[Kick The Ball]

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cg...;article=57960

[GIO17]

Thank You very much for the information. I have been following the qualifying for the Caribbean & UNCAF qualifying for the Gold Cup.

It should be interesting.

[jaydog2008]

What is everyones best guess on what the gold cup will look like.

[Daniel from Montréal]

A big V-shaped trophy with <V> handles...

[ledu2nirvana]

a mexico and us final with mexico reclaiming the title that it deserves.

[YGBrowne]

The rumor is that Brazil will compete as a guest in the gold cup this summer. I would love to play Brazil, after all the United States beat Brazil in the 98 edition on top of a stellar performance from kasey keller.
Does anyone know the venues for the gold cup? I heard they were playing in the summer so as to have matches in cold weather cities ie Seattle, Columbus, New York, Boston. Anyone have a clue?

[RobtheAggie]

There was another thread devoted to this. The cities look to Miami, D.C. Foxboro, and mabye Giants Stadium. The Revolution are selling as part of their season ticket package tickets for at least two Gold Cup games.

[MasterShake29]

If you were in charge of CONCACAF , how would you organize the Gold Cup? Here's one idea. I think I posted something like this a few crashes ago, but I'm not totally sure.

Tournament Proper
* 16 teams, all from CONCACAF (no guest teams)
* Structure similar to Euro Championships
* Held every four years, same as Euro

Qualifying - Teams divided into 2 zones, North/Central America and Caribbean. No automatic bids.

North/Central America (10 teams, including USA/MEX/CAN)
* 2 Groups of 5, top 6 seeded (3 per group)
* League format
* Top 3 in each group automatically qualify for Gold Cup
* 4th Place in each group enter playoffs

Caribbean (30 teams)
* 6 Groups of 5, 1 or 2 seeded teams per group
* League format
* Group winner qualifies automatically for Gold Cup
* Group runners-up enter playoffs

Comments
* I never liked the idea of the U.S. and Mexico automatically qualifying. Even if the process is a formality, I think it only helps the U.S. to actually go through with it.
* Each team plays 8 games in qualifications (10 if in playoffs), comparable to European Championship qualifying and thus able to play on international dates.
* This format does not take into account host automatically qualifying, if the host can’t qualify in this system they don’t deserve to make it.
* North/Central America will have 6-8 teams, and the Caribbean 8-10, depending on the playoffs.
* Biggest drawback I see is perhaps some of the Caribbean teams not having the finances to compete, but I'll leave that to the experts to solve.
* Eventually I would like to see inter-zonal qualifying, but that may not be totally realistic for a few cycles.

[Fedz]

The problem with your format is that you are trying to equate in importance the EuroCup and the Gold Cup. Participants and specially the TFC see this tournament as friendlies. If this was not true, why wouldn't the rest of the countries complain that it is always held in the US or as you so well put the qualifying format or why we have guests. There is no real validity to this tournament. And until we all accept that this tournament is of at least some importance, they will not go through the hassle of all the qualifying format that you propose. Specially the US and Mexico.

[yellowbismark]

Like the last guy said, 16 teams is too many for this tournament, plus the competetive countries don't really take the tournament seriously. Your qualifying format is too much.

Consolidate Gold Cup qualifying into World Cup qualifying. The teams that make the final hexagon (6), qualify + host + defending champion (8 teams in all). If either the host of defending champion are in the hexagon already, than the next best (or two next best) countries should qualify or play a home and home to decide the remaining finalists.

For example, under the last qualifying for World Cup, these teams would make it:

Let's assume we give the host bid to Canada (I'm sick of the US always hosting this tournament), now we have defending champion United States, plus Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago. Since that's seven, we also give a pass to Guatemala, the best of the teams who didn't make the hexagon.

Remember up until 96 (or 92 was it), that the European Championships only had 8 participants, obviously they can field a quality tournament with 16, but I don't think CONCACAF is at that level.