The Gold Cup Road Trip

This summer sees the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup being held throughout the US. The Gold Cup is North America's national tournament, much like next year's Euro or the just-completed Asian Cup (won by Japan).

The event will be held at 13 different venues over 3 weeks, which makes for an intriguing road trip. What is particularly interesting is that each venue hosts just two games in a doubleheader format, so you can move from city to city without retracing your steps. The full schedule is below:

June 5:  Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX      Costa Rica/Cuba, Mexico/El Salvador
June 6:  Home Depot Center, Carson, CA       Jamaica/Grenada, Honduras/Guatemala
June 7:  Ford Field, Detroit, MI             Panama/Guadeloupe, Canada/USA
June 9:  Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte  Costa Rica/El Salvador, Cuba/Mexico
June 10: FIU Stadium, Miami, FL              Jamaica/Guatemala, Honduras/Grenada
June 11: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL    Canada/Guadeloupe, USA/Panama
June 12: Soldier Field, Chicago, IL          El Salvador/Cuba, Mexico/Costa Rica
June 13: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ        Guatemala/Grenada, Honduras/Jamaica
June 14: KC Soccer Stadium, Kansas City, KS  Canada/Panama, Guadeloupe/USA
June 18: New Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ (QF)
June 19: RFK Stadium, Washington, DC (QF)
June 22: Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX (SF)
June 25: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA

An ambitious roadtripper could make 10 of these venues, skipping only Carson, Chicago, and Kansas City. To be honest, many of the games are not that compelling, with teams such as Guadeloupe, Cuba, and Grenada coming from the Caribbean, but such is the nature of these continental competitions (except the Euro). It would still be a fun time and you'd see most of the country. The draw hasn't been held yet, but when it is, I'll update this post with the teams. If you are Canadian, it's a great chance to see our boys as they begin the long road to the 2014 World Cup!

Update (March 12): The draw was held a few days ago. I've updated the schedule above with the games for the first round. Each group plays in one of the cities that would be skipped, so you'd see each team twice. The big game is Canada vs US in Detroit on the 7th.

Best,

Sean