By Mark Baber
July 5 – The 12th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup kicks off on Sunday at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California as 12 nations from the confederation that covers North, Central America and the Caribbean compete for the region’s greatest prize culminating on July 28 at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
The first round sees Mexico (FIFA ranking 20), Panama (51),Canada (88) and Martinique (no ranking) making up Group A; Honduras (55), Haiti (69), Trinidad and Tobago (87) and El Salvador (94) competing in group B; and hosts the USA (22) up against Costa Rica (39), Cuba (82) and Belize (130) in Group C.
Broadcast coverage is impressive, with Televisa, TV Azteca and ESPN in Mexico, ESPN in the UK and Fox, Fox Soccer, Univision, Univision Deportes and UniMas in the USA all involved. Three matches will be shown live on Fox and the rest on FOX Soccer, for whom this tournament represents a swansong before the channel is subsumed into Fox Sports 1 on August 17th.
Sponsorship is also considerable including Spanish bank Santander through its North-East US-based Sovereign Bank subsidiary; Mexican wireless telecommunications companyTelcel; MillerLite who are focusing on the Latino demographic with the “Es Miller Time” slogan; Sprint, the US based wireless telecoms holding company, who are looking to ¡Vive la Pasión! / Live the passion! with a bilingual site dedicated to the tournament; 7-UP, the soft drinks company who are looking to Live it Up! (Vive Up); State Farm who serve as the official auto and home insurance sponsor; Sony who will be sending the winners of their CONCACAF Interactive Gold Cup to the final; and Nike who are running a competition to say what makes the USMNT “indivisible.”
Although the tournament, which kicks off with Canada versus Martinique, has been historically dominated by the USA (four wins) and Mexico (six), the potential for giant-killings should make for the kind of compelling viewing that kept viewers glued to their sets for Tahiti’s games in the recent Confederations Cup.
Mexico has had a wretched buildup with two successive friendly defeats that hardly augur well,coming off the back of weak displays in the Confederations Cup and in World Cup qualifying.
US coach Jurgen Klinsmann, meanwhile, slammed the rule that states participating countries must submit preliminary rosters 45 days beforehand. “I thought it was not a good idea, and I told CONCACAF, because you can’t predict injuries, you can’t predict lack of form and all these elements,” Klinsmann said.
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