U.S. will play Gold Cup games in Cleveland, KC; Mexico gets Denver, Charlotte and L.A.
The United States and Mexico national teams know which cities they’ll visit in the group stage of the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, a source with knowledge of the schedule told Yahoo Sports.
The defending champion U.S. will begin its title defense on June 18 in St. Paul, Minnesota, as previously reported by Sports Illustrated. The Americans will then travel to Cleveland on June 22 before completing their first round slate four days later in Kansas City, Kansas. The U.S. played at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium during the opening phase of the 2017 Gold Cup. They are undefeated at Sporting Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park, posting a 4-0-1 record there since 2011.
Mexico will open the tournament at a familiar venue, the 91,000-seat Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on June 15. After that, El Tri will play games in Denver (June 19) and Charlotte, North Carolina (June 23). Mexico won the 2011 Gold Cup and 2015 CONCACAF Cup titles at the Rose Bowl, beating the U.S. on both occasions, and played a tuneup for this summer’s World Cup there in May.
CONCACAF, soccer’s governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, will make the formal announcement on Tuesday. Both teams will learn their group stage opponents early next year. The 2019 Gold Cup final will be played on July 7 at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Doug McIntyre covers soccer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
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