Gold Cup Format

[CdnBhoy67 redded]

What would be better for the Gold Cup tournament...Every 2,3, or 4 years?

For Canada it would be better off every four years in between world cups. We sit idle for the most part anyways and that won't change under the current leadership , so we won't have to spend taxpayers dollars sending the team playing useless friendlies when we don't have to, just get the team together one month prior to the Gold Cup and hope for the best.

[Fires Of Fulham]

For Canada it would be better off every four years in between world cups. We sit idle for the most part anyways and that won't change under the current leadership , so we won't have to spend taxpayers dollars sending the team playing useless friendlies when we don't have to, just get the team together one month prior to the Gold Cup and hope for the best.[/QUOTE]

In the United States it's totally the opposite. As a side trying to gain respect in the world, this is our chance to show our stuff against major competition in a tourney format. Of course, it's the same competition as in CONCACAF qualifying (except for the two at-largers).

But since we do win it on occasion, it's still a bragging thing. Waiting four years for another occasion to do so is just too long.

[El Dude Malacopa]

havin it every 4 years or atleast every 3 years would make the tournament less of the Micky Mouse tournie it already is. Big teams take it as a warm up or a chance to play young players... and it shouldn't be that. If Concacaf wants to grow as a serious confederation then it might as well try to offer a serious tournament... I also think it should be a Concacaf only tournament without any invites. Have the 6 teams from the last Hex and a little qualifying thing for the rest of the teams.

[SOCCERBEAST redded]

For Canada it would be better off every four years in between world cups. We sit idle for the most part anyways and that won't change under the current leadership , so we won't have to spend taxpayers dollars sending the team playing useless friendlies when we don't have to, just get the team together one month prior to the Gold Cup and hope for the best.

In the United States it's totally the opposite. As a side trying to gain respect in the world, this is our chance to show our stuff against major competition in a tourney format. Of course, it's the same competition as in CONCACAF qualifying (except for the two at-largers).

But since we do win it on occasion, it's still a bragging thing. Waiting four years for another occasion to do so is just too long.[/QUOTE]



But the american program has money, a pro league mls,
while Canada has neither. we all want to win it but
when the CSA and the manager are both out of touch
to improve our national team we are doomed.

[Fires Of Fulham]

But the american program has money, a pro league mls,
while Canada has neither. we all want to win it but
when the CSA and the manager are both out of touch
to improve our national team we are doomed.

You have a couple of teams in one of the lower leagues (I don't pay much attention to those) and Toronto is supposed to get an expansion team. Originally I was against the idea but when I see them drawing 10,000 for a minor league match, I just imagine what an MLS match would draw.

So once you have a team or two perhaps they would count Canadians as domestics and it would help improve playing against international club guys from other MLS sides.

And, hey, now that hockey is dead, some of the youth could turn to soccer. Sorry, had to be said. :)

[CdnBhoy67 redded]

You have a couple of teams in one of the lower leagues (I don't pay much attention to those) and Toronto is supposed to get an expansion team. Originally I was against the idea but when I see them drawing 10,000 for a minor league match, I just imagine what an MLS match would draw.

So once you have a team or two perhaps they would count Canadians as domestics and it would help improve playing against international club guys from other MLS sides.

And, hey, now that hockey is dead, some of the youth could turn to soccer. Sorry, had to be said. :)

Toronto's chance of an MLS team took a bad turned when the Toronto
Argos (scared of competition) pulled out of the new proposed stadium.
It was Montreal that drew the over 10,000 crowd for the USL games,
Toronto can get near that, the soccer crazed city will not except the
Lynx, being a minor league franchise, and doomed to fail. Hockey bites,
it as simple at that.

[vilafria]

havin it every 4 years or atleast every 3 years would make the tournament less of the Micky Mouse tournie it already is. Big teams take it as a warm up or a chance to play young players... and it shouldn't be that. If Concacaf wants to grow as a serious confederation then it might as well try to offer a serious tournament... I also think it should be a Concacaf only tournament without any invites. Have the 6 teams from the last Hex and a little qualifying thing for the rest of the teams.

I agree. 4 yrs and drop invitees.

[Popol Vuh]

keep it as it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[IASocFan]

keep it as it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


But move it to January!

I know that may not work for anyone but Canada and the US, but so what! ;)

And either every 2 or 4. Every 3 is idiotic!

[Popol Vuh]

But move it to January!

I know that may not work for anyone but Canada and the US, but so what! ;)

And either every 2 or 4. Every 3 is idiotic!

wasnt the 98' edition in february??? :confused:

[sinistersam redded]

Make the soccer poor countries like Canada have to qualify,
they don't deserve an automatic place, sad but true.

[edu76]

The should do a Pan American cup with the best 8 teams in South America and the best 8 of the CONCACAF and it should be every four years.
Right now, both cups aren't woth much together, even the African and Asian cups are more interesting.

[edu76]

Toronto's chance of an MLS team took a bad turned when the Toronto
Argos (scared of competition) pulled out of the new proposed stadium.
It was Montreal that drew the over 10,000 crowd for the USL games,
Toronto can get near that, the soccer crazed city will not except the
Lynx, being a minor league franchise, and doomed to fail. Hockey bites,
it as simple at that.



There used to be a FIFA rule which prevents international leagues. In 1992, two American teams wanted to play in Mexico, but FIFA shot it down.

[vilafria]

There used to be a FIFA rule which prevents international leagues. In 1992, two American teams wanted to play in Mexico, but FIFA shot it down.
There are exceptions : Cardiff from Wales play in English league Monaco in France ,several Canadian teams in the USL 1,etc. :)

[grasskickin]

Right now, the Gold Cup is stupid and pointless. It takes the MLS's best players out of the league for more than 2 weeks, throwing a bunch of teams offcourse without their best players. It is not fair to the fans who pay to watch their team play and they don't get to see any of their star players. Overall, it brings the quality of play in the MLS down a lot.

So then those players end up wasting their time playing cr@p teams like guatamala and none of the games are shown on tv either.

If the gold cup was every other year it would be less of a burden on the MLS or if it was played in the winter.

If the gold cup was combined with the south american tournament then at least it would be worth watching

[ChcgoStingInMyBlood]

First and foremost: decide that this is going to be a legitimate and prestigious confederation championship. Realize that they find a way to make it very legitimate in Europe, which has a larger number of countries and far more influential professional leagues. Euro has issues but they get it done.

Screw the other confederations. This is our championship, if we do this right, they will be following our lead believe me.

Get rid of the invitees. Obviously we don't want Brazil or Columbia or whomever in the confederation final.

Play the group stage several months before the knockout stage. Domestic league schedules and Gold Cups schedules have to be coordinated during the group stages to avoid most conflicts. Yes I know this sounds impossible but you get all the FA directors together for a couple of weeks in Monserrat or Cabo San Lucas or Scottsdale or Vancouver or wherever and everyone screams and shouts and cries for a couple of days and then you get down to business. It can be done.

The current knock out stage starts 07/16/2005 and ends 07/24/2005 - with prep time we're talking two weeks. All domestic leagues do not play during the knock out stage, period. Two weeks is not too much to ask for a confederation championship.

All knockout matches must be available for TV, radio and internet audiences in a reasonable way in both English, Spanish and whatever local dialects. Create a single, unified broadcasting presence for CONCACAF. Multi-lingual and cooperative. Maybe a CONCACAF cable channel. Create an equivalent to the excellent streaming capabilities at UEFA.com. This is critical; if there is any area that is worth taking an initial loss on, this is it.

Turn the knockout stage into one hellacious party, regardless of the locale. This is where us Yanks come in: marketing, marketing, marketing. This will require patience and will need to built up over a couple of cycles. Think NFL Superbowl or NBA All-Star game. Make it about more than just the competition; CONCACAF has countries with incredible culture across the region, build in CONCACAF sponsored events to celebrate this. CONCACAF-sponsored skills competitions that are agressively promoted. Televise this - might sound corny but you get a bunch of skilled kids with a soccer ball and it would be excellent TV and you get the casual fan this way if you promote it right.

Finally, find a way to combine WCQ with qualifying for the Gold Cup. Like Africa does. Don't know exactly how, but enhance the significance of the tournament.

Am I a dreamer or what?

[SJJ]

Play the group stage several months before the knockout stage. Domestic league schedules and Gold Cups schedules have to be coordinated during the group stages to avoid most conflicts....

The current knock out stage starts 07/16/2005 and ends 07/24/2005 - with prep time we're talking two weeks. All domestic leagues do not play during the knock out stage, period. Two weeks is not too much to ask for a confederation championship.

So you are turning the group stage into another round of "qualifying" for the "real" tournament: the knockout stages. If you don't play the groups and knockouts together, it becomes another qualifying round.

The current Gold Cup is taking only 19 days to play. Add a week or so for practices and travel, and you will need about 25 days (Thursday, June 30 to Sunday, July 24) for the whole thing. Better use of time than splitting it into two chunks.

And logistally, you are bringing in all of the 8 national teams together, knowing that half of the will be knocked out after one game. Doesn't make much sense.

However, you may have a good point in not having domestic leagues play during the knockout phases. (This would include foreign club teams coming to the USA for friendlies.) Force most of the attention towards the Gold Cup. Maybe this will even create a decent TV package for it.

[vilafria]

I heard this one on Fox soccer channel by Carlos Machado and it's a great idea; play the Gold cup every 2 years ,the winner of each edition will meet in a play-off 2 match tie to determine the representative from CONCACAF to the FIFA's Confederation Cup held every 4 yrs.
That , of course, would require to prempt invitees from either enter or delegate a second place in case of an invitee winner.

[vilafria]

The idea is generated b/c the U.S. as this years' winner still does not have a place in the next Confederation Cup as CONCACAF's representative since there's still one more Gold cup to be played before the next Conf. Cup. The winner of the next Gold Cup will be the representative under current rules.

[ChcgoStingInMyBlood]

Can a competition between a 2005 winner and 2007 winner of a cup really be legitmate? Isn't that too much of a gap in time? The US team in 2007 is likely to be quite different from the team that just won the Gold Cup. Is there an example of something like this elsewhere in the World?

If the only prizes of the Gold Cup are bragging rights and an invite to the Confed Cup then it seems that we should go to a every-four year tourney in even-numbered years between World Cups.