Canada drawn with Cuba, Guatemala for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup
Teams will be joined in Group D by a qualifier yet to be determined
Canada has been drawn in Group D with Cuba, Guatemala and a qualifier for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup.
It should be a safe landing spot for the 47th-ranked Canadian men given Guatemala is ranked No. 116 and Cuba is No. 165.
The qualifying team in Canada's group will be one of Guadeloupe, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Grenada. Unranked Guadeloupe plays No. 104 Trinidad and Tobago while No. 170 Guyana meets No. 175 Grenada with the two winners facing off to see who joins Group D.
The 17th edition of the Gold Cup is scheduled for June 24 through July 16, with 15 stadiums in 14 cities including Toronto. It will be preceded by a 12-team qualifying competition June 16-20 that will fill the final three berths in the 16-country tournament.
Friday's draw was held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., which will host the final. The rest of the tournament schedule will be determined at a later date.
Toronto's BMO Field has been named one of 15 host stadiums for the Gold Cup, with the other 14 all south of the border.
14 cities, 15 stadiums 🏟️<br><br>These will be the hosts of the 2023 Concacaf <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldCup</a> matches between June 16 and July 16!<br><br>Review the full list 🔗 <a href="https://t.co/aSDw4elvv5">https://t.co/aSDw4elvv5</a> <a href="https://t.co/vsWGT1QUy7">pic.twitter.com/vsWGT1QUy7</a>
—@GoldCupCanada was one of four seeded teams in the draw, meaning it was kept away from the 13th-ranked U.S., No. 15 Mexico and No. 39 Costa Rica.
The U.S. is in Group A along with Jamaica, Nicaragua and a qualifier. Group B consists of Mexico, Haiti, Honduras and invitational side Qatar while Group C is made up of Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and a qualifier.
Canada is 9-2-3 all-time against Cuba and has won the last six meetings, outscoring the Cubans 20-1 during that run.
But their most recent encounter, a CONCACAF Nations League game in September 2019 in the Cayman Islands, was only a 1-0 decision decided by a ninth-minute Alphonso Davies goal. Canada played with 10 men for the last 35 minutes after defender Doneil Henry was shown a second yellow card.
Cuba's last win against Canada was a 2-0 decision at the 2003 Gold Cup in Foxborough, Mass., that prevented the Canadians from advancing out of the group round.
Canada is 10-2-1 against Guatemala. They last met in March 2015 when Canada won 1-0 in a friendly at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Guatemala's last win was in August 2004 in a World Cup qualifier in Burnaby, B.C.
Mexico has won the Gold Cup eight times, compared to seven for the defending champion U.S.
Canada won in 2000, defeating Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago in the knockout rounds before dispatching Colombia 2-0 in the final at Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum.
The Canadian men will take part in the CONCACAF Nations League final four June 15-18 in Las Vegas ahead of the Gold Cup. They take on No. 58 Panama in one semifinal while the U.S. faces Mexico in the other.
WATCH | Larin leads Canada past Honduras, into CONCACAF Nations League finals:
The Nations League winner will earn $1 million US in prize money while the Gold Cup title comes with some $1.9 million.
The three-tiered CONCACAF Nations League served as a Gold Cup qualifier, with the top two teams in each of the four League A groups booking their ticket to the 16-country tournament.
Canada qualified as Group C winner, along with Honduras, joining the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Jamaica.
Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Cuba qualified by winning their pools in League B.
World Cup host Qatar, ranked 61st in the world, is an invitational team.
Twelve other CONCACAF sides — Curacao, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago — will take part in the qualifying tournament.
Canada has staged Gold Cup games just once before — in 2015 when BMO Field hosted a group-stage doubleheader that saw Canada tie Costa Rica 0-0 and Jamaica edge El Salvador 1-0.
The Canadian men have not lost at BMO Field since September 2010 when they were beaten 2-0 by Peru. Canada has gone 15-0-6 at the lakefront stadium since, outscoring the opposition 54-6.
The other Gold Cup host stadiums are AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas; Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C.; Soldier Field, Chicago; TQL Stadium, Cincinnati; DRV PNK Stadium, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.; Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J.; NRG Stadium, Houston; Shell Energy Stadium, Houston; Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas; Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego; Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif.; and CITYPARK Stadium, St. Louis.
