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GOLD CUP - No guest teams this year


Alex

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Good news, looking forward for the 2007 GC. I twill be a busy summer for us with GC and the U20's.

As for playing it outside of the US, I think Toronto will have Canada group in 2009. I hope that one day it will be co-host by central american nations too, it would be good experience for our players.

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Good news, looking forward for the 2007 GC. I twill be a busy summer for us with GC and the U20's.

As for playing it outside of the US, I think Toronto will have Canada group in 2009. I hope that one day it will be co-host by central american nations too, it would be good experience for our players.

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The tournament has alot more credibility now I think.

I always did feel bad for those smaller nations (within concacaf) that played good footie, but had to go through a marathon of Qualification just to get there (if at all), when teams like S. Africa and Brazil where just handed "invitations."

This should give football in the region a real shot in the arm as teams like Barbados, Nicaragua, St. Vincent/Grenadines now have a ligit reason to try and develop and play with the bigger guns.

I imagine one spot will go each to the carribean zone and central american zone.

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I hate this idea. To see only 3,000 people at 6 games more (without the invitees games) is pathetic. I guess I will never see Canada play down here. What a shame. Also, I also agree about those yankees always hosting it. It would be nice to see Canada ( Vancouver in 2009) to host it when the new stadium is built. Why not Toronto? Isnt there enough Leafs games on saturday?....lol I'm always in favour of Canada playing Brasil. We haven't lost to them in the last 2 games and I'm dying to rip these morons here about how they ain't chit!!

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quote:Originally posted by way2goeh

I hate this idea. To see only 3,000 people at 6 games more (without the invitees games) is pathetic.

Gotta agree. I suspect that the idea to keep out guest team is rooted from what is seen from the Euro championships.

But the Gold cup is not the Euros, nor Copa America, nor ANC. It never has been and never will be what those tournamnets are. The reasons are plentyful and mostly logistical. If you look at it as a tournament whose importance is something between that of a series of friendlies and WCQ, then then how can one object to having to see sides like Korea, Brazil, Columbia .

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What Cheeta said.

I can see the logic of playing the tournament in the US, affording pretty much every team with a decent "home" crowd, which would not happen elsewhere.

If it does stay in the US, though, I'd like to see it moved to smaller stadiums, such as the HDC, PHP, Chicago, the NSS etc.

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Also, interesting news on the part of the Americans who have accepted an invite to participate in the Copa America which is scheduled to start a couple of days after the Gold Cup final. Will we see a lesser American team at the Gold Cup with their big names at the Copa America? You know they are going to try to send their best team to the Copa so they don't get embarassed, plus I don't think that MLS teams will allow their best players to be away for what might be up to two months during the middle of their season.

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The Gold Cup is not a very credible tournament at this point, but CONCACAF can do wonders for its credibility if they do a few things:

1. Eliminate the guest teams, which they have done.

2. Hold a transparent draw

3. Move the tournament to other CONCACAF nations, such as Mexico, Canada, and hey, why not some of the Caribbean countries.

4. Have draw dates pre-set, well in advance, and publicised. We all know way in advance when the Euro draw is, or when the World Cup draw is, so CONCACAF should do the same.

5. And finally, not really related to the Gold Cup, but why does their website suck so bad? If they want to not be a joke, then that would help if they had a website that presents it's information in a more professional way.

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RJB makes some good points. In addition to his points this is my take.

The elimination of the guest teams is a good move both for the tournament and Canada. For the North American championship it takes away credibility if we have to invite sides from other countries. I also think some of the CONCACAF middle powers have improved enough to deserve a spot in the competition. Even in UEFA the outsiders get a chance so they should get one in CONCACAF as well.

From a Canadian point of view we play too few friendlies so the odd game against a mid level European, African or South American team was welcome. Yet if one looks at all of our friendlies we still play more often against mid-level teams of other confederations than we do against mid-level and poor teams in CONCACAF. We probably need to learn to play against CONCACAF nations, even poor ones, more than we need to learn to play against teams like South Africa and Columbia. It is very plausible that we will have some mid-level and one poor CONCACAF team in our next qualification group. The poor teams will be playing for 0-0 so we have to learn how to score early and often against them as one 0-0 tie against such a team in WCQ could sink us. If we have to get surprised and have a 0-0 result against such a team, better in the Gold Cup (with us learning from this) than in WCQ. This is particularly so because I think the strategies and tactics used by Frank Yallop favoured us looking good against teams who beat us and should have beat us by more than they did yet we often performed poorly under him against teams we should have beat. I think we will have better chances if we learn to win the games we should win and then do our best in the games in which we are the underdogs. If we do this we definitely won't finish last in our group.

To gain further credibility I think the tournament needs to change the name. The Gold Cup sounds like a club friendly tournament. The EURO and Copa America are good names, we need something similar. The tournament also needs to be held in different countries, possibly two or three countries co-hosting. Yes, holding it every year in the US probably ensures it doesn't lose money but it probably isn't making that much money either. If the tournament organizers are looking to build the tournament's image both in CONCACAF and abroad I think they have to look a bit more long term and have it played in different countries. I don't see why Honduras and Guatemala or Costa Rica and Nicaragua couldn't co-host or why Mexico or Canada couldn't host alone. Couldn't Trinida and Jamaica also co-host? Having lived in Europe, as much as this tournament is not respected in Europe, it is far more respected in Europe than it is in North America. How can you expect a tournament to be respected elsewhere when it is not respected at home. It would also be good if it were every 4 years instead of 2. I also think it would be a good idea if the winner had some advantage in WCQ, for example, being able to choose which qualification group it prefered. This would ensure that there was really something to play for and that all countries send their A-teams.

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quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

I also think it would be a good idea if the winner had some advantage in WCQ, for example, being able to choose which qualification group it prefered. This would ensure that there was really something to play for and that all countries send their A-teams.

I agree with having different hosts for the Gold Cup. Im willing to bet that Toronto will see the tourny in 2009. I also dont see why Central America couldnt host a group, its not like they wont pack the stadium.

But I think as it stands what countries really have to play for when they play in the Gold Cup is a berth in the Confederations Cup, which is supposed to be seen as a bonus, but it doesnt have much prestige. Maybe the winner could have a bye to a later round in qualifying, that would be feasible and something to really play for.

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I agree with grizzly except playing every four years. As a canadian soccer fan, I don't like waiting for Canada to play a game and also it's the only way I can hear Canada's games on the internet. And of course the only way I can hear it is in spanish and most of the teams in the Gold cup are spanish. Mind you, for me to listen to the last gold cup, I had to listen to the Colombian radio to hear it. If there was a station like Radio Unica who used to play the games, then I'm in favour of NO invitees.

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quote:Originally posted by way2goeh

I agree with grizzly except playing every four years. As a canadian soccer fan, I don't like waiting for Canada to play a game and also it's the only way I can hear Canada's games on the internet. And of course the only way I can hear it is in spanish and most of the teams in the Gold cup are spanish. Mind you, for me to listen to the last gold cup, I had to listen to the Colombian radio to hear it. If there was a station like Radio Unica who used to play the games, then I'm in favour of NO invitees.

I thought about this as well but I think the tournament can't be held hostage to the fact that the CSA is too incompetent to schedule an adequate number of friendlies when we are not involved in a tournament. I think if it were held every four years the tournament would become more presitigious and teams would be more likely to field their A teams. Thus, we would have something closer to WCQ level every four years (and thus better WCQ preparation) as opposed to a B-team tournament every two years. It would be up to the CSA to schedule enough friendlies to make up for the lost Gold Cup games.

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Names of international tournaments:

European Championships (Euro)

African Nations' Cup (ANC/CAN)

Asian Cup

Copa America

Oceania: who cares?

It doesn't seem like there's much room for a name change, unless it's to the quite-unsexy "CONCACAF Cup".

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