It looks like CONCACAF and CONMEBOL are sticking to their original plan.
Hours after reports started surfacing about the Copa America Centenario being potentially moved from the United States to Mexico, CONMEBOL president Juan Angel Napout told Paraguayan radio station Urbana that the the summer 2016 tournament would remain in the U.S. as was initially arranged.
No formal announcement has been made by either confederation, but officials from both are expected to meet Thursday in Mexico to talk about planning for the competition that will mark the 100th anniversary of the Copa America.
“We have once again ratified the unanimous decision taken at a meeting in August to hold the Copa America Centenario in its original format in the United States,” said Napout.
Whether the tournament – which is to feature the 10 CONMEBOL nations and six more from CONCACAF – would be held had come into question in recent months due to there being allegations of bribery to high-ranking officials involved with it.
There apparently has been progress to resolve some of the issues stemming from that, however, and the 2016 Copa America looks like it will take place after all.
“I was one of those who dreamt of this cup, work has been going on and we have advanced considerably,” Napout said. “Now what we need is the goodwill to get it back on track.”
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What do you make of this development? Not getting your hopes up until an official announcement is made? Are you struggling to contain your excitement?
Share your thoughts below.
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Kidding but seriously great opportunity for our boys and the fans
Dempsey is gonna love this tournament
Reveal why he is a better player than Donovan ever was
If it is successful. ( and why should it not be?) I can see this becoming a hemispheric tournament held every four years. It has great synergy; with SA bringing in the big name players and the US; the money,venues, and crowds.
Yep. Euros during the day and Copa at night works out perfectly for TV. This could be yuge for the sport in the US.
I’d be very surprised if the SA teams bring in all their stars for this tournament.
This
They’ll save most of the big guns for the WC qualifiers. Most squads will be experimental, except for a couple of contractually-mandated superstars.
Since Columbia, Brazil, and to a much lesser extent Argentina(haven’t won in over 20 years) didn’t meet expectations this Summer they may bring pretty solid squads. And if any of the top teams struggle in qualifying they may bring big names to try to gain momentum.
Regular thing…as in every 100 years….also no worries about the lineup for this….JK will be long gone….with Vermes in his place…
Any confirmation if this will become a regular thing?
Jeffry Webb told the media to not expect another one of these in the foreseeable future. Later, of course, it was revealed that Webb was trying to extort more money from CONMEBOL for future Copa America’s in the US.
My guess at how it will be drawn would be
Pool A: Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina
Pool B: Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela
Pool C; Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, US
Pool D: Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, T&T
Pull one from each, they could also go with US and Mexico in Pool B and drop Peru Venezuela, but the way above benefits Conmebol so I think its what will be used. So you could end up with Chile, Venezuela, and T&T or you could get Brazil, Uruguay, and Costa Rica, hard to say that your group is automatically easier with more Concacaf teams.
Of course US, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil will be seeded. And of course they’ll reach the second round.
The purpose of this tournament is money! and they won’t ever risk any of those playing less than 4 games.
Pool A: MEX, US, BRA, ARG
Pool B: COL, URU, CIL, PAR
Pool C: CRC, PAN, JAM, TRT
Pool D: ECU, BOL, VEN PER
I wouldn’t be surprised if pool A is not drawn but assigned in base of the elected venues.
I wrote a program to find the fairest groupings, that is, no groups of death.
I ran it using the current FIFA rankings. I can run it with ELO rankings as well. Its just that it takes a while since it finds every possible combination and compares.
I also added the rule that there is a max of 2 concacaf teams per group and a max of 3 conmebol teams per group.
Here it is:
USA CONCACAF 823
Trinidad_and_Tobago CONCACAF 594
Chile CONMEBOL 1149
Ecuador CONMEBOL 764 3330
Panama CONCACAF 551
Costa_Rica CONCACAF 731
Argentina CONMEBOL 1442
Paraguay CONMEBOL 592 3316
Jamaica CONCACAF 602
Bolivia CONMEBOL 521
Brazil CONMEBOL 1209
Uruguay CONMEBOL 1002 3334
Mexico CONCACAF 848
Colombia CONMEBOL 1224
Peru CONMEBOL 628
Venezuela CONMEBOL 612 3312
Cleaned up.
USA 823
Trinidad_and_Tobago 594
Chile 1149
Ecuador 764
3330
Panama 551
Costa_Rica 731
Argentina 1442
Paraguay 592
3316
Jamaica 602
Bolivia 521
Brazil 1209
Uruguay 1002
3334
Mexico 848
Colombia 1224
Peru 628
Venezuela 612
3312
This sounds reasonable. The kind of managed draw i expect for the event,
Quarterfinals (ideally from the organization standpoint)
USA vs Paraguay – DC
Argentina v Chile – Bay Area
Brazil vs Colombia – Miami
Mexico vs Uruguay – Houston
USA v Brazil – Foxboro
Argentina v Mexico – Dallas
Final – New Jersey
Good point I hadn’t really thought of it that way, they’ll put it as with the US as host and Mexico the defending regional champion. I still think they might put US and Mex in the 2nd tier. Columbia draws well in the US although not sure Chile or Uruguay could come close to matching. I wonder if they will do them as stand alones or double headers. Stand alones would mean soccer specific stadiums I would think for group play.
That would be interesting, albeit odd, if Columbia University was invited to play in Copa America.
I guarantee you that Columbia will not partake in Copa America,
Re: Klinsmann;
Paul Carr (of the four letter) tweeted: “In competitive (non-friendly) games: Klinsmann .734, Bradley .677, Arena .674.”
To which Mexico’s Andrea Canales tweeted in response: “Makes sense, JK has never coached a Copa America, Confed Cup, all his coaching competitive games, bar WC, are CONCACAF-based.”
A good and true rebuttal. This upcoming Mexico game, and if we win, the upcoming Copa America and Confed Cup will/could have a big influence on JK’s win percentage in “games that matter”. This Copa America is unique though in that it will have an extra 4 Concacaf teams that you could potentially play against which prior Copa America campaigns did not have.
My guess is at most you would play one other concacaf team in group play so that’s not that significant.
In full disclosure Arena and Bradley played much softer friendly schedules and they have worst winning percentages in those as well.
Sorry “worse winning percentage”.
Play the games only on fields with real grass please!!!!
Sorry it will be real grass on top of turf. But since it won’t be during football season hopefully it will be a little more stable.
odds of them excluding MetLife Field and Gillette Stadium — 0%
Seattle, Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas are all likely venues as well
grass over turf is bound to happen in this tournament and every other major tournament in the USA..
imo most likely 8 venues: NJ, Pasadena, Chicago, Philly, Seattle, Orlando, Dallas, Foxboro
my 8: Pasadena, NY, Chicago, Philly, Denver, Tampa, Stanford, Houston
hopefully the final is in philly. closest to me
Okay, this is a serious point here. Part of the embarrassment of the Brazil game was the field. This is unacceptable and what does it say about the status of the game in this country that we have to play on such Bush League fields…
Another huge part of the embarrassment was the production of the event. Twellman is not good, Darke is way overrated from that one call, and the camera work is horrible.
I have to say I don’t really like the Fox broadcasters either. I wish ESPN would just bring Moreno over from their Mexican broadcasts and replace Taylor.
Moreno?… Moreno? LOL!!!!!! He is just horrible.
Wow! So called US Fans never appreciate anything or anybody. They constantly bitched about the USMNT players, the fields, of course the coach. Now they complained even about the broadcasters? Why you haters even follow the US games?
When your own kids play in the pee wee leagues, are you guys as negative and over critical? What a shame to US sports!
The turf in Arlington for Mex/Arg. was worse they had to stop it 10 mins in and try to repair a giant chunk that came up right at the top of the box.
Yep. Embarrassing that we have to play on those surfaces given the facilities in this country.
Joe Gyau will be there as the LW option we’ve been longing for. He’s doing ball work again and will be returning to training soon! Hopefully we can get Nagbe at Cam and Zardes on the RW!
Gyau—– JOZY —– G.Z.
———————————
———– Nagbe ———–
—– Danny —- MB90 —-
Greg – JB —- OG – Fab J
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—- WC Record Holder —
Will you stop with this Gideon Zalelam nonsense. He is a 18 yr old kid. He has talent but is too far away. Sometimes USMNT fas annoy me so much , you kinda want to smack them.
Wahoo!
Even if we have to send a B-team (or a squad missing some guys because of the Olympics), and get humiliated, it’ll be utterly invaluable experience for our guys. Hopefully we’ll have something of a full squad and be able to do this justice…and hopefully we will be able to turn around and send them next year to the Confeds Cup.
Lot of events on the horizon with which we can season guys for the International game. Good time for this, as many young guys as we’re likely to be playing over the next cycle.
JK will send his B side only to find out that it is our true A side in which the USA will lift the Confederation’s Cup in victory.
Money talks
Exactly. Corruption or not, there was too much money to be made to say no to the USA.
Excellent news.
Yes, it is! It comes early enough into the 2018 WC qualifying cycle, that the new USMNT coach will still have time to assemble and evaluate player for the rest of the cycle (and hopefully,) the WC itself.
Now that’s optimism. But I’m with you.
From your mouth to God’s ears my man.