By RYAN TOLMICH
Prior to hosting the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the 2016 Centennial Copa America, the United States will play host to another international tournament: the 2014 Copa Centroamericana.
The Central American Football Union announced the scheduling of the seven team tournament with games scheduled to be played in Washington, D.C., Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles. It’s the first time the tournament is being held in the USA.
The seven participants will be divided into two groups, with Group A being made up of Nicaragua, Panama, and World Cup quarterfinalist Costa Rica. Meanwhile, Group B will feature Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The tournament will be used to determine the four automatic qualifying positions into the 2015 Gold Cup, while the fifth-place team will play a two-leg playoff against the fifth-place team from the 2014 Caribbean Football Union Caribbean Cup. In addition to Gold Cup qualification, the tournament’s champions will clinch a spot in the 2016 Copa America.
Check out the schedule for the 2014 Central American Cup after the jump:
Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014 – RFK Stadium, Washington D.C.
5:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Costa Rica vs. Nicaragua
7:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Honduras vs. Belize
9:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â El Salvador vs. Guatemala
Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014 – Cotton Bowl, Dallas
5:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Costa Rica vs. Panama
7:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Guatemala vs. Belize
9:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Honduras vs. El Salvador
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 – BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston
6:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Panama vs. Nicaragua
8:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â El Salvador vs. Belize
10:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Honduras vs. Guatemala
Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014 – Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles
4:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Third Place Group A vs. Third Place Group B
7:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Second Place Group A vs. Second Place Group B
10:00 p.m. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â First Place Group A vs. First Place Group B
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Who do you see as favorites in the 2014 Copa Centroamericana? Plan to attend any of the games?
Share your thoughts below.
Free permisos for everyone!!!!
Has the host for the 2015 Gold Cup been announced? I dont see it anywhere. Is it likely to be the US?
12 Gold Cups so far. All 12 have been hosted by the USA, with only 2 co-hosted with Mexico. Safe to say 2015 will be in the USA.
The smart money says it is. Emphasis on money.
I hope we can get another bunch of games in the mid-atlantic again. RFK in 2011 and M&T Bank in 2013 were both tons of fun.
I saw the 2013 Baltmore game (Honduuras? vs USA) and it was not as much of a home game as would have liked. Hopefully will be better in 2015. IF there is any USA game in east, i will be there
2014 Copa Centroamericana
2015 Gold Cup
2016 Copa America
…
http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/52684846.jpg
** 2018 World Cup….
Nobody wants to fly passenger jets near Russia ever again…
too soon
not a joke… by any means…. Russia is completely out of line and when it is proven that Russsian special forces are the ones really directing the eastern Ukrainian pro-Russia rebels… Russia will have to answer to the international community…. Putin is in a major power trip right now and it is having a disastrous effect on world peace.
2017 Confederations Cup.
2017 and 2018?!?
In that case: http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/250×250/52709565.jpg
Nitpicking here, but Copa is a feminine noun. It should be Copa Centroamericana.
+1
Getting soccer to take hold here in the States is contingent on good grammar in any language.
I’ll be attending the matches at the cotton bowl. Should be some great technical Futbol action.. Me likes
What I found is a Jul 22 sale date. $30-$80 at least for the Houston games.
When will tickets go on sale? I’d love to hit up LA.
how much?
cause Im def going to the games in L.A.
that’s how I’m gonna enjoy my day
hpp[efullly it will be an A squad
I can’t find where to buy tickets. =(
I know these markets will attract a lot of spectators, but it would have been nice to see Atlanta (or even Birmingham, AL) get some consideration in place of Houston or DC. But that’s purely for selfish reasons.
Miami – cgh cgh
+1, need some games to be played in the South
Have you guys ever been to RFK when El Salvador is in town? It’s practically a home game for them, and they’re easily the most insane fans I’ve ever been around.
Look who’s playing at RFK… Honduras and El Salvador. Most of our region’s foreign-born population is from those two countries. The first group of immigrants from those countries in the 1980’s kids, who are second generation/bilingual, better educated, better integrated with the broader culture, and often more affluent also root for those teams when not playing against the U.S. (see the McDonald’s World Cup commercial where the dad roots for Mexico but the son and his friends root for the U.S.)
A healthy minority of our immigrants are from Guatemala. RFK is known as El Salvador’s home stadium except during World Cup qualifying. There’s so much money to made here.
tourney winner gets an invite to Copa 2016… thats pretty big… Costa Rica better not sleep on this tourney…
CONCACAF THUNDER!
Only drawback is it’s not on the FIFA calendar, so they won’t have their best players available.
I take that back (partially). Sept 1-9 are FIFA dates, but that may not be enough time to make it worthwhile begging extra bodies from clubs.
That 2016 Copa America thing is important but it seems like the top 4 get to go to the Gold cup.
Costa Rica is primed to have a USA hold cup 2013 performance or bust
US Soccer Federation get a cut of the profits like they do when mexico plays here?
I believe they do any time another federations sells a ticket on our soil
USSF has literally struck gold in this dept
Yep, it’s basically another line item on the USSF revenue statement. It’s quite profitable to let other feds sell to our residents… without having to lift a finger.
I take that back (partially). Sept 1-9 are FIFA dates, but that may not be enough time to make it worthwhile begging extra bodies from clubs.
Wrong reply…
Kind of makes up for them getting to have ‘home’ games against our team on US soil for so many years.
times are changing. USA is getting better support here at home.
BREAKING! Bayern Munich today launched a website and on-line store in the USA.
Makes sense why not catch onto the soccer buzz.
Julian Green jerseys for sale!
You all know what this means, don’t you? Julian Green will be in Bayern’s starting rotation THIS season. That guy Expat was right all along.
Hahahahaha expat! You are one weird mf’er
It means they think Americans will buy them.
haha funny Ex-pat. That guy Jesse is excited if it means Julian gets some playing time.
I think it’s awesome that any poster who says something positive about Expat is automatically assumed to be Expat posting under a different name. It warms my heart
I reeeeeeally don’t like the management of this team. Until that changes they could buy the entire USMNT and i would still not support them.
Placing the games in the US gives a truer result than putting it in Central America. Better fields, and large crowds that don’t have officials literally fearing for their safety if they disappoint the hometown fans.
It’s all about the money. The US seems to be a popular place to stage tournaments.
Pretty much all Gold Cups
2014 Copa Centroamericana
2016 Centennial Copa America
And how many friendlies have there been in the USA by both CONCACAF and CONMEBOL teams where there the home team?
Everything is not about money. Just watch. If the Copa America Centenario gets world cup like coverage (messi, james rodriguez, luis suarez, neymar…unbelievable marketable lineups), there will be a serious journalistically-driven backlash to the acceptance of Mexico’s fan base, and their homophobic chant. And it wont be “anti soccer” journalist who write articles painting a scenario of Michael Sam playing in an NFL game where every kickoff was met with the f&g word chanted by fans. There are sports journalist in this country who write about sports and culture. This is a different country my little latin american soccer friends, and the rest of the country will be asking “do we want to be part of this?” If US Soccer and ESPN want to avoid a disaster, they’ll have to put the Mexican federation on notice…no more friendlies on US soil in 2015 unless you direct fans not to chant p@@@
And to answer your questions: (1) Costa Rica (I know, low risk) and (2) maybe depending on cost
Costa Rica has to be tired. Are these Fifa dates? I bet we get some starters but not all.
With Gold Cup qualification, and more importantly, the ability to clinch a spot in the 2016 Copa America we’ll see A-squads for all the matches.
Pretty cool that a ticket gets you a tripleheader! Soccer hangover the day after.
dang, I just booked a flight to NY on the 12th. I would have change that had I know they were playing this triple-header locally in LA.
TV for this?