MIAMI (AP) — The United States was drawn to play Canada, Martinique and either Barbabos, Bermuda, Haiti or St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the group stage of next summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, a tournament many top players are likely to skip.
The Confederation of North American and Caribbean Football Association Football held its first draw for the tournament Monday night rather than its past practice of announcing the group stage matchups.
The tournament originally was scheduled for July 2-25 but was pushed back to July 10 to Aug. 1, with three nations to advance from a preliminary round on July 2-6. Many top Europe-based players from CONCACAF nations will have reported to their clubs for preseason by the knockout stage and will not return to national teams until World Cup qualifiers during the international fixture window starting Aug, 30.
CONCACAF has not announced sites of the tournament.
Mexico is defending champion. Qatar, the Asian Cup champion and host of the 2022 World Cup, is an invited guest.
The draw:
Group A: Curaçao, El Salvador, Mexico, qualifier from among Cuba, French Guyana, Montserrat, Trinidad and Tobago
Group B: Canada, Martinique, United States, qualifier from among Barbabos, Bermuda, Haiti, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Group C: Costa Rica, Jamaica, Suriname, qualifier from among Bahamas, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana
Group D: Grenada, Honduras, Panama, Qatar
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
