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CONCACAF Gold Cup draw groups USA with Jamaica, Nicaragua

April 14, 2023

The busy summer for the U.S. men’s national soccer team continued to take shape Friday.

The U.S., which will face Mexico in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinal June 15, learned its group opponents for the CONCACAF Gold Cup at the tournament draw Friday at SoFi Stadium.

The Gold Cup begins June 24, with the times and dates to be announced at a later date.

In group play, the U.S. will face Jamaica, Nicaragua and the winner of a four-team qualifier between Curacao, St. Kitts and Nevis, French Guyana and Sint Mararten. The winner of the Curacao vs. St. Kitts and Nevis will meet the French Guiana vs. Sint Maarten winner. The last team standing will advance into the group with the U.S.

The four-team preliminary round will be played June 16-17, then the winners face each other June 20.

“I think there’s other pots that are probably, slightly easier, but I think our group is a tough group,” U.S. coach Anthony Hudson said. “Jamaica especially is a really tough team, strong team, done well in the past and then as I’ve said all along, we know there’s no easy games.

“People think you can walk through these teams … you have to be your best in every game, but that aside, we are confident and we aim to get out of the group and go as far as we can.”

The group stage will be played June 24-July 4, followed by the quarterfinals July 8-9, the semifinals July 12 and the final July 16 at SoFi Stadium, the site of Friday’s draw.

“What you find with these games is the contrasts in styles of play and types of players,” Hudson said. “You play against Jamaica and there’s a certain style and it’s a physicality and it’s aggressive and you have to match that. And then you have to play against Nicaragua and it’s different, so that’s the uniqueness I think of this tournament.

“There are so many different styles of play and you have to be prepared to go against that.”

Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica were the top seeds in the three other pools.

Hudson, who is still serving as coach of the national team in place of Gregg Berhalter, will lead a predominantly MLS-based team into a game Wednesday against Mexico in the newly created AllState Continental Clasico.

For the two summer tournaments, Hudson hopes to have the option of picking from a wider pool of players.

“Once we get this game out of the way next week against Mexico, I think we’ll start and we’ve already started conversations (about players) … we need to sit down and make sure that we put out the best possible teams we can for both the Nations League and the Gold Cup,” Hudson said. “While still respecting and taking into account individual situations of players and making sure we do the right things by the players, but also putting out our best teams.

“It’s not necessarily a core pool (of players), it’s more a core group that are able to go through both tournaments and I think that helps us with consistency and not turning up on Day 1 of preparation for the Gold Cup with a completely new group.”

The U.S. is the defending Gold Cup champion after defeating Mexico 1-0 in 2021. The U.S. hasn’t won consecutive tournaments since 2005 and 2007.

Mexico is in Group B and is paired with Haiti, Honduras and Qatar, who is competing as a guest country.

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Costa Rica is grouped with Panama, El Salvador and the winner of the Martinique, St. Lucia, Suriname and Puerto Rico four-team qualifier.

Canada has Guatemala, Cuba and the winner of the Trindad and Tobago, Guadeloupe, Guyana and Grenada qualifier.

“These players, every year, they want to get one better and for us, one better would be getting to the final,” Canada coach John Herdman said. “We want to embrace that expectation.”

Orange County Register

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CONCACAF Gold Cup draw groups USA with Jamaica, Nicaragua

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