U.S. face Jamaica’s challenge in 2023 Gold Cup

Groups for the 2023 Gold Cup were drawn yesterday at SoFi Stadium, which will be the host venue for the tournament’s final on July 16.The United States is looking to become the first repeat winner since Mexico in 2009 and 2011. The other nations will be vying to disrupt the flow and have a non-USA versus Mexico final for the first time since 2017.

“The region itself is getting stronger. We just want to keep improving,” said current USMNT head coach Anthony Hudson. “The benchmark for us is winning this again.”

Since the tournament launched in 1991, there has been only one year that didn’t include either USA or Mexico in the final. When Canada beat Colombia in 2000, CONCACAF was much different. As much as the USMNT and El Tri traditionally rule, the neighbors up north will for sure have something to say. The Canadians snapped their 36-year World Cup drought in 2022, and despite disappointing results in Qatar, learned a lot from the experience. Plus, the manner in which they ran through qualifying is more of what to expect from the young developing squad.

“In World Cup qualifying when you go unbeaten against the U.S. and Mexico, you beat both of those teams and take valuable away points, you know where you’re at as a team,” said head coach John Herdman after the draw at SoFi Stadium. “Qualitatively we know the U.S. are maybe $200 million more value than us, they have more players playing in top leagues around the world, but we got that little bit of X factor and chip on our shoulder.”

The timing of this summer tournament is always a challenge, and the schedule being so cluttered, especially coming off a World Cup in December, can be tough in terms of constructing a roster. To make matters worse, USA, Mexico, Canada and Panama