The Concacaf Gold Cup is starting this weekend, marking the last major international tournament in which the United States, Mexico and Canada will participate before hosting the Male FIFA World Cup in 2026. These North American teams are the only ones that have already raised the Cup of Gold.
However, with other contenders who have left qualifying matches of the World Cup to join the North American teams on the field, and some of the missing favorites due to the World Cup of the Simultaneous Fifa Club, he has the impression that this year could see a tournament filled with surprises.
With this mind, we provide you with something you need to know about each team participating in the championship.
Group A
Mexico (FIFA classification: 17)
Sorting Enter the Gold Cup as defending champions, not only of this tournament, but also their first title of the League of Concacaf Nations. However, he still does not have the impression that Mexico is the head and shoulders above several of his rivals in the region, in particular the North Americans.
This tournament gives the team the opportunity to prove that not only is it the best team in the Concacaf, but also that things are going well before the World Cup back in the country in 2026. The failure of the group’s exit in 2022 still persists, but the recent triumphs have swayed the mood in a much more positive direction.
The hope is that a solid defensive base will be held and that in addition to obtaining good projections from the veteran striker Raúl Jiménez, the hero of the final matches of the Final Four Nations but also of the series in the quarter -finals with Honduras. Alexis Vega will also reproduce the creative role he played for Toluca on the way to the title Liga MX. The contributions of younger talents like the AC Milan striker Santiago Gimenez or even the 16 -year -old rising star Gilberto Mora, who made the final list, would also be welcomed.
Costa Rica (FIFA classification: 54)
Manager Miguel Herrera is there. The same goes for the veteran goalkeeper Keylor Navas. It is not the 2014 cycle, but the two men are a joy to watch and appear, Navas after Herrera convinced him to return to the national team after her international retirement last year. Generational change has been the story around Costa Rica for years, but apart from the Navas, it finally seems to have taken place. Sixteen players of the Gold Cup team were born in the 2000s.
Suriname (FIFA classification: 137)
Suriname is led by manager Stanley Menzo, a legendary goalkeeper of Ajax who played under Johan Cruyff. In addition to winning many trophies on the ground, Menzo was a pioneer like one of the first “sweeping guards”, but was subjected to racial racial abuses of spectators in the Netherlands throughout his illustrious career.
Many of his players from the Suriname team were born in the Netherlands. But despite the fact of going to the Dutch national team itself, Menzo was born in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname.
Dominican Republic (FIFA ranking: 139)
DR is doing its debut in the tournament, the last moment of success for the country after having qualified for the Paris Olympic Games last year. The former Real Madrid striker, Mariano Díaz, recently gave himself up to the national team when his ascent continues, marking in a friendly friend against Puerto Rico.
Díaz had made his debut – and scored – in a friend of 2013 against Haiti before deciding to hold the chance to play for the country of his birth, Spain. Instead, he has now scored two goals for them, 12 and an interval day.
Group B
Canada (FIFA ranking: 30)
Canada is the only team other than Mexico or the United States to win the tournament, but it becomes more and more difficult to remember this magical moment in 2000. Although absences because of the club’s injury or World Cup (or both in the case of the Mega-Star Alphonso Davies) which will make the team more and more, the Canada team continues to appear dangerous.
Things will still have to go well for Jesse Marsch to win a first major trophy in a quarter of a century, but the attackers Jonathan David and Promise David arrive in good shape, and the midfielder also has a lot of quality. Without the central back Moïse Bombito, the biggest question is an undesirable return to the years preceding the closure of the qualification in 2022. Can this team defend well enough to return to the trophy stand?
Honduras (FIFA classification: 75)
While he scored his very first goal for the national team in the 2013 edition of the Gold Cup, the defender of Nashville SC Andy Najar chooses not to play in the Gold Cup, joins forces for the Honduras during the qualification of the World Cup, but back for the MLS Game after. The absence of the rear will be felt at the rear by a team from Honduras with defensive questions, but in the future because the creation of chance has been thin, illustrated by its own goal being their only count in a recent qualifying against the Cayman Islands.
El Salvador (FIFA ranking: 81)
After fighting in 2024, El Salvador turned to Hernan “El Bolillo” Gomez to straighten the ship. He is best known in the region to bring Panama to the 2018 World Cup, the very first qualification of the country, but he also did it for the equator and his native Colombia. He previously worked with Honduras and Guatemala in the Concacaf region.
To select I have never arrived at the stadium of the Gold Cup semi-final. If it changes with a magic race this year, Gomez will rightly burn his reputation as a miracle.
Curacao (FIFA classification: 90)
Although the recruitment of players has always been a large part of the Curacao strategy, the manager Dick Advocaat is happy to rely on the experience. Directed by the central back Cuco Martina with 68, eight players in his Gold Cup team have 25 caps or more, with five of these players who are 40 years old or over. These are remarkable figures for a team that does not play as many friendly matches as the North American rivals like Mexico or the United States.
Group C
Panama (FIFA classification: 33)
Having eliminated the United States to go to the final of the League of Nations in March, beat the United States in the group phase of the COPA America last summer and win a victory by the shooting to make the previous final of the Gold Cup, the group of the Manager of Panama Thomas Christiansen began to win a reputation as a giant killer, or at least the killer of a very specific glove. However, the question remains whether the team will be good enough to overcome the bump and lift a trophy rather than simply making finals.
Jamaica (FIFA ranking: 63)
Even if the manager Steve McClaren uses his relationships in England to convince more eligible players to register for reggae Boyz, a former Manchester United player already in the fold continues to win a place. Ravel Morrison spent the last season in Dubai with a lower league club called FC precision, but is on the Gold Cup team and who seeks to win a starting role in the midfield.
Guatemala (FIFA classification: 106)
While The Chapines Stay largely based in the Guatemalan League (Historic Guatemala City Municipal Clubs and Comunicaciones well represented, as is the defending champion Antigua), manager Luis Fernando Tena is also happy to add American players to his team, many of whom were born outside Central America.
The last one is Damian Rivera, an attacker born in Rhode Island who moved to Phoenix Rising in the USL championship this season after having come to the New England Revolution system. Rivera played for the United States and Costa Rica at the level of youth, but Juan Rodas, the Youtuber-Slash scout, learned that he was eligible for Guatemala and added it to the list of players he helped to convince the blue and white shirt.
Guadeloupe (FIFA classification: n / a)
Not being a member of FIFA, the Gold Cup is the best competition to which Guadeloupe can qualify, and Gwada boys did it by winning the two legs of their Gold Cup qualification series with Nicaragua in March, obtaining 1-0 wins in each match. At 39, defender Médy Lina is the oldest player in a list of the Gold Cup.
Group D
United States (FIFA ranking: 16)
At one point, analysts who examine the chances of the USMNT Gold Cup will have to look at the players who will challenge the tournament rather than those who do not have it. Already, there were concerns about a summer without participants in the Club World Cup Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna. Then Christian Pulisic chose to go out, while Sergiño Dest and Antonee Robinson also had to withdraw due to an injury. The same goes for Folarin Balogun and goalkeeper Zack Steffen, among others.
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All of this means many opportunities for players not to include in the 2026 World Cup list, whether it is an escape from Paxxtre Aaronson, a good Vancouver Whitecaps Sebastian Berhalter and Brian White, or an excellent central game of the Chris Richards and McKnzie regulars. The manager Mauricio Pochettino seems disturbed that he spends so much time talking about his team’s response and encouraging the players to come. Winning the Gold Cup with this group would not heal physical illnesses, but it would be much better for next summer.
Haiti (FIFA classification: 83)
The final list of the Haiti Golden Cup has players who play their club football in 15 different nations, in places as diverse as Ecuador, where the ade Center has become an element for LDU Quito, in Lithuania, where the product of the Academy of PSG, Garissone, played a goalkeeper for Riteriai last season. Manager Sébastien Migne should be well trained, having worked in the Republic of Congo, Kenya and Cameroon, crossing in Africa with his French colleague and group of group Hervé Renard.
Trinidad and Tobago (FIFA classification: 100)
The new Dwight Manager Yorke was in the Trinidad and Tobago team for its best finish at the Gold Cup in 2000. Yorke marked once on the semi-finals, where the Caribbean team fell to the possible Canadian champion. While they have done twice the quarterfinals since then, the last time in the group was back in 2015, 10 years ago and four editions.
Saudi Arabia (FIFA classification: 58)
After the appearances of the guests of Qatar before and after the 2022 World Cup, the Concacaf takes front for the 2034 World Cup by inviting Saudi Arabia as a guest team. While the managers of the Confederation say they invited the team of the French manager in part because of the Memorandum of understanding the Concacaf with the Confederation of Asian football, its partnership with the sovereign fund of the country must also be a strong motivation.
