| Group A | Group B | Group C | |||
| 1 | Mexico | 1 | Honduras | 1 | United States |
| 2 | Costa Rica | 2 | Guatemala | 2 | Canada |
| 3 | El Salvador | 3 | Jamaica | 3 | Panama |
| 4 | Cuba | 4 | Grenada | 4 | Guadeloupe |
| Knockout Stage | |||||
| A2 | Costa Rica | ||||
| B2 | Guatemala | A2 | Costa Rica | ||
| A1 | Mexico | ||||
| A1 | Mexico | A1 | Mexico | ||
| C3 | Panama | Champions: Mexico | |||
| B1 | Honduras | ||||
| C2 | Canada | C2 | Canada | ||
| C1 | United States | ||||
| C1 | United States | C1 | United States | ||
| B3 | Jamaica | ||||
What's all this then?
As an experiment, I've decided to post daily predictions of how the Gold Cup's going to turn out after each day of matches. Now that each group has one game in, it seems like a great time to start.
The purpose isn't to show how clever I am; indeed, the opposite will probably happen. I'm just interested to see how my predictions evolve over the course of the tournament. At this stage, a third of the way through the group stage, most of us probably think we have a decent handle on most of these teams. Well, I want to find out. So here's my prediction for today, complete and unedited through the end of the tournament. Then we'll see if anything changes tomorrow.
Notes on predictions for June 8: El Salvador's getting screwed a bit by being in a group with Mexico. I think they're better than Panama or Jamaica, but I don't think they're going to be able to overcome a -5 goal differential after the first game unless either Honduras or Canada find their scoring boots against the other third-place rivals, or El Salvador really beats the piss out of Cuba. I'm high on Guatemala and low on Jamaica, as we discussed yesterday. I think Canada's goose is by no means cooked. In the knockout stages, I'm pretty much picking by the book except that Group B's winner is a step below the rest. Yes, I think Canada can beat Honduras.