List of Teams for Gold Cup Finalized; A Great Geography Lesson!

With Honduras having secured the final spot in this summer’s Gold Cup in a 9 - 1 victory over Guatemala, all the spots are full and we have only time between us and the tournament!

I’m a little confused since the article on CONCACAF’s website announcing the Honduras victory was dated 2.15.07, but a previous article announcing the match said it was scheduled for Friday, which would be one day later….Fishy? Yes, quite. But as the World Cup Blog’s US blogger I see it as my duty to explore the matter and have thought up a few possibilities:

Maybe CONCACAF is headquartered in the future and they were simply posting the result in advance to give journalists a head start for the weekend. It’s also possible that they were posting from a parallel universe in which all matter vibrates at a much higher frequency than ours, thus causing the time difference (?). A final theory is that it’s a match fixing scandal (or a harmless computer error…)

Note: After the fourth or fifth viewing the article in the question (see paragraph 5), I think the confusion is most likely caused due to confusing syntax (see below).

It states:
Prior to the semifinals on Friday, Nicaragua will take on Honduras in a Fifth Place game with winner taking the final UNCAF spot to the 2007 Gold Cup.

However this “prior” could mean anytime before…like the day before - which makes this all make sense.

Regardless, Honduras’s 9-1 victory over Nicaragua guarantees them the last spot in the 2007 Gold Cup. The list of countries participating are as follows:

Qualified automatically because of a previous Gold Cup victory:
• United States (host, 9th appearance)
• Mexico (9th appearance)
• Canada (8th appearance)

Qualified through Caribbean Nations Cup 2007:
• Trinidad & Tobago (7th appearance)
• Cuba (5th appearance)
• Haiti (3rd appearance)
• Guadeloupe (1st appearance)

Qualified through UNCAF Nations Cup 2007:
• Costa Rica (8th appearance)
• Guatemala (8th appearance)
• Honduras (8th appearance)
• El Salvador (5th appearance)
• Panama (3rd appearance)

This will be Guadeloupe’s first appearance in the Gold Cup. Prior to this list, I’d never heard of the country, so I looked on Wikipedia and found some interesting facts about Guadeloupe:

• Guadeloupe is a region of France, and is part of the European Union. As such, the official language is French, and it’s currency is the Euro (quite convenient).
• It was originally populated in 300 BC by the Arawak Amerindians.
• The total population is estimated at 447,000. So much, much larger than our friends San Marino.

Oh, by the way, the country looks absolutely gorgeous (see photo).

Well that concludes Guadeloupean (?) History 101.

As you probably know, the Gold Cup will again be hosted in the United States of America. Below are the venues:

Soldier Field, Chicago
Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts
Reliant Stadium, Houston
Orange Bowl Stadium, Miami
Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
The Home Depot Center, Carson, California

And, according to Soccer By Ives, the groups and match schedule should be announced in early March.

This Gold Cup is particularly exciting because, in addition to the champion qualifying for the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009, a US win would tie them with Mexico at 4-4 for most Gold Cup wins - a great achievement as we continue our decade of dominance.