May 11 – The final four countries competing for the first Concacaf Nations League title in June have announced provisional rosters with Christian Pulisic headlining for the USA and Hirving Lozano for Mexico.
The final four national teams of Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and USA will play semi-finals on June 3 at the Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, with the final being played June 6. Stadium capacity has been set at 42%, meaning just under 30,000 fans in the 76,000-seat Empower Field venue.
The Concacaf Nations League (CNL) finals mark the start of a busy summer of international football for Concacaf in the US. The expanded Gold Cup begins July 2 in Florida with a series of knockout preliminary qualifiers to the last three group slots.
The four CNL finalists are already the lead seeds in the four Gold Cup groups which begin July 10. The Gold Cup final will be held August 3 in Las Vegas.
At the close of the first-ever Concacaf Nations League group stage play in November 2019, United States (Group A winner), Mexico (Group B winner), Honduras (Group C winner) and Costa Rica (Group D winner) qualified for the finals. The teams were ranked 1-4 to determine the semi-final matchups, with the highest ranked team playing the lowest ranked team. The final rankings saw Mexico ranked top, followed by Honduras, USA and Costa Rica.
Current Gold Cup holders Mexico will start as favourites but although the US were ranked third they will be expected to provide a real challenge to the Mexicans with a squad that has grown up in football terms from the 2019 Gold Cup.
The US provisional 40-player roster (it will be whittled down to 23-26) lists 26 players at European clubs including Weston McKennie at Juventus and Tyler Boyd at Besiktas, both key players in 2019 alongside the mercurial Pulisic. Also on the list are Manchester City goalkeeper Zack Steffen and Lille’s Tim Weah, son of Liberian president George Weah but who has starred for US junior teams.
Perhaps the most excitement in the US is around emerging Dortmund striker Giovanni Reyna (son of Claudio who made 112 appearances for the US team). Giovanni has worked his way in to the Dortmund first team and is getting on the score sheet in a team that has explode with young talent this season. Young Barnsley striker Daryl Dike, whose goals have helped propel the English Championship side to the Premier League play-offs, is also expected to be given the opportunity.
Mexico’s squad is pulled predominantly from LigaMX and includes veteran goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa (Club America) as well long serving and Real Betis Balompie favourite Andres Guardado. Wolves striker Raul Jimenez is also included.
Costa Rica legend Bryan Ruiz is back in international action again, aged 36, while PSG keeper Kaylor Navas will provide experience in a Costa Rican team that is rebuilding.
Honduras by contrast are a relatively unknown quantity having gone through a rebuilding process and with a team selection that is dominated by players from the Honduran top flight. Honduras do have goalscoring quality in striker Alberth Elis who plays his club football at Boavista FC. They also have a number of younger players who propelled their U23 past the US to Olympic qualification. CD Olimpia’s Edwin Rodriguez was a standout in that team and more will be expected of him as the summer progresses from the CNL to the Gold Cup and on to the Olympic tournament.
The CNL semi-finals on June 3 will see Honduras vs United States (7:30 pm ET) followed by Mexico vs Costa Rica (10:00 pm ET).
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1713505263labto1713505263ofdlr1713505263owedi1713505263sni@n1713505263osloh1713505263cin.l1713505263uap1713505263