Time for the CONCACAF Gold Cup

CONCACAF is the North American region of world soccer, as determined by FIFA. The Gold Cup is the tournament played to determine the best team in CONCACAF. This year's tournament is hosted across the USA, and it begins tomorrow. There are 3 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 team from each group advancing, plus 2 wild cards. Besides the pride of being champion of the continent, there are other important reasons, particularly for the USA and Mexico to win the title.

Teams need to boost their FIFA rankings so they can get seeded (as one of the top 8 teams) in the World Cup. The USA missed out to Mexico on being a seed by a few points for the 2006 World Cup, despite dominating Mexico for the last 10 years. Instead of being drawn against Iran, Portugal, and Angola, the USA had to play in a tougher group with Italy, the Czechs, and Ghana. Also, the winner of the Gold Cup gets to play in the Confederations Cup, which is a World Cup warm up. Wins in that tournament can also boost points in the FIFA World Cup seeding formula.

The groups for this year's Gold Cup are:
Group A - Costa Rica, Canada, Haiti, Guadeloupe
Group B - USA, Guatemala, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago
Group C - Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Cuba

There are two good group run downs, here and here.

The USA and Mexico are expected to play each other in the final in Chicago on June 24. Actually they are always expected to meet in the final, but since 1991, it's only happened twice.

The first matches are tonight. The USA plays tomorrow, at 6:00 PM PST on Fox Soccer Channel. Wikipedia has an easy to follow schedule.