Gold Cup 2017: Schedule, teams, TV coverage & guide to the CONCACAF championship Gold Cup 2017: Schedule, teams, TV coverage & guide to the CONCACAF championship

Mexico and the USA will be the favorites to be crowned champions when the nations of North and Central America and the Caribbean meet

The top teams in North and Central America and the Caribbean will battle it out for continental supremacy this summer as the Gold Cup returns for its 14th edition.
Currently held every two years in the United States — with an occasional co-host — the reigning champions are Mexico, who beat Jamaica in the 2015 final.
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El Tri have won three of the past four tournaments, with only the USA breaking up their recent dominance and Canada the only nation aside from that big two to have ever won the trophy.
Costa Rica will hope to change that this year, while Honduras and Panama can also be considered outside shots to go all the way.
With the Gold Cup set to kick off July 7 and run until July 26, Goal has your complete guide to the tournament ahead.

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GOLD CUP GROUPS

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The teams that finish first and second in each group progress to the knockout stage automatically.
The teams that finish third in each group are then ranked by points, with goal difference, goals scored and the drawing of lots used as tiebreakers in that order. The top two third-place finishers also progress to the knockout stage.

Group A:

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Canada	1	1	0	0	4	2	2	3
2	Costa Rica	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	3
3	Honduras	1	0	0	1	0	1	-1	0
4	French Guiana	1	0	0	1	2	4	-2	0

Group B:

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Martinique	1	1	0	0	2	0	2	3
2	USA	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
3	Panama	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	1
4	Nicaragua	1	0	0	1	0	2	-2	0

Group C:

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Mexico	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	El Salvador	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Curacao	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Jamaica	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Ranking of third-place teams:

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Panama/USA	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
2	Group C third place	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Honduras	1	0	0	1	0	1	-1	0

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GOLD CUP FIXTURES & RESULTS

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Group A:

Date	Match	Time (local / ET)
July 7	French Guiana 2-4 Canada	19:00 / 19:00
July 7	Honduras 0-1 Costa Rica	21:00 / 21:00
July 11	Costa Rica vs Canada	18:30 / 19:30
July 11	Honduras vs French Guiana	21:00 / 22:00
July 14	Costa Rica vs French Guiana	18:30 / 19:30
July 14	Canada vs Honduras	21:00 / 22:00

Group B:

Date	Match	Time (local / ET)
July 8	USA 1-1 Panama	15:30 / 16:30
July 8	Martinique 2-0 Nicaragua	18:00 / 19:00
July 12	Panama vs Nicaragua	18:30 / 18:30
July 12	USA vs Martinique	20:30 / 20:30
July 15	Panama vs Martinique	16:30 / 16:30
July 15	Nicaragua vs USA	19:00 / 19:00

Group C:

Date	Match	Time (local / ET)
July 9	Curacao vs Jamaica	16:00 / 19:00
July 9	Mexico vs El Salvador	18:00 / 21:00
July 13	El Salvador vs Curacao	18:00 / 20:00
July 13	Mexico vs Jamaica	20:00 / 22:00
July 16	Jamaica vs El Salvador	17:00 / 18:00
July 16	Curacao vs Mexico	19:00 / 20:00

Quarter-finals:

Date	Match	Time (local / BST)
July 19	Group A winner vs Group B runner-up	18:00 / 18:00
July 19	Group B winner vs Group A/C third place	21:00 / 21:00
July 20	Group C winner vs Group A/B third place	16:30 / 19:30
July 20	Group C runner-up vs Group A runner-up	19:00 / 22:00

Semi-finals:

Date	Match	Time (local / BST)
July 22	Winner quarterfinal 1 vs winner quarterfinal 2	20:30 / 21:30
July 23	Winner quarterfinal 3 vs winner quarterfinal 4	17:30 / 20:30

Final:

Date	Match	Time (local / BST)
July 26	Winner semifinal 1 vs Winner semifinal 2	18:30 / 21:30

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WHO ARE THE STAR PLAYERS?

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As mentioned, Mexico and the USA have won all but one of these tournaments but things could be made more interesting this year due to the fact that both countries have decided to experiment with their squads.
There will be no Javier Hernandez, Andres Guardado or Hector Herrera for the Mexicans, who have selected a group — with one exception — based exclusively in Liga MX as a result of their key players' participation at the Confederations Cup.
They were dealt a further blow when striker Alan Pulido suffered a fractured arm in a pre-tournament friendly, which resulted in that one exception being called up in Erick Torres of MLS' Houston Dynamo.
Torres, known as Cubo, has scored 12 goals in 17 games this season and could lead the line in Pulido's absence, while defender Edson Alvarez is promising.
Bruce Arena has only named two players based in Europe in his USA squad: Matt Miazga of Chelsea and Eric Lichaj of Nottingham Forest.
Even some of America's top MLS-based players, such as Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley, have also been left at home — at least until the knockout stage, when each team is able to make six changes to their squad.
Young midfielders Kellyn Acosta and Cristian Roldan should provide plenty of energy in the middle of the park, though, and Dom Dwyer may lead the line with the highly touted Jordan Morris struggling for form this season.
Costa Rica should be genuine challengers, particularly as they have picked a strong squad that includes the likes of Joel Campbell , Bryan Ruiz and Bryan Oviedo , though Keylor Navas will sit the tournament out.
Perhaps the most interesting pre-tournament story, however, concerned Florent Malouda(yes, that one). The ex-Chelsea and France midfielder had signed up to play for French Guiana, where he was born, and was believed to be eligible to switch because of the fact that the French territory is not a FIFA member and therefore not subject to its rules.
A day before kick-off, though, it was revealed that CONCACAF apply FIFA's eligibility rules to all of the teams competing in the Gold Cup , meaning Malouda is ineligible. French Guiana coach Jair Karam initially insisted he would play Malouda anyway and accept the forfeit but later backed down.
They would subsequently lose their opening match to Canada as teen sensation Alphonso Davies proved he is one very much worth keeping an eye on .

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WHO ARE THE FAVORITES?

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Mexico and the USA are rated very similarly, with the former narrow favorites according to some bookmakers at about 27/20 compared to the Americans' 7/4.
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Costa Rica follows after that at around 6/1, with Panama rated at 20/1. Then there is a group of three outside shots between 33/1 and 60/1 in Honduras, Jamaica and Canada, with the other five teams rank outsiders of 150/1 or longer.

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WHICH STADIUMS WILL BE USED?

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Fourteen stadiums have been selected for this year's tournament. Nine will be used for the group stage, where there will be three matchdays for each group and the two games on each matchday played back-to-back at the same venue.
The other five stadiums will be used for the knockout stage. Two will host back-to-back quarterfinal ties, and the other three will host one match — either one of the two semifinals or the final.

AT&T Stadium:

City: Arlington, Texas
Capacity: 100,000
Games: Semifinal

FirstEnergy Stadium:

City: Cleveland, Ohio
Capacity: 67,431
Games: Group B (matchday two)

Sports Authority Field:

City: Denver, Colorado
Capacity: 76,125
Games: Group C (matchday two)

Toyota Stadium:

City: Frisco, Texas
Capacity: 16,000
Games: Group A (matchday three)

University of Phoenix Stadium:

City: Glendale, Arizona
Capacity: 63,400
Games: Quarterfinals (matchday two)

Red Bull Arena:

City: Harrison, New Jersey
Capacity: 25,000
Games: Group A (matchday one)

BBVA Compass Stadium:

City: Houston, Texas
Capacity: 22,000
Games: Group A (matchday two)

Nissan Stadium:

City: Nashville, Tennessee
Capacity: 69,000
Games: Group B (matchday one)

Rose Bowl:

City: Pasadena, California
Capacity: 90,000
Games: Semifinal

Lincoln Financial Field:

City: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 69,596
Games: Quarterfinals (matchday one)

Alamodome:

City: San Antonio, Texas
Capacity: 65,000
Games: Group C (matchday three)

Qualcomm Stadium:

City: San Diego, California
Capacity: 70,561
Games: Group C (matchday one)

Levi's Stadium:

City: Santa Clara, California
Capacity: 68,500
Games: Final

Raymond James Stadium:

City: Tampa, Florida
Capacity: 65,890
Games: Group B (matchday two)

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