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U.S.-Mexico rivalry highlights Gold Cup

Team USA will open this CONCACAF tournament with a confirmed coach, Bob Bradley. It will be his baptism which carries a significant challenge, not only because USA must defend its title, but also, by winning it, it guarantees a place in the South Africa 2009 Confederations Cup.

The Gold Cup regional championship began in 1991, and it has been disputed normally every two years (except in 2003), but recently it has been normalized to bring it into the FIFA schedule for intraconference cups.

The winners have been Mexico (4 titles), the U.S. (3) and Canada. In past tournaments, South American teams have been invited to participate to increase the level of competitiveness. However, Chuck Blazer, president of the CONCACAF cup committee, announced that as of this year, no teams from South America would be invited. In his view, the Gold Cup has grown to a level that can sustain itself and be recognized as a full continental championship.

I wonder if the regional soccer aficionados would prefer Guadeloupe (not ranked by FIFA) to participate instead of a more prestigious representative from CONMEBOL.

Brian Glanville, a British sports writer, called the Gold Cup a meaningless championship. I'll wait until June 24 to pass judgment.

In early March 2007 the participants were distributed in three groups, they are:

# Group A: Costa Rica, Haiti, Canada and Guadeloupe.

# Group B: Team USA, Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

# Group C: Mexico, Panama, Honduras and Cuba.

Group A will play its matches in Miami, Group B will split them between Los Angeles and Boston and Group C will play at New York/New Jersey and Houston.

The first two teams in each group and the best two third-place nations will advance to the second round (quarterfinals) where the tournament continues in a knockout fashion. The final will be played at Soldier Field in Chicago on June 24.

Up to a point, Team USA arrives at this tournament with a handicap, which is the lack of thorough preparation for the cup. The complete team got together for the first time on June 3, and it will have merely three days to fine-tune its opener against Guatemala on June 7.

Saturday night's win over China must certainly lift its optimism.

Most of the other participants started their preparation early enough, especially Mexico, which opened its training camp three weeks ago to work with those team members whose clubs did not make the playoffs for the championship and with those playing in Europe.

Based on friendly matches' results and FIFA's ranking (just as a reference) the strongest teams in each group are: Costa Rica and Haiti; Team USA and Guatemala; Mexico and Panama, which should be the teams that along with Honduras and El Salvador advance to the knockout phase.

Costa Rica, now led by Hernan Medford, is normally a solid performer in this type of tournament, plus it arrives as the current UNCAF champion. Therefore it should reach at least the semifinals, if not the final, as Medford implied in one of his interviews.

Trinidad and Tobago had an excellent showing at Germany 2006, and it could have been a tough adversary for all the teams in Group B. However, most of the players based in Europe declined the call since their bonuses from the last World Cup have not yet been paid. Even Dwight Yorke turned down the invitation to join the national team as a solidarity gesture towards his teammates. Consequently, T&T is sending a weakened team lacking experience.

How different is the situation with Jack Warner, the Trinitarian CONCACAF president and FIFA vice president, who received all his profits even before Germany '06 kicked off. Yet recently re-elected FIFA president Sepp Blatter's executive committee chose not to take any further action other than disapproving his conduct.

Panama, now led by Alexandre Guimaraes, has been showing significant progress since the 2005 Gold Cup when it reached the final only to lose on penalties to Team USA. Among its team members is Blas Perez, a dangerous forward playing for Colombia's Cucuta -- a semifinalist in the Copa Libertadores tournament. Perez is currently the leading scorer in this South American champions' tournament.

There is no doubt that the main rivals at the Gold Cup will be Team USA and Mexico, and most likely they will be the finalists. It is a derby that in the past few years has acquired the level of a classic, and moreso after Team USA downed Mexico 2-0 at a neutral field during the 2002 World Cup.

These are two teams that do not like one another, much less when the Mexicans lose. Just remember goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez's despicable intent to hurt Clint Dempsey after Landon Donovan scored the second goal in their most recent match played in February at Glendale, Ariz.

Such unsportsmanlike conduct went unnoticed by FIFA, which preferred to look the other way.

The most vociferous challenge comes from Mexico's all-time best player and new coach, Hugo Sanchez, who has vowed to take his team to achievements not reached by his national squad. At a news conference following his nomination, he implied he'll make Mexico Gold Cup, Copa America and World Cup champions. He later retracted his comments by stating that his main goal is to win the Gold Cup.

These are ambitious and aggressive goals, but for the first two championships Team USA, Argentina and Brazil might have a different opinion.

Comparatively speaking, Team USA has made enormous progress in the international arena (mind you the setbacks from 1998 and 2006) since it returned to the World Cup in 1990, followed by the mammoth tasks to organize USA '94, which was a complete success.

The advent of the MLS has served to solidify the status of a competitive nation in the CONCACAF region to the point that Mexico's ascendancy is constantly challenged by its northern neighbor. Although technically it lags the Mexicans, it makes it with physical conditioning, commitment, strategy, and tactical discipline.