The 2024 Copa America tournament will return to the United States and dates for the summer tournament were officially announced on Tuesday
CONEMBOL announced that the Copa America will run from June 20 to July 14 in the United States. It will mark the first time since 2016 that the competition will be played on American soil.
Defending Copa America and World Cup champions Argentina will be among all 10 CONMEBOL national teams, as well as the top-six ranked Concacaf nations. The six Concacaf national teams will have the opportunity to qualify for this competition through the 2023-24 Concacaf Nations League as previously announced.
“CONMEBOL and Concacaf are united by historical and affective ties,” said CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez. “But above all, we are united by the passion, characteristic of all the Americas, for football and sports. We are determined to renew and expand our joint initiatives and projects. We want this passion to translate into more and better competitions and for football and its values to grow and strengthen throughout the hemisphere. Without a doubt, both confederations believe in big, and we will work with this orientation.”
The Copa America will also serve as a strong preparation tool for both CONMEBOL and Concacaf ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
All three nations are currently preparing for the Concacaf Gold Cup group stage, which officially begins on June 24. The USMNT recently defeated Mexico 3-0 and Canada 2-0 during the 2022-23 Nations League Final Four over the past week, lifting the tournament trophy for the second-consecutive edition.
“This is a partnership to support the ongoing growth of men’s and women’s football in Concacaf and CONMEBOL, and will truly be of mutual benefit to both Confederations,” Victor Montagliani, president of Concacaf said back during the original Copa America announcement. “Working hand in hand with CONMEBOL, we will deliver elite competitions that will provide more opportunities for our federations, and that we know passionate fans want to see. We look forward to working together to ensure that football in both regions continues to thrive.”
JR: i call bee-ess. you said the exact opposite thing on “cohen.” i encouraged cohen selection. cohen didn’t make NL. cohen is then unavailable for GC due to european duty. i was like we should figure out a way to get him capped and trialed. you’re like we have to give way to his israeli team. thanks for making my point for me, but a few weeks ago.
this does point to an odd paradox in US selection that might make it harder for european B/experimentals to break in. balogun, yes, but reynolds gets dumped to GC and cohen is out. well, we often send the B to the events outside of normal windows or in conflict with europe, which favors MLS selection. that then gives MLS a structural inside track as they are simply more available to pick in the periods when we are willing to play around.
the answer is to use at least some of the european windows more experimentally where it’s not so much euro A MLS B. after all if you think about it there’s probably a list of “B” level european players not picked for either NL “A” or GC. reynolds etc. are exceptional.
The Euros, the European national team championship is the same day as the Copa America final in 2024. Cohen is going to be with his club team this summer because it is trying to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for this year not the Euros. Yes, I think if his club is in the same position next year they might ask for him if he isn’t going to play at Copa America. Making Champions League is a huge financial boost for a club like that. If like 5 GKs are hurt in front of him and Cohen would start we’d still call him for Copa America, if he’s #3 on the roster why waste his chance to make his club and himself money. All the top players from South America and Europe will be in those competitions during late June and early July so top players will be at those competitions. Good performances in Copa America will increase values of players good performances at Gold Cup don’t move the bar typically. A good GC performance gets you into MLS or from MLS to Scotland or Denmark. A good performance in Copa America gets you to the Bundesliga or Italy. Guys will play and clubs won’t complain. I believe the 2016 Copa Fifa ruled North American players had to be released since it was a joint tournament but I could be wrong about that.
You do not see players in Europe skipping the Euros, like…ever, and I’ve never heard of anybody sitting out a Copa America either. They certainly didn’t for the Centenario in ’16, and I very much doubt anybody will willingly just sit out the Copa on our side of the pond either. It’s a Very Big Deal, other than the WC the largest International event these players can appear in, especially with the World Cup coming to the US just two years later. As a player these are the sort of events you circle on your calendar years in advance. I’d be surprised if this wasn’t a big factor in recruiting Balogun…heck, Balogun was eager to get into Nations League. A Copa America? Sheesh. Put me in already, coach. They averaged 46K a match for the Centenario in 2016…with one of the worst marketing campaigns I’ve ever seen.
I’d be shocked if anybody showed up with anything except their War Daddy “A” Teams.
If they arrange the pots like they did last time around, what we’ll see is the four biggest fan bases – Brazil, Argentina, USA, Mexico – anchoring Pot 1. Pot 2 will be the next four South American countries, Pot 3 the remaining four CONCACAF nations. Pot 4 will be the lowest-ranked South American nations. I’m just guessing who the last couple of CONCACAF nations are that will make the tournament, but that will give you possible pots of:
Pot 1: Argentina (1), Brazil (3), USA (13), Mexico (15)
Pot 2: Uruguay (16), Colombia (17), Peru (21), Chile (31)
Pot 3: Costa Rica (39), Canada (47), Panama (58), Jamaica (63)
Pot 4: Ecuador (41), Paraguay (48), Venezuela (55), Bolivia (83)
From the US’s perspective, you could not buy a more important yardstick marker for gauging our progress as a program. IMHO we’re entering the most important two-year stretch the US has ever had as a soccer nation.
again, we have several of these tournaments during this cycle. i know it means a lot to you but players may not view all of them as sacrosanct — particularly when we host them all. as i said, the most important are probably the first and the last as they establish the pecking order and bring it to the close. players sometimes have transfer/loan situations to sort or a desire to be in camp. players’ teams are also not obliged to let them go as it’s not our regional championship. i didn’t say everyone would skip. i said don’t be surprised if some do and it’s not an absolute A team.
setting aside my experimental ideas, the standard US approach implicitly factors this in. we take the A team to the smaller championship happening earlier in the summer. we take the B team to the bigger full regional tournament later in the summer. in practice this means that we can grab most of the european A players without a conflict. we then in theory could force europeans to play gold cup, but having used most of them in NL, we divide it with mostly MLS. a limited set of players do both or go to gold cup.
this not only gets a full A team summoned, it avoids the copa america 24 schedule issue.
anyhow, just watch. i mean the U20s were in may/june and we didn’t get complete first choice for that.
also, Q, (1) maybe you forget how some of the CA 16 games were played on roll out sod, i would wait to see the surfaces before pronouncing this a titanic competition. (2) in the NL era there is limited fluff in the schedule. maybe the odd january camp game(s). (3) the blindspot of americans manifest in 15/16 is a tendency to see such events as a yardstick of a set team as opposed to a test of do we have the right people and tactics. JK landed on his hardcore set of regulars even as they struggled in GC 15, the semi round of WCQ (guatemala), the regional playoff, and CA 16. perhaps because of the glowing importance and tough competition in these games, he didn’t react to the mounting set of losses we were suffering by swapping people out. he then got canned after mexico and CR losses to start the hex.
we have no qualifying danger but attention needs to be paid to how the games actually go and adjustments accordingly. there is an odd paradox of fanboys talking up these events and their importance but then not really reacting to how they go. if we do something they are excited. if we end up 4th place they are excited. no real post mortem why it happened. kind of a patriotic fervor that we showed up. a yardstick should actually be measuring something with consequences. do i have to go buy more lumber? cut again? or do i have it dialed? i don’t think it’s dialed unless we win it all.
to put this in terms people will listen to, anyone who watched CA 16 should have been concerned about brooks and a few other players. we didn’t. anyone who watched GC 17 should have been prodding arena to churn his roster with the noobs who had just won. we didn’t. or, now, anyone who just watched NL 23 should have questions about who gets the MF jobs when adams returns, and which one of dest/scally starts at RB going forward. that to me is real yardstick as opposed to we play games and tally wins and losses.
which then may get spun. “oh but it’s a hard tournament and we lost to colombia and argentina so 4th is ok.” and then we see in 2018 that colombia and argentina get 3rd and 4th in their WCQ and were round of 16 exiting teams. and then we see that CA 16 champion chile goes out 6th in WCQ, which is how much coffee that trophy and a quarter buys you. and one sees from the elimination of all conmebol before the russia 18 semis it was actually a down ebb for the region while we were talking up how hard a tournament we just bravely fought through. sorry but it can all get a bit funhouse mirrors what to take from placement. so either win or adjust to how it goes.
This is probably the first time ever in international soccer that the host country is not guaranteed a place in the finals. Let’s hope no major surprise eliminating the USMNT from it all.
i think 2 legs home and away reduces the couva risk — you get a game 2 to fix it — we would have netted out ahead by a single goal aggregate on both games with TnT in 16-17. our risky tactics don’t travel as well but often lead to blowouts in key home games, the panama game in 17, panama again in 21, the slumpbuster honduras game. that being said, it’s GB running it and he usually qualifies on a tiebreaker, and the list of League A teams we might play are about 1/3 vs. 2/3 between a challenge or easy. ES and panama would be dangerous. jamaica and honduras could be trap games. a lot of the rest if they advanced and we drew them i wouldn’t be that scared.
side point but i like the 6 team group format for NL. 3 team groups are fairly boring and usually result in 1 decent opponent. if this stays 6 teams that’s some variety and probably 2-3 decent games a round robin. i also think having an unpredictable mix of home and away also mixes things up. ok, you draw canada or mexico group round and the game is set their place, no home game to fix it. that’s higher stakes and the training wheels off.
At least this year the Group stage is only 4 matches so not only do you not visit each team you don’t even play one of them. I’m not sure what it will be 2024/25, they’re trying to get back on schedule after Covid and Winter WC so who knows. Concacaf will have to start qualifying for 2026 at some point to which will take up dates for everyone but the host.
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I believe even if US loses the quarterfinal home and away series they still take on one of the other losers to get one of the final two spots. In theory possible to not qualify but big safety net.
The Semi against Mexico is as close to full health as we’ve been in some time. Really only missing Adams. You could argue Ream or CCV, but Richards\Robinson was a first choice pairing in qualifying. We rarely were that healthy in qualifying.
Argentine born soon to be American citizen Luciano Acosta of Cincinnati FC could be another potential 10 in the coming months. Talented dude.
He’s really, really fascinating…and Gio’s injury history (and, cough, not-so-great history with Gregg Berhalter) mean we definitely need to be looking to go at least 3-deep at the 10-spot. Right now we have Gio, and…well, nobody, as our backup 10.
Mind, Gregg’s preference for co-8’s who can cover every blade of grass on the field – I mean, who needs creativity when you’ve got guys who run really hard? – means we may not bring 10’s at all. But in this hypothetical world of hope where Gregg has learned his lesson that perhaps creativity and quality on the ball is the key to unlocking the middle of the field so you don’t have to settle for lumping in hopeful and predictable crosses from your wingbacks all the time, Acosta would definitely be the second-most-talented player on the US roster in that capacity. And a guy who could conceivably conduct the US attack were something to, I dunno, happen to Gio as far as injury or whatnot. (I know, right? Never. But let’s assume it could happen anyway, okay?)
Just asking, though: does Acosta speak English? Every interview I’ve ever seen with him has been done in Spanish. That definitely didn’t help Pefok any.
See, I don’t know if we can call it a “not so great history with Greg” though, more like one moment, because we were told that the 2 families were as thick as thieves for decades before Qatar. I’d more inclined to think that Greg and Gio could repair their relationship much quicker than both sets of parents. Gio just needs to mature and accept tough coaching, which is how Berhalter went about his business to handle a player that had been injured pretty much all of qualifying, along with a few others(Richards as well). Now, Greg didn’t handle the aftermath of it correctly, and that rubbed some of the players the wrong way, but I think this will blow over because from all reports and what we’ve actually heard with our own ears from some of the main players is that Greg is really liked in that dressing room and said players wanted him back
V: Sonora played as 10 some in Argentina so that would be another possibility. I would guess Djordje and Alan will get that chance in GC. Busio would be another possibility for GC but I haven’t seen him play in a year. For full team, I think they’d just put Wes, Brendan or Yunus back in that spot. If Paxton A. continues to develop that’s a possibility too. RSL is finally playing Luna but as a wing, so maybe Diego but those two youngsters would have a lot of growth to do first. Watching the matches last week I don’t think we’ve really changed formations. I think in March we just had so much of the ball Gio looked to be higher, I think he really just played the Yunus role from ‘22 and Yunus slid into the Tyler role. I’m not really sure how you describe it and I don’t want to anger It’s Ok. One CM acts as a 10/8 and one acts as an 8/10. One is just slightly ahead of the other and has just a little less defensive responsibility but neither is really directly under the striker. But really all 3 CMs can switch or cover for each other and the FBs. I can’t believe no one has compared Berhalter to Ted Lasso yet.
No chance, homeboy is pushing 30, if he were that good he would of been playing for Argentina or in Europe by now. I remember everyone saying Dom Dwyer would be the savior to out goal scoring woes and he made 4 appearances.
He was in Paris in 2019, even did his physical with PSG before the deal fell thru. Some say Tuchel vetoed the deal others say DCU and PSG were 1-2 million dollars apart and that’s why it failed. Neymar was hurt and PSG was looking for an affordable replacement.
“Dom Dwyer”
Now there’s a blast from the past. What’s he up to?
I expect that if Gio is out they will try Zendejas at that spot unless someone thinks Djorde is a better bet?
Made the semis in 2016. Have to meet that standard again….. especially considering the depth of talent of this current team.
Two tournaments to juggle next summer. Will be interesting to see what players go to the Copa America and which players go to the Olympics. Considering clubs don’t have to release for the Olympics we may see a less than stellar Olympic team. Considering MLS teams have become more reluctant to release youth players. And yes the Olympics are considered a youth tournament.
You won’t get the big names like Balo and Reyna for Olympics. It will likely be a similar roster to U20s plus the guys like AMorris who eligible off this but not U20. The three overage players are always interesting. Guessing today I’d say Zimmerman, maybe Horvath but our age keepers of Slonina and Brady are strong, and Vazquez. Maybe Reggie Cannon or Roldan, vibes dudes but who could play at that level.
This tourney will really show us where we are post WC 22, and if the NL Final tells us anything it’s that we’ve not plateaued or flatlined, but rather seem to have gotten a jolt(having Balogun doesn’t hurt either lol). Can we keep this momentum going and build on it once Berhalter is back full time with the squad is the biggest question, and for me you can’t be Berhalter and look at those performances and not stick to it, and improve upon it if possible. If we do that we’ll give ourselves a chance of hoisting that Copa trophy, or at worst make the final!
i could see a scenario where the real A team is called to get us qualified in november and march but due to the somewhat “late” scheduling of the tournament itself — like gold cup timing starting late june continuing well into july — that we have some asking off — or only used in pre-tournament june friendlies — and the copa america team is actually more A/B.
It ends 4 days later than the 2021 Copa America, no one denied players for that. Copa is a big tournament clubs want their players to shine in it to up their values. The U.S. wants to prove it can win big games we’ll put our foot down if we need to. Players value it more than GC too willing to stand up for it.
again, the later timing for us makes it more analogous to gold cup. you and i both know that once this crosses into july it’s tripping over european preseasons. once that happens people start asking off for other priorities. i am transferring and want to protect the asset or finalize a deal. i want to bed in with a new team. i may be getting loaned. etc. since we have been playing a bunch of A team stuff — as you urge over my experimental suggestions — in reality they will have banked a fair amount of games and cred and think they know where they stand. it’s a risk — richards may have delayed his involvement, and reynolds is still B team fodder today, even though he was “scally” before “scally,” at least hypewise. but i fully expect it will happen. not sure why you’re fighting it when you like to anticipate youth tournament declines.
i know the fanboys adore copa america because they think schedule is all powerful — despite 2016 not amounting to much (and in fact arguably hinting we were in trouble). but i think if they are following conventional approach — constant first choice — as you urge — then the key tournaments are actually the opening NL we just played — the first big event that said who is going to begin the cycle in the driving seats — and the last big event — gold cup 2025 — as we settle into final preparations. i think the middle events will be less momentous. in 2015-16 those familiar with the team’s fortunes will remember we suffered a series of blips — and yet didn’t react much in terms of roster — even if we should have. by the middle of the cycle roster and tactic momentum is rolling. it’s also hard to gauge what a copa america finish means, compared to concacaf. i think 4th at copa america was a warning sign, with the way some of the games went. but we lost to argentina and people made excuses. anyhow, my point is GB as it is loves continuity so how much does a regular get punished for skipping.
you’re acting like summer is sacrosanct. as recently as 2019? 2021? i want to say reynolds and richards begged off, “i want to do club preseason.” it was a whole point of discussion whether that was wise for them or us but it happened. due to this summer being callaghan and gold cup being B team there hasn’t been much discussion if anyone “bailed.” it helps when the vast majority of the roster for one is european and the other is MLS. now complicate that and try to call european first choice for a mid-july-finish event.
yes, they aren’t allowed to refuse calls for your own regional tournament. but, no, this isn’t our regional tournament, it’s theirs, we are a guest and we would have to qualify still to be allowed in. (people are ahead of themselves even if it’s a formality.). so you may have some limited mix of isolated MLS team nos, random european team nos, or just players who want off.
we should have campaigned for an earlier start to get a first-er choice team. i am sure conmebol wanted to wait for UCL to be over since they often have players involved. they don’t have our availability issue with their own tournament to worry about. nor would it be as much of a scandal here if teams balked vs. if someone tried to tell brazil or argentina no copa.
CA 16 was june 3-26. you and i both know those 3 weeks earlier make a world of availability difference. the fanboys don’t want to admit it but that’s conflating their dreams with practical reality. there are reasons we have often sent the B team when invited. the As would go to gold cup as our tournament, but if they hadn’t, it would have been work to try and ask for them for CA anyway. kind of like we could force a gold cup squad — and are for a handful of guys — but calendarwise it just makes more sense — if you’re calling european As — to ask for the As earlier. at which point just roll with it and make NL the A games. serves both purposes.
Euro 2024 Final is the same day, guys aren’t skipping.
“setting aside my experimental ideas, the standard US approach implicitly factors this in.
we take the A team to the smaller championship happening earlier in the summer. we take the B team to the bigger full regional tournament later in the summer. in practice this means that we can grab most of the european A players without a conflict.
we then in theory could force europeans to play gold cup, but having used most of them in NL, we divide it with mostly MLS. a limited set of players do both or go to gold cup.
this not only gets a full A team summoned, it avoids the copa america 24 schedule issue.”
Mr Voice,
Your perspective on Copa America and our summer tournaments lacks context.
It’s also a little fucked up.
Copa is an actual serious tournament.
NL, Gold Cup and even the Olympics, which is junior tournament and a few levels below, are Scrimmages, the USMNT’s version of preseason, NFL OTA’s and spring training all wrapped up into one. Who plays in what tournaments can be adjusted depending on what the priorities of the senior team are.
Our “Pre-season” is not as straight forward as you portray it. And it is evolving.
As a serious tournament Copa America along with the Euros are a whisker below the World Cup. In some quarters they are considered a level above the World Cup ( fewer crap teams involved in the final stages).
Copa America has always been short of participants. They have traditionally always invited guest teams to help make up numbers.
CONMEBOL like Mexico and the USMNT for obvious reasons centered around revenue and proximity. It’s not quite an open invitation but it’s somewhere in that neighborhood. However, the USMNT has traditionally been loyal to the Gold Cup knowing it would have been hard to send good teams to both in the same summer. we actually have paid SOME attention to the needs of our CONCACAF partners.
Consequently, our participation with Copa has been on again/off again.
In 2023 we need the prep for 2026. If Gregg the Sequel is the equivalent of Jaws 2 : the Revenge, Caddyshack 2 or Speed 2, that is where we are likely to find out.
Also we have deeper depth now. The Nations League has also given our CONCACAF partners another competition to provide them with needed revenue and game time.
In Europe and South America, those guys have been on what I refer to as a two year cycle for a while now:
( WC/Euros/WC/Euros) or (WC/Copa/WC/Copa).
This has the advantage of:
1. Keeping their national teams sharp. The 4 year cycle is way too long to keep one team ready. The current USMNT is unusual in that most of the important players are about the same age, meaning that there is a serious possibility that most of the 2022 core will still be alive and kicking for 2026. Usually, a Word Cup team is more of a mix of youth and veterans meaning there tends to be greater turnover every 4 years as opposed to every 2 years. That can be good or bad.
For managers, 4 years is a very long time to be in preseason mode for the World Cup. The 2 year cycle means you are actually playing for blood and is more similar to the club environment which, face it , everyone is more used to
2. Giving the player another seriously major trophy to shoot for. This was another thing for duals to think about.
For example, when Rossi committed to Italy way back when, if everything went really well, he had a reasonable shot at:
WC 2010/Euro 2012/ WC 2014/Euro 2016/.
That’s 4 major trophies vs 2, WC 2010/WC 2014 had he committed to the USMNT.
We were never getting Rossi in any case but the point remains that math doesn’t lie.
The America equivalent has been WC/ Gold Cup/ WC/ Gold Cup.
However outside of CONCACAF, no one takes the Gold Cup seriously. Obviously some neutral watched the Gold Cup and threw up. It is not considered a major trophy like either the Euros or Copa America.
For context as to how serious the Euros and Copa are, Cristiano Ronaldo had every honor out there but he had no Portugal honors. That changed when Portugal won the 2016 Euros. At the time it placed him above Messi, at least in those terms, who had yet to win anything with Argentina.
Then that changed when Messi won the 2021 Copa America. Then he went past CR7 by winning the 2022 World Cup.
Don’t take my word for it read all the coverage about those events.
The USMNT itself doesn’t take the Gold Cup very seriously when you realize that we have B teamed it when other prettier things were available.
For example, Bob prioritized the 2007 Gold Cup over the 2007 Copa America because the Gold Cup winner got an auto invite to the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa.
The Confederations Cup is extinct now but at the time it was considered the perfect dress rehearsal tournament for the World Cup because it was in the same country and venues one year ahead of the real thing. And indeed, Bob had a great 2009 Confederations Cup and followed it up with a very good 2010 World Cup.
That year, 2009, the A guys went to South Africa and the B team went to New Jersey. In the Gold Cup they got humiliated by El Tri, 5-0 in the final in in the Meadowlands. The lineup was classic B team.
GK 1 Troy Perkins
CB 4 Chad Marshall
CB 3 Clarence Goodson
RB 16 Jay Heaps
LB 2 Heath Pearce
DM 8 Logan Pause
RM 5 Kyle Beckerman
CM 7 Robbie Rogers
LM 10 Stuart Holden
AM 22 Davy Arnaud
CF 11 Brian Ching (c)
Substitutes
FW 17 Kenny Cooper
FW 20 Santino Quaranta
FW 15 Sam Cronin
The 2024 Copa America is a well timed event for us. I don’t know if this will be a permanent thing.
The Nations League is still lower level but it is gaining popularity in UEFA as the teams there seem to be taking it more seriously than many people thought they would.
In CONCACAF the NL is gaining prominence largely because of scheduling situation. Our best players are Euros and the NL is scheduled close to their season’s end. Our Euros are still somewhat “game fit”.
By the time the Gold Cup rolls around our Euros are significantly farther away from their seasons end. They would have to work themselves back into fitness to play into the GC and they are also getting close to their club preseason training. So, it is an awkward time for most of our Euros. What makes clubs anxious about international duty is injuries and overuse. That’s why the NL is less of a hassle than the Gold Cup.
At the moment, it looks like the Gold Cup is heading towards permanent second or third level status. But that could change as needed.
Given the tournament is in the USA and is the only real competitive series of competitive games we will have before the WC, and has a WC format of group + knockouts, I personally highly doubt that we will see our strongest possible USMNT. It’s essentially a dressed WC rehearsal and it would be a calamity if the USSF missed the opportunity to take it as seriously as they can.
” personally highly doubt that we will see our strongest possible USMNT.”
Two years ahead of time don’t you think it would be important to bring our strongest possible USMNT?
@ Vaqui – obviously a typo from my end if you rest you understand what I was meaning. I meant to say “highly doubt we will not see”. No edit function here
This is when we will find out what this team is made of – specifically in the knockout rounds that we manage poorly at the WC typically. Should be fun!