News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Fri. July 17, 2015: Forget Jack Warner, Jeffrey Webb and the CONCACAF Caribbean scandal! For the first time since Guadeloupe’s improbable run in 2007, the Caribbean’s future in the CONCACAF Gold Cup is looking very bright.
The region is guaranteed to have a semi-finalist in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) championship this year.
All four of the region’s Gold Cup teams are into the quarter-finals.
Given Cuba’s defeat of Guatemala and Trinidad and Tobago drawing with Mexico to win Group C Wednesday, the Caribbean is looking good.
Garath McCleary sent Jamaica through to the Gold Cup quarterfinals in fine form, notching a late goal to give the Reggae Boyz a 1-0 win Tuesday night over an El Salvador side fighting for their tournament lives and the top spot in Group B. And Haiti’s Les Grenadieres put themselves in position to make the knockout stage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time since 2009, closing out Group A play on Monday night with a 1-0 win behind Duckens Nazon’s opportunistic 14th-minute strike.
M&T Bank Stadium, in Baltimore, Maryland, will host the first of doubleheaders on Saturday, July 18th as the defending champion United States takes on Cuba (5:00 p.m. ET), followed by an encounter between Caribbean heavyweights Haiti and Jamaica (8:00 p.m. ET).
A day later, MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be the location for the Trinidad & Tobago-Panama (4:30 p.m. ET) and Mexico-Costa Rica (7:30 p.m. ET) pairings.
Each of the winners will advance to the semi-finals set for July 22 (6:00 p.m. ET & 9:00 p.m. ET) at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
The Gold Cup finals weekend will kick off with the match for third place on July 25 (4:00 p.m. ET) at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, and conclude with the grand finale on July 26 (7:30 p.m. ET) at Lincoln Financial Field at Pennsylvania.
Tickets for all matches are available for the knockout round of the Gold Cup by visiting www.GoldCup.org.
