What is the Gold Cup format?
By Ty Finch
The 2017 edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup begins on July 7. Here’s what the tournament’s format looks like.
The 2017 Gold Cup has three separate groups consisting of four teams each. Group A includes Honduras, Costa Rica, French Guiana and Canada. Group B consists of the United States, Panama, Martinique and Nicaragua. Mexico, El Salvador, Jamaica and Curacao make up Group C.
Each team will play three matches in the group stage, facing every other team once. The winners and runner-up from each group will move on to the knockout rounds. In addition, the two best third-place teams will also move on. Total points, goal differential, goals scored and head-to-head results are the deciding factors.
The knockout stage begins on July 19 in Philadelphia. In this stage, the teams will play 90 minutes to determine who moves on. If the outcome is not determined at full time, the two squads will go to a penalty shootout. Only in the final will additional minutes be played before going to penalties.
The winner of Group A will play the runners-up of Group B in the first match. The winner of Group B will play one of the third placed teams who qualified for the next round.
On July 20, the winners of Group C will face off against the other third place qualifier, while the runners-up of both Group A and C will compete for the chance to move on to the quarterfinals.
The two quarterfinal matches take place on July 22 and 23. The winners of the two quarterfinals will move on to the final that takes place three days later.
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The two quarterfinal winners will then compete for the trophy on July 26 in Santa Clara. In this edition of the Gold Cup, there will be no third place match.