SANTA CLARA, Calif.- United States Men’s National Team left Levi’s Stadium with a good taste in their mouths as the drawing of this year’s Gold Cup gave them favorable opponents to complete in Group B. USMNT hopes to find themselves back at Levi’s Stadium for the tournament’s final, but will first have to travel to Nashville, Tampa Bay, and Cleveland for group stage play.
The tournament hosts will face Panama, Martinique, and the winner of a two-leg playoff between Haiti and Nicaragua. History is behind the United States side as none of the other three teams in the group are yet to lift CONCACAF’s most prestigious trophy.
This year’s tournament will be unfamiliar; as longtime USMNT rival and Gold Cup’s most crowned team, Mexico, will be setting the FIFA Confederations Cup as their summer’s top priority. Which, will have them featuring a ‘B’ squad for the CONCACAF party as both tournaments only feature days apart from one another.
“Mexico can do whatever they want to do, it has nothing to do with us,” said coach Arena. “They are in a different situation than we are.”
The Gold Cup tournament has almost been solely a platform to deliver historic tournament final matches between the two CONCACAf giants in Mexico and USMNT. The historic MLS coach (Arena) is vowed to compete for the trophy as always, whether Mexico decides to take a reserve squad or not.
“We haven’t made any decision on what we are going to do with the Gold Cup,” said coach Arena. “But, we are going to bring a stronger team as we can into the Gold Cup.”
The United States side has two pivotal games ahead prior to the Gold Cup. Later this month, they will host Honduras in San Jose, before traveling to Panama in World Cup Qualifying play.
