May 21 – Initial 40-player team rosters have been announced for the 16 nations playing at the Concacaf Gold Cup that kicks off at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles June 15.
Final 23-player lists for each team will be announced by Concacaf the first week of June. After this only injury-related changes will be allowed up until 24 hours before each team’s first match, with replacements coming only from the preliminary 40-player roster.
The rosters will see the cream of the confederation’s players in the US, and for the first time for the Gold Cup, in venues in Costa Rica and Jamaica.
Rising stars including Christian Pulisic (Chelsea FC/United States), Hirving Lozano (PSV Eindhoven/Mexico) and Alberth Elis (Houston Dynamo/Honduras) will all be present, as will established stars such as Keylor Navas (Real Madrid/Costa Rica), Raúl Jimenez (Wolverhampton FC/Mexico) and Michael Bradley (Toronto FC/United States).
The MLS, currently in mid-season, has suspended play for the duration of the Gold Cup, a recognition of the growing importance of the competition.
The 2019 Gold Cup will be played at a pace with 17 venues used and the first 12 days of consecutive group games seeing double headers played at 12 different locations.
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) today revealed the preliminary 40-player rosters submitted by the 16 participating Member Associations for this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup.
A mix of rising star including Christian Pulisic (Chelsea FC/United States), Hirving Lozano (PSV Eindhoven/Mexico) and Alberth Elis (Houston Dynamo/Honduras), together with high-profile veterans such as Keylor Navas (Real Madrid/Costa Rica), Raúl Jimenez (Wolverhampton FC/Mexico) and Michael Bradley (Toronto FC/United States) are among the notable inclusions to the sixteen national team rosters.
The tournament opener at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena will see Canada and Martinique marking the start of Group A action followed by seven-time Gold Cup champions Mexico and Cuba.
The following day focus will switch to Costa Rica’s Estadio Nacional, the first-time the tournament has been played in Central America, with Haiti vs Bermuda and Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The roadshow then rolls into Kingston, Jamaica, with Curaçao vs El Salvador the Reggae Boyz taking on Honduras.
The final will be played July 7 at Chicago’s iconic Soldier Field.
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