Prelims Qualifier: Haiti 6 St Vincent and the Grenadines 1:
July 2 – Haiti did what was expected of them in rolling over St Vincent and the Grenadines in the opening preliminary qualifier for the Group Stages of the Gold Cup. Duckens Nazon, Haiti’s free scoring forward was their hero. St Vincent had 13 heroes.
Mexico
Qualifying
Mexico enter the Concacaf Gold Cup after finishing top of their qualifying group, easing past Bermuda and Panama as expected, winning every game of the group stage. Their most recent outing in the Concacaf Nations League in June saw them lose out to USA following a 114th minute winner courtesy of Chelsea star Christian Pulisic. During the group stage of Nations League qualifying, they scored a convincing 13 goals in 4 games,
Curaçao
How they qualified
Curaçao booked their ticket for the finals as one of the four group runners-up in the A League of the inaugural Concacaf Nations League. In Group D, they finished behind Costa Rica, but ahead of Haiti.
Tournament Record
This is the team’s third participation. In 2017, Curaçao debuted in the tournament in group D with Mexico, El Salvador and Jamaica, but failed to garner a single point.
Suriname
How they qualified
The Surinamese progressed to the main draw as one of four group winners in the 2019-20 Concacaf Nations League B. They punched their ticket by bossing group B, even though Saint Vincent and the Grenadines proved to be tricky challengers. Suriname garnered 13 points and scored an impressive 16 goals. Gleofilo Vlijter was the League’s top scorer with ten strikes.
Tournament Record
The country returns for the first time in 36 years to the Gold Cup.
July 2 – The Concacaf Gold Cup is the kind of championship that will guarantee stories of triumph over adversity, of teams and individuals doing remarkable things to inspire countries large and small.
July 1 – At the 2019 Gold Cup, Haiti were the surprise package, battling their way to to a semi-final against the tournament’s class act Mexico, a glorious run that was ended in a penalty shoot-out.
Qatar
How they qualified
The team was invited to participate for the first time. Qatar will also feature in the 2023 Gold Cup.
Tournament Record
None.
Star Man
Akram Afif
It still has to be Afif, even though he is never reached the heights of his 2019 Asian Cup winning performances. However, he still makes Qatar tick going forward and his link-up play with Almoez Ali is unmatched.
El Salvador
How they qualified
The team sealed a finals spot as one of four group winners in the 2019-20 Concacaf Nations League B. They dominated Group B, seeing off the Dominican Republic and Saint Lucia, and Monserrat. On matchday two, El Salvador suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat to the Dominican Republic, but they still topped the group on 15 points.
June 24 – Football is one of eight sports at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this August that will use a lottery system to decide which ticketholders can attend matches.
June 14 – Brazil defeated a depleted Venezuela 3-0 in the curtain raiser of the Copa America, a tournament that was shifted away from both Colombia and Argentina at the eleventh hour but has still been badly hit by the coronavirus.
June 8 – Brazil won’t boycott the Copa America on home soil despite the team’s players expected release of a statement today (Tuesday) expressing their criticism at the way organisers and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) have pressed ahead with the tournament in the pandemic-stricken country.
June 4 – FIFA have awarded the TV rights for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 to Optus Sport in the host market Australia, the world federation announced on Thursday.
By Samindra Kunti
June 2 – Brazil has confirmed Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Cuiaba and Goiania as the host cities for the 2020 Copa America in a fortnight’s time after both Argentina and Colombia were stripped of the hosting only for Jair Bolsonaro and Brazil, one of the epicenters of the global health crisis, to step in at the eleventh hour.
June 2 – The end of the ‘puta’ chant could be near. With its Nations League finals kicking off tomorrow and the showpiece Concacaf Gold Cup following hard on its heels in July, Concacaf has launched an anti-discrimination campaign under the tag line ‘What’s Wrong is Wrong’.
June 1 – Regional confederation Concacaf has struck an e-commerce deal with Sym Entertainment that will allow it to sell official licensed products of its main competitions on Amazon platforms worldwide.