A plethora of Premier League stars set to light up Gold Cup 2023

A host of English Premier League players are set to blaze the field at the 17th edition of the Gold Cup competition this summer. The tournament is slated for June 16 – July 16, 2023, with the finals touted for the SoFi Stadium on Sunday, July 16. The United States Men’s national team is the defending champion and will be vying for the top spot in retaining their title. They are also the defending Nation League champion and are current semifinalists in the said tournament. This year’s tournament will see Jamaica’s Leon Bailey (Aston Villa – Premier League), Michail Antonio (West Ham – Premier League), USA’s Christian Pulisic (Chelsea – Premier League), Brendon Aaronson (Leeds – Premier League), Costa Rica’s Keylor Nevas (Nottingham Forrest – Premier League) and  Mexico’s Raul Jimenez (Wolverhampton Wanderers – Premier League), locking horns in the region’s elite competition.

Late last month, Concacaf confirmed some crucial details regarding the 2023 Gold Cup draw, including the event’s hosts, pots, and seeded nations.

The live draw will commence at 12:00 pm PT/local time (3:00 pm ET) and will be hosted by TUDN. It is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 14, 2023, at SoFi Stadium, in Inglewood, California. Sportscaster Valeria Marin, Fox Sports Lead Soccer Analyst and US Men’s National Team legend Alexi Lalas and ESPN play-by-play commentator Fernando Palomo will also be in attendance to cheer the program.

Several Concacaf officials are selected to participate in this year’s event. Along those in attendance will be FIFA Vice President, Victor Montagliani, and head coaches and important guests. All will be available for interviews at the event’s arrival red carpet and post-draw mixed zone.

The games will be televised across the region on Fox Sports and TUDN | ViX (USA), Televisa | ViX (Mexico), One Soccer (Canada), and ESPN | Star+ in the Caribbean, Central, and South America. For other territories, the event will be available on Concacaf GO, Concacaf’s Facebook page, and Concacaf’s YouTube channel (all subject to territory restrictions).

2023 CONCACAF GOLD CUP QUALIFICATION 

Concacaf Nations League is in its second staging and is at the semifinal round with Canada, Mexico, USA, and Panama all fighting for a place in the finals. The Concacaf Nation League (CNL) was the route for qualification for the 2023 Gold Cup. Asian Cup Champions and Invited guest will join the 12 automatic qualifiers for the Group Stage play. Below are the 12 group stage teams listed in alphabetical order per league.
League A group winners: Canada, Mexico, Panama, and United States
League A runners-up: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica
League B group winners: Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, and Nicaragua

Three teams from the 12 teams that qualified for the preliminary round will join the 13 teams in the group stage. The 12 teams are listed in alphabetical order per League.

League A third-place finishers: Curaçao, Grenada, Martinique, and Suriname
League B second-place finishers: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago
League C group winners: Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Sint Maarten.

All these games will be played before the June 16 start of the group stage.
There will be a slight change to this year’s drawing whereas based on the Concacaf Men’s National Team Rankings as of March 31, 2023, the teams participating in the Prelims will be seeded into a Round One matchup or placed in Pot 13 Gold Cup Prelims draw will be carried out using a single-blind system and one pot.
Round One matchup (six highest-ranked teams): Trinidad and Tobago, Martinique, Curaçao, French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana

Pot 1 (Six lowest ranked teams): Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Puerto Rico, and Sint Maarten.

In accordance with the regulations governing the draw, the six top-ranked teams will be seeded, in ranking order, into a Round One matchup as follows:
Matchup 1: Trinidad and Tobago
Matchup 2: Martinique
Matchup 3: Curaçao
Matchup 4: French Guiana
Matchup 5: Suriname
Matchup 6: Guyana
The teams in Pot 1 will be drawn one by one and placed in sequential order in matchups 1-6. Once all teams have been assigned a Round One matchup, the Prelims draw will conclude.

The pairings for Round Two have been pre-determined, and will be as follows:
Matchup 7: Winner Matchup 1 vs Winner Matchup 6
Matchup 8: Winner Matchup 2 vs Winner Matchup 5
Matchup 9: Winner Matchup 3 vs Winner Matchup 4
The three Round Two matchup winners will advance to the 2023 Gold Cup Group Stage.

The 2023 Gold Cup Group Stage Draw will be carried out using a double-blind system, involving eight pots.

Pots 1-4 will contain the spheres with the names of the participating teams and Pots 5-8 will contain Group A, B, C, and D spheres.

Based on the Concacaf Men’s National Team Rankings as of March 31, 2023, the 12 Concacaf teams that secured a direct berth into the tournament’s Group Stage will be distributed in Pots 1-3, as follows (listed in ranking order):

Pot 1 (Four highest-ranked teams): Mexico, United States, Costa Rica, and Canada.
Pot 2 (Four next best-ranked teams): Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, and Guatemala.
Pot 3 (Four lowest-ranked teams): Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, and Nicaragua

The remaining four Group Stage participants, including the three Prelims winners, will be placed in Pot 4, as follows:

Pot 4: Qatar, Winner Prelims 7, Winner Prelims 8, and Winner Prelims 9

Also, in accordance with the regulations governing the draw, the Pot 1 teams will each be seeded into a Group as follows:

Group A: United States (current champions)
Group B: Mexico (highest-ranked team)
Group C: Costa Rica (next highest-ranked seeded team)
Group D: Canada (lowest-ranked seeded team)

The Group Stage draw will commence by placing the Pot 1 seeded teams in their pre-assigned groups, using their pre-assigned group spheres in Pot 5.

The draw will then continue by drawing spheres from Pot 2 and determining each team’s group with a sphere from Pot 6. The same procedure will be repeated for all spheres, including those in Pots 3 and 4, using the group spheres in Pots 7 and 8, respectively.

Once all teams have been assigned a group, the draw will conclude.