Soca Warriors get Panama, USA, Guyana for Gold Cup

“The love for foot­ball is demon­strat­ed with every pass­ing edi­tion of the CON­CA­CAF Gold Cup,” said Con­ca­caf Pres­i­dent Vic­tor Mon­tagliani. “Bring­ing the 16-team Gold Cup to Cos­ta Ri­ca, Ja­maica and the Unit­ed States is a wa­ter­shed mo­ment for foot­ball in our Con­fed­er­a­tion. This 15th edi­tion will make the tour­na­ment more com­pet­i­tive and com­pelling for play­ers and fans while show­cas­ing our re­gion’s uni­ty, pas­sion for foot­ball and tal­ent on the field.”

As part of the event, the Con­fed­er­a­tion held Con­ca­caf NextPlay, a grass­roots de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tive, con­sist­ing of train­ing from Con­ca­caf of­fi­cials for coach­es to de­liv­er the NextPlay method­ol­o­gy in their lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties. The pro­gram is fo­cused on uti­liz­ing the game to cre­ate safe spaces while pro­mot­ing so­cial val­ues. Af­ter the coach­es train­ing, a foot­ball clin­ic for boys and girls took place at the Banc of Cal­i­for­nia Sta­di­um.

In­spired by the di­verse com­mu­ni­ties served by the or­ga­ni­za­tion, as well as its mis­sion and val­ues, Con­ca­caf NextPlay em­pha­sizes the Con­fed­er­a­tion’s com­mit­ment to so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty by pro­mot­ing ac­cess to foot­ball with­in the re­gion, while lever­ag­ing the pow­er of the game to dri­ve so­cial change.

The 2019 Gold Cup will be the biggest-ever edi­tion of the event, with more par­tic­i­pat­ing na­tions (16 up from 12 in 2017), more host coun­tries (three, in­clud­ing first-time match­es in Cos­ta Ri­ca and Ja­maica, and more sta­di­ums (17 up from 14 in 2017, eight of which are in con­tention to be­come a 2026 FI­FA World Cup venue).

The 15th edi­tion of the con­ti­nen­tal cham­pi­onship will kick off on Sat­ur­day, June 15 at the Rose Bowl in Pasade­na, with Cana­da and Mar­tinique mark­ing the start of Group A ac­tion. The sec­ond match of the day will fea­ture a matchup be­tween sev­en-time Gold Cup cham­pi­ons Mex­i­co and Cu­ba.

As part of this ex­pand­ed for­mat of the tour­na­ment, Group B will de­but in the tour­na­ment on Sun­day, June 16, in Cos­ta Ri­ca’s Es­ta­dio Na­cional, mark­ing the first time the tour­na­ment is played in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca. Cos­ta Ri­ca and Nicaragua will face-off in Group B’s evening match, while Haiti and Bermu­da will open the day’s dou­ble­head­er.

In Group C, the seed­ed na­tion, Hon­duras, will trav­el to Kingston, Ja­maica, to take on the Reg­gae Boyz, mark­ing the first time the tour­na­ment is played in the Caribbean, while Cu­raçao and El Sal­vador bat­tle for ear­ly group dom­i­nance.

Group D, led by man­ag­er Gregg Berhal­ter’s Unit­ed States will be­gin their ti­tle de­fense in Min­neso­ta’s Al­lianz Field against Guyana, who will be mak­ing their Gold Cup de­but, while Pana­ma take on Trinidad and To­ba­go in what is sure to be a tight­ly con­test­ed match to round out the day and the first full round of Group Stage matchups.

In the Knock­out rounds, Hous­ton’s NRG Sta­di­um and Philadel­phia’s Lin­coln Fi­nan­cial Field will host two Quar­ter­fi­nal match­es each, on June 29 and 30 re­spec­tive­ly. The win­ning teams will move on to State Farm Sta­di­um in Phoenix and Nis­san Sta­di­um in Nashville for the Semi­fi­nals. The grand fi­nal is sched­uled to be played on Ju­ly 7, in Chica­go’s icon­ic Sol­dier Field.

The 2019 CON­CA­CAF Gold Cup is spon­sored by All­state In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny, Ca­mare­na Tequi­la, Cerveza Mod­e­lo, Nike, Sco­tia­bank, Sprint, and Toy­ota. The tour­na­ment will be broad­cast na­tion­al­ly on the Uni­vi­sion and FOX fam­i­ly of net­works and trans­mit­ted on ra­dio in Span­ish by Fút­bol de Primera Ra­dio Net­work and broad­cast by tele­vi­sion part­ners in over 180 coun­tries around the world.

2019 Concacaf Gold Cup Groups

Group A: Mexico, Canada, Martinique, Cuba
Group B: Costa Rica, Haiti, Nicaragua, Bermuda
Group C: Honduras, Jamaica, El Salvador, Curaçao
Group D: United States, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana

2019 Concacaf Gold Cup Schedule

Group A

Canada vs Martinique
Sat, June 15 at 7:30 PM ET
Rose Bowl - Pasadena, CA

Mexico vs Cuba
Sat, June 15 at 10:00 PM ET
Rose Bowl - Pasadena, CA

Cuba vs Martinique
Wed, June 19 at 8:00 PM ET
Broncos Stadium at Mile High - Denver, CO

Mexico vs Canada
Wed, June 19 at 10:30 PM ET
Broncos Stadium at Mile High - Denver, CO

Canada vs Cuba
Sun, June 23 at 6:00 PM ET
Bank of America Stadium - Charlotte, NC

Martinique vs Mexico
Sun, June 23 at 8:30 PM ET
Bank of America Stadium - Charlotte, NC

Group B

Haiti vs Bermuda
Sun, June 16 at 6:00 PM ET
Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica - San Jose, Costa Rica

Costa Rica vs Nicaragua
Sun, June 16 at 8:30 PM ET
Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica - San Jose, Costa Rica

Nicaragua vs Haiti
Thu, June 20 at 7:00 PM ET
Toyota Stadium - Frisco, TX

Costa Rica vs Bermuda
Thu, June 20 at 9:30 PM ET
Toyota Stadium - Frisco, TX

Bermuda vs Nicaragua
Mon, June 24 at 6:30 PM ET
Red Bull Arena - Harrison, NJ

Haiti vs Costa Rica
Mon, June 24 at 9:00 PM ET
Red Bull Arena - Harrison, NJ

Group C

Curaçao vs El Salvador
Mon, June 17 at 7:00 PM ET
Independence Park - Kingston, Jamaica

Jamaica vs Honduras
Mon, June 17 at 9:30 PM ET
Independence Park - Kingston, Jamaica

El Salvador vs Jamaica
Fri, June 21 at 7:00 PM ET
BBVA Compass Stadium - Houston, TX

Honduras vs Curaçao
Fri, June 21 at 930 PM ET
BBVA Compass Stadium - Houston, TX

Jamaica vs Curaçao
Tue, June 25 at 8:00 PM ET
Banc of California Stadium - Los Angeles, CA

Honduras vs El Salvador
Tue, June 25 at 10:30 PM ET
Banc of California Stadium - Los Angeles, CA

Group D

Panama vs Trinidad and Tobago
Tue, June 18 at 7:30 PM ET
Allianz Field - Saint Paul, MN

United States vs Guyana
Tue, June 18 at 10:00 PM ET
Allianz Field - Saint Paul, MN

Guyana vs Panama
Sat, June 22 at 5:30 PM ET
FirstEnergy Stadium - Cleveland, OH

United States vs Trinidad and Tobago
Sat, June 22 at 8:00 PM ET
FirstEnergy Stadium - Cleveland, OH

Trinidad and Tobago vs Guyana
Wed, June 26 at 6:30 PM ET
Children's Mercy Park - Kansas City, KS

Panama vs United States
Wed, June 26 at 9:00 PM ET
Children's Mercy Park - Kansas City, KS

Quarterfinals

Sat, June 29 - 7:00 PM ET
Match #25: Winner Group B vs. Runner-up Group A
NRG Stadium - Houston, TX

Sat, June 29 - 10:00 PM ET
Match #26: Winner Group A vs. Runner-up Group B
NRG Stadium - Houston, TX

Sun, June 30 - 5:30 PM ET
Match #27: Winner Group C vs. Runner-up Group D
Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia, PA

Sun, June 30 - 8:30 PM ET
Match #28: Winner Group D vs. Runner-up Group C
Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia, PA

Semifinals

Tue, July 2 - 10:30 PM ET
Winner Match #25 vs. Winner Match #26
State Farm Stadium - Glendale, AZ

Wed, July 3 - 9:30 PM ET
Winner Match #27 vs. Winner Match #28
Nissan Stadium - Nashville, TN

Final

Sun, July 7 - 9:15 PM ET
Concacaf Gold Cup Final
Soldier Field - Chicago, IL

RELATED NEWS

T&T to face USA, Panama, Guyana in Group D of Gold Cup 2019.
TTFA Media.

Trinidad and Tobago will open its 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup account against Panama in the first game of a double header on June 18th at Allianz Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  T&T will face off with hosts and defending champions United States, Guyana and Panama, it was disclosed at the Gold Cup draw announcement ceremony at the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Head coach Dennis Lawrence attended along with team manager Richard Piper and media officer Shaun Fuentes with the latter two attending team workshops for managers and media on Thursday at the West Drift Manhattan Beach hotel along with delegates of the other fifteen competing teams and Concacaf officials.

T&T faces United States as action shifts to FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland for their second round of matches on June 22 . Group play will then close with Group D’s final matchday at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City on June 26  with T&T meeting Guyana and Panama facing the US.

The knockout rounds will begin on June 29 at Houston’s NRG stadium with two quarterfinal matches, while the other two quarterfinals will be played June 30 in Philadelphia.

The semifinals are set to be held July 2 in Glendale, Arizona and July 3 in Nashville, with the final set to take place July 7 in Chicago.

Group A , which features Mexico, Canada, Martinique and Cuba will open play on June 15 at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. The group’s second matchday will come on June 19 at Broncos Stadium at Mile High in Denver, with the final round of matches played June 23 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

Group B , featuring Costa Rica, Haiti, Nicaragua and Bermuda , will play its opening matches on June 16 at Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San Jose, with the second round of matches to be played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas on June 20 . The final round of matches will take place at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey on June 24 .

Group C matches will begin on June 17 , with Honduras, Jamaica, El Salvador and Curacao all taking the field in Kingston, Jamaica at Independence Park. The group will move to BBVA Compass Stadium Houston for the second round of matches on June 24 while Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles will host the third round of matches on June 25 .

Lawrence in an immediate reaction at the Banc of California stadium told TTFA Media “It’s all exciting because we’ve been waiting to find out who was going to be our opposition in the Gold Cup. We know it wasn’t going to be easy because they are all very good teams that have qualified for the Gold Cup.  It’s an interesting one.”

“I knew it was going to happen because it is what was meant to be,” he said of the USA fixture. “As I said before, when you go into any major tournament I think if you want to win the tournament you have to probably beat some of the better teams and USA are one of the best, so we are looking forward to it. They’ll be excited about it and it’s going to be a full house when we play the US because they will have the fans behind them and hopefully a few Trinidadian fans will turn out.

As to what his squad of players can anticipate at Concacaf’s Premier event, Lawrence said, ”They are going to look forward to an exciting tournament. It’s the biggest in the Concacaf region. It’s like our World Cup and the players should be excited about it and excited about turning up in a tournament, representing Trinidad and Tobago and doing well. I think they need to just embrace the moment when it comes and go out and just try and do their best.

Regarding his preparations schedule between now and the opening game on June 18th against Panama, Lawrence added, “The idea is to try and have some training with the local group because obviously that remains a major concern for us in the absence of the league. We need to try and prepare some of the local players to get them ready and  give them a chance to try and make the Gold Cup squad. That is prominent on my mind at the moment and is a bit of a concern so we are working on that. Then going into the Japan and the Venezuela games if you look at the date of our first game I think the Japan game is coming at a good time.. it gives us enough time to recover after the (Japan) game.”

Concacaf President Victor Montagliani said at the start of proceedings, “The love for football is demonstrated with every passing edition of the Concacaf Gold Cup,” said “Bringing the 16-team Gold Cup to Costa Rica, Jamaica and the United States is a watershed moment for football in our Confederation. This 15th edition will make the tournament more competitive and compelling for players and fans, while showcasing our region’s unity, passion for football and talent on the field.”

The 2019 Gold Cup will be the biggest-ever edition of the event, with more participating nations (16 up from 12 in 2017), more host countries (three, including first-time matches in Costa Rica and Jamaica, and more stadiums (17 up from 14 in 2017, eight of which are in contention to become a 2026 FIFA World Cup venue).

The 15th edition of the continental championship will kick off on Saturday, June 15 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, with Canada and Martinique marking the start of Group A action. The second match of the day will feature a matchup between seven-time Gold Cup champions Mexico and Cuba.

2019 Concacaf Gold Cup Match Schedule
*Local time and order of the matches subject to change

Saturday, June 15 – Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA (Group A)
4:30 pm Canada v Martinique
6:30 pm Mexico v Cuba

Sunday, June 16 – Estadio Nacional, San José, Costa Rica (Group B)
4:00 pm Haiti v Bermuda
6:00 pm Costa Rica v Nicaragua

Monday, June 17 – Independence Park, Kingston, Jamaica (Group C)
6:00 pm Curaçao v El Salvador
8:00 pm Jamaica v Honduras

Tuesday, June 18 – Allianz Field, St. Paul, MN (Group D)
6:30 pm Panama v Trinidad and Tobago
8:30 pm USA v Guyana

Wednesday, June 19 – Broncos Stadium at Mile High, Denver, CO (Group A)
6:00 pm Cuba v Martinique
8:00 pm Mexico v Canada

Thursday, June 20 – Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX (Group B)
6:00 pm Nicaragua v Haiti
8:00 pm Costa Rica v Bermuda

Friday, June 21 – BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston, TX (Group C)
6:00 pm El Salvador v Jamaica
8:00 pm Honduras v Curaçao

Saturday, June 22 – FirstEnergy Stadium, Cleveland, OH (Group D)
5:30 pm Guyana v Panama
7:30 pm USA v Trinidad and Tobago

Sunday, June 23 – Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC (Group A)
6:00 pm Canada v Cuba
8:00 pm Martinique v Mexico

Monday, June 24 – Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ (Group B)
6:30 pm Bermuda v Nicaragua
8:30 pm Haiti v Costa Rica

Tuesday, June 25 – Banc of California Stadium, Los Angeles, CA (Group C)
5:00 pm Jamaica v Curaçao
7:00 pm Honduras v El Salvador

Wednesday, June 26 – Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, KS (Group D)
5:30 pm Trinidad and Tobago v Guyana
7:30 pm Panama v USA

Saturday, June 29 – NRG Stadium, Houston, TX 
6:00 pm QF1: 1B v 2A
8:30 pm QF2: 1A v 2B

Sunday, June 30 – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, PA 
5:30 pm QF3: 1C v 2D
8:00 pm QF4: 1D v 2C

Tuesday, July 2 – State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ
7:00 pm SF1: Winner QF1 v Winner QF2

Wednesday, July 3 – Nissan Stadium, Nashville, TN
8:00 pm SF2: Winner QF3 v Winner QF4

Sunday, July 7– Soldier Field, Chicago, IL
8:00 pm F: Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2

VIDEOS

Gold Cup 2019 - Head Coach Lawrence reacts to T&T's Group D draw

US head coach Berhalter : We've got respect for T&T