2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup Draw?

[UMass]

My first question is when is the draw? I realize alter the last 2 Central American Region teams qualify but is there a date yet? The tournament is in June so I believe the draw will be 3 months before to build excitement. Why did Canada get an automatic qualifier?
Will USA, Mexico and Canada automatically be put in different groups? Will they break up the Caribian teams (like the world cup breaks up the european teams) and put different regions in different groups?

Thanks for any insight you might have. I am new here

Automatic Qualifiers
USA
Mexico
Canada

Caribian region
Cuba
Guadeloupe
Haiti
Trinidad & Tobago

Central American Region
El Salavador
Guatamala
Costa Rica

[sidspaceman]

Canada gets an automatic because they are a past champion.

[touppouyo]

Canada gets an automatic because they are a past champion.

What about Honduras and Costa Rica? I thought they also have won this tournament in the past. No?

[sidspaceman]

Nope only Mexico, Canada, and the USMNT.

[Trin]

Nope only Mexico, Canada, and the USMNT.

That sounds fishy. I think the reason they get an automatic qualification is because there are not enough teams in North America for their to be any kind of qualification tornament and Canada fortuitously gets lumped in with the US and Mexico.

By that reasoning if Panama had won it last time they would have qualified automatically. I doubt that would have been the case.

I also disagree with the US and Mexico gaining automatic qualification but as of right now there is no practical way for them to play qualification games for precisely the same reason. Not enough teams.

[Azuran]

I also disagree with the US and Mexico gaining automatic qualification but as of right now there is no practical way for them to play qualification games for precisely the same reason. Not enough teams.

Don't forget the money part!

[sidspaceman]

It's more then likely that CONCACAF came up with rule so that they could have an excuse for Canada not to have to qualify.

[UMass]

"It's more then likely that CONCACAF came up with rule so that they could have an excuse for Canada not to have to qualify."

I think you are both are correct. Rules are always tweeked to get all the teams in they want. I believe the Fifa badly wanted the huge American market for soccer and gave 3 qual spots for ConCACAF. I remember the Euro team complaining about the groups lack of quality some 15 years ago.

The Gold Cup wants the Canadian market also so the rule of past winners getting an auto spot was convienient. ThisTournament only started in 1991, 2000 it expanded to 12 teams. This year alll teams are from the CONCACAF.


Past winners
05 USA
03 Mexico
02 USA
00 Canada
98 Mexico
96 Mexico
93 Mexico
91 USA
05 USA

[ThreeApples]

The Gold Cup doesn't have a draw. Groups are set by the organizing committee.

[UMass]

The Gold Cup doesn't have a draw. Groups are set by the organizing committee.


Great thanks for info. Do you know when the groups will be set and any idea how they are set like rankings?

[Soccerfever]

On a side note,could the Gold Cup be hosted somewhere else?Why is it almost always in the US?It would be nice to see it elsewhere!

[IASocFan]

On a side note,could the Gold Cup be hosted somewhere else?Why is it almost always in the US?It would be nice to see it elsewhere!


$IMPLE! Where else could they draw crowds for expensive tickets!

[sidspaceman]

On a side note,could the Gold Cup be hosted somewhere else?Why is it almost always in the US?It would be nice to see it elsewhere!

Mexico has hosted it before but never the entire tourney.

[SideshowBob]

The Gold Cup doesn't have a draw. Groups are set by the organizing committee.

That's odd. Do they do that to simply try to seperate "power" teams? Also, wouldn't it makes sense to simply group the qualifiers into tiers (4 groups of 3 teams) based on strength -- say, US, Mexico, Costa Rica in the top group; Canada, T&T, and Guatemala in the second; and so on (or use FIFA rankings or whatever) -- and then randomly place one team from each if these groups into Group A, B and C?

Anyhow, when are the groups going to be released? I realize that some teams are still TBD, but when is the timetable for setting the groups and locations/dates for games?

[chec]

What about Honduras and Costa Rica? I thought they also have won this tournament in the past. No?

Only Can, Mex and the U.S. has won the GC.

[Popol Vuh]

The Gold Cup doesn't have a draw. Groups are set by the organizing committee.

The same way Jack Warner set up the semifinal groups for WCQ??? :rolleyes:

[ThreeApples]

That's odd. Do they do that to simply try to seperate "power" teams? Also, wouldn't it makes sense to simply group the qualifiers into tiers (4 groups of 3 teams) based on strength -- say, US, Mexico, Costa Rica in the top group; Canada, T&T, and Guatemala in the second; and so on (or use FIFA rankings or whatever) -- and then randomly place one team from each if these groups into Group A, B and C? They don't have a draw because they want to set up the groups in the way they think will make the most money.

[scaryice]

You can pretty much figure out what the groups will be. First round doubleheaders will be as follows:

3-Miami
2-New York
2-Los Angeles
1-Houston
1-New England

Miami will have one group all to itself, which will include Haiti. Obviously the USA and Mexico will not be in that group, so I would guess since Colombia isn't there, they'll put Costa Rica in it as the third best team. Cuba won't be in that group.

I would guess that LA/HOU would make up another group with Mexico, and NY/NE would be the USA's group.

The rest of the teams really don't matter that much. They could put Canada up north, but it would make more sense to put them in Miami so that each group has a North American team.

[UMass]

II am new to forums so let me know if I am off base.
Organizers of any event want to make the event a success. To be a success you want the maximum amount of people viewing your event. To do this you also want good teams to compete in the event to create interest. If we look at populations of each country we could guess which teams the organizers want to see advance.

Here is a brief list of the participating est population
USA 298 Million on obvious team they want to see advance because of potential fan base and international recognition. MLS stars ect...
Mexico 107 Million The perennial power for so many years and great passionate fans. A great technically sound team.
Canada 33 Million Looking and trying to establish a fans base especially with the new MLS team next year and their huge investment in the national teams facility.
There is a huge difference between 298 million, 107 million and 33 Millionbut these are the 3 teams who got the automatic qualifing checks.


Then the drop off in population
Guatamala 12.3 Million
Cuba 11.3 Million could have a good story line W/ Castro fading and the million of cubans in Miami.
Haiti 8 Million for the little ½ island nation.
Hondorus 7.3 Million
El Salavador 6.8 Million Just hosted the Central American tourney and advanced.
Nicaragua 5,5 Million
Costa Rica 4 Million Excellent team that made the World Cup. Good fans support
Panama 3 Million Good team that made it to the Gold Cup final last year only to lose in a shoot out. (have not qualified yet)
T& T only 1 Million however very good team the won a playoff to make the last World Cup.

[IASocFan]

...Miami will have one group all to itself, which will include Haiti. Obviously the USA and Mexico will not be in that group, so I would guess ...they'll put Costa Rica in it as the third best team. Cuba won't be in that group.

I would guess that LA/HOU would make up another group with Mexico, and NY/NE would be the USA's group.

...

LA/HOU and NY/NE was my initial assumption, but CONCACAF indicated that it'll be LA/NE and NY/Hou!

from concacaf.com:
"The two groups beginning tournament play at the Home Depot Center and Giants Stadium will then finish their first round games in Gillette Stadium close to Boston in Foxboro (Massachusetts), and; Reliant Stadium in Houston (Texas) respectively, while the third group will play all of its first round games at the Orange Bowl."