USMNT Leads Group A in 2023 Gold Cup with Jamaica and Nicaragua

The fourth team will be a prelim winner possibly involving Curacao and/or French Guiana.

Photo Courtesy of U.S. Soccer

The United States Men’s National Team will defend their Gold Cup title later this summer out of Group A featuring Andre Blake and Jamaica, Nicaragua, and a prelim winner.

The specific venues where the group stages will be played have yet to be announced and will be determined in the near future. Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ and BMO Field in Toronto are the closest Northeast venues.

The USA, Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica were the seeded Pot 1 teams and will each be favored to win their groups. Guest nation and 2021 semifinalist Qatar returns as a Pot 4 team along with the three prelim winners.

Jamaica is an enticing group stage matchup but overall the USMNT has a pretty favorable draw. Certainly Groups B and C led by Mexico and Costa Rica respectively look much tougher on paper. The potential addition of Curacao in particular from the prelim qualifiers would add another solid opponent into the group.

El Tri drew Haiti, Honduras and Qatar in their group and while they are certainly likely to advance if not top the group, second place could very well be up for grabs between the other three. Costa Rica has just one semifinal appearance dating back to 2011 and Los Ticos could be under pressure from Panama and notoriously tricky El Salavador along with a prelim that features Suranime and Martinique.

Tajon Buchanan and Canada might have gotten the easiest group featuring Guatemala, Cuba, and a prelim led by Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.

The prelims are a little wonky, as the matchups will be paired off 1v6 / 2v5 / 3v4 into the final mathcups numbers 7 / 8 / 9. Group A’s prelim 9 winner will come from matchup 3 (Curacao-St Kitts and Nevis) and matchup 4 (French Guiana-Sint Maarten).

The 2023 Gold Cup begins on June 24th with the knockouts starting July 8th-9th and the final in Inglewood, California at SoFi Stadium on July 16th.