(USA Soccer) The problem with the Gold Cup

[SirFozzie]

The Gold Cup was supposed to determine CONCACAF's representative at the 2005 Confederations Cup (the pre WC one in Germany).

However, the specter of Brazil winning the Gold Cup is this: If the USA beat Costa Rica for 3rd place, and Brazil beats Mexico for the Gold Cup championship, Mexico and the USA would have a one game playoff final at a time and place agreeable to both sides and CONCACAF to determine who would attend the Confed Cup as the CONCACAF representative.

That's the problem with Inviting out of region teams to a regional championship.

[MrBug708]

I believe the second place team gets the automatic invitation, but if you know for sure, so be it

[SirFozzie]

From: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=272236&cc=5901

In a strange tournament twist, even though the U.S. lost to Brazil, it is still alive to earn CONCACAF's lone berth at the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup.

The United States' hopes hinge on a victory by Brazil vs. Mexico in Sunday's title game.

Should Brazil win, and should the U.S. beat Costa Rica on Saturday in Miami, a single playoff game between the U.S. and Mexico will be played to determine the CONCACAF champion.

The playoff match would be played at a date following the conclusion of the Gold Cup at a venue to be jointly agreed by both teams and CONCACAF.

[Ryan S]

I think the easiest way to resolve this problem would be to scrap the Confederations Cup. Does anyone actually watch it? I think only two or three of the games were shown in the UK.

[ice4277]

The Confederations Cup is pretty pointless, nobody really cares about it and you can make the argument there would be one more person alive today had the tournament not gone on. But FIFA and Blatter love their money so they will do anything to squeeze the cash cow that much more.