the narrative and, yeah, set the focus towards the World Cup coming up next summer, and that’s to win this tournament.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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