November 21 – With the Concacaf Nations League having reached the final four, the 14 qualifiers for the Gold Cup Prelims have been matched for the home and away series to be played in March 2025.
The match-ups have been made according to the Concacaf rankings at the end of the November international match window. The seven winners will join the eight already qualified teams for group stage of the 2025 Gold Cup that kicks off in June 2025.
Highest ranked Costa Rica, who lost in the Nations League quarter finals to Panama, will meet Belize in their qualifier, while second ranked Jamaica will meet St Vincent and Grenadines. Those fixtures should be straightforward wins for Costa Rica and Jamaica.
But there are tougher match-ups lower down the rankings with Gold Cup regulars Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba facing off, as well as Martinique ad Suriname.
Nicaragua, who withdrew at the last minute from the 2021 edition and were subsequently banned from 2023, could return for 2025 but have to overcome Guadeloupe.
The eight qualified teams are USA, Canada, Mexico, and Panama – who will compete in the Nations League final four in March – alongside El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Curacao who League B group winers.
Once the Prelims are completed there will still be one slot left to make up the 16-team group stage. In the past two Gold Cups Qatar have guested. It is likely that the 16th slot will go to another invited nation from outside Concacaf.
How they qualified:
League A (8 teams)
Quarterfinal losing teams (four teams): Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, and Suriname
Group Stage Third Place Finishers (two teams): Guatemala and Nicaragua
Group Stage Fourth Place Finishers (two teams): Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago
League B (2 teams)
Two best second-place finishers (two teams): Bermuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Play-In (four teams)
Play-in Winners (four teams): Belize, Cuba, Guadeloupe, and Guyana
The seven matchups are as follows:
(1) Costa Rica vs Belize (14)
(2) Jamaica vs Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (13)
(3) Honduras vs Bermuda (12)
(4) Guatemala vs Guyana (11)
(5) Trinidad and Tobago vs Cuba (10)
(6) Martinique vs Suriname (9)
(7) Nicaragua vs Guadeloupe (8)
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