Copa America/Gold Cup/Asian Cup

[Panda]

2007 sees that annoying gap between World Cups and European Championships. There are, however, 3 international tournaments taking place next summer and the line-ups are beginning to take shape.

The first tournament of the summer will be the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The tournament is being held in the USA once again and they are also the reigning champions, having beaten Panama on penalties in 2005.

The USA qualify automatically, along with Mexico and Canada. 4 teams will qualify from the Caribbean Cup, which takes place in February. Taking part in that are Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Guyana, St. Vincent, Cuba and Martinique, plus one from Bermuda, Dominican Republic and Haiti. 5 teams will qualify through the UNCAF Cup for Central American teams. This also takes place in February and contains Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama.

Next will come the Copa America, the South American Championship, though Mexico features in the tournament these days and usually the USA, too.

Then it's the Asian Cup, being hosted by 4 nations: Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, the latter hosting the final. Those 4 have qualified automatically and will be joined by Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Australia, Bahrain, Iraq, China, Qatar and Uzbekistan. The draw for the finals takes place on Tuesday.

[frag]

*transcontinental excite*

[Panda]

Asian Cup draw:

GROUP A
Australia
Iraq
Oman
Thailand

GROUP B
Japan
Qatar
UAE
Vietnam

GROUP C
China
Iran
Malaysia
Uzbekistan

GROUP D
Bahrain
Indonesia
Saudi Arabia
South Korea

[Robin]

I'm going to support Iran!

[frag]

Were they your sweepstake team last time around?

[Senior]

Is there an African Nations Cup this year?

[Panda]

No. There was one at the start of 2006, won by Egypt, so the next one is in 2008, to be held in Ghana.

Qualifying has already started. The usual suspects should qualify comfortably, though Senegal and Togo have made shaky starts...

[Senior]

I'm only bothered now that we have an Algerian International in defence, was just wondering if he was going to disappear for a month!!

[Thor]

I'm so glad Australia has moved to Asia, how long before Oceania is dissolved?

[Panda]

broomhelga said:

I'm so glad Australia has moved to Asia, how long before Oceania is dissolved?

Good question. It's survived long enough in its own little world and may continue to do so, even without Australia but there are perhaps echoes of the future in the qualifying format for the 2010 World Cup.

Unlike recent times where the Oceania winners have gone into a playoff, the plan for 2010 is to put the winners of the Oceania section (probably New Zealand) into one of the final groups in Asia.

It would be a shame if Oceania disappeared. It'll be a more level playing field without Australia and the teams like American Samoa now have something to aim for. If they were pooled into to the Asian system, they'd get absolutely destroyed.

It can survive if the OFC gets its act together. Bringing back the Nations Cup as a tournament would help. The last championship was just a 2-legged playoff resulting from the World Cup qualifiers with Australia beating the Solomon Islands a year before their World Cup playoff.

[Panda]

Incidentally, there's no Confederations Cup this year. FIFA have decided to have it every 4 years instead of 2 (probably after realising no-one gives a f**k about it), with it taking in place in the host nation of the following year's World Cup, as has been done since 2001.

The OFC plans to have the qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Cup double up as the Nations Cup once again, meaning the winners of the Oceania section will also go to the 2009 Confederations Cup.

[Panda]

The CONCACAF Gold Cup in the States has reached the quarter-final stage. The biggest shock of the first round saw Trinidad & Tobago go out after only picking up 1 point in their 3 games.

Because CONCACAF are a bit stupid and think a 12-team tournament makes more sense than one with 16 teams, only 4 teams were eliminated in the first round.

These were the group standings:

Group A
1. Canada 6pts
2. Costa Rica 4
3. Guadeloupe 4
4. Haiti 2

Group B
1. USA 9
2. Guatemala 4
3. El Salvador 3
4. Trinidad & Tobago 1

Group C
1. Honduras 6
2. Mexico 6
3. Panama 4
4. Cuba 1

So the quarter-final line-up looks like this:

Canada v Guatemala
USA v Panama
Honduras v Guadeloupe
Mexico v Costa Rica

USA v Panama is a repeat of the 2005 final, which the USA won on penalties. Obviously, a USA-Mexico final seems the most likely outcome though Honduras did beat Mexico in the first round. Guadeloupe have done very well, beating Canada and losing only to Costa Rica. Guadeloupe has produced several talented players who have gone on to play for France, including Lilian Thuram, Pascal Chimbonda and Jocelyn Angloma. Angloma, who won 37 caps for France between 1990 and 1996 came out of retirement at the age of 41 to help Guadeloupe qualify for the Gold Cup and scored one of the goals against Canada. Because it is officially part of France, Guadeloupe does not have FIFA membership so it can't take part in World Cup qualifying (though based on their performance here, there is surely an argument to admit them) but they are full members of CONCACAF, along with a few other non-FIFA teams, like Martinique, French Guiana, Saint Martin and Sint Maarten.

[Panda]

Yesterday's quarter-final results:

USA 2-1 Panama
Canada 3-0 Guatemala

[Panda]

Guadeloupe are through to the semi-finals!

Results:
Honduras 1-2 Guadeloupe
Mexico 1-0 Costa Rica (AET, Costa Rica finished with 8 men)

Semi-finals: (Thursday)
USA v Canada
Mexico v Guadeloupe

[Panda]

It's the USA v Mexico in the Gold Cup final but both were pushed close in their semi-finals.

Mexico needed a 30-yard strike with 20 minutes left from Pavel Pardo to beat Guadeloupe 1-0.

The USA beat Canada 2-1. Canada had a possible equaliser ruled out in stoppage time.

The final is on Sunday.


The Copa America in Venezuela starts on Tuesday. These are the groups:

Group A: Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Group B: Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico
Group C: Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, USA

[Tom]

Thanks for this, no great surprise to see a USA-Mexico final.

May try to watch the Copa America if i get a chance. Would expect it to be between Brazil and Argentina but will be looking out for Ecuador because of Ulises De La Cruz.

[Panda]

I must say, Group C of the Copa America looks very strong. Even though 3 go through from 2 of the groups, at least one team from Group C is going to go out at the expense of a weaker team from Group A. I suspect Venezuela are seeded as hosts, which is why things seem a bit skewed. Venezuela were the whipping boys of South American football for many years but have improved recently, avoiding finishing bottom of South America's huge World Cup group on the last 2 occasions and causing some upsets along the way. Still, it will be a tough task for them to reach the last 4 here...

[Si.]

how do they decide who goes through? top 2 and the 2 with most points?

[Panda]

timone6 said:

how do they decide who goes through? top 2 and the 2 with most points?

Yeah, that's exactly it. Not sure what they'll do if 2 teams have identical records...

[Si.]

yer because they cant do games against each other! itsprobably just a toss of a coin!