The United States' Tim Ream (13) tangles with Jamaica’s Damion Lowe (17) during the second half of the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Nations League on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024 at CityPark, now known as Energizer Park.
The United States men’s soccer team is a win away from coming to St. Louis for the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the regional championship.
CONCACAF announced the venues for the quarterfinals and semifinals of the tournament after the completion of group play Tuesday. The United States will play Costa Rica on Sunday in Minneapolis and, with a win, would come to St. Louis to play the winner of a match between Canada and Guatemala, which also will meet Sunday in Minneapolis. The semifinal match would start at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 2.
The other half of the bracket will have Panama play Honduras and Mexico face Saudi Arabia, a guest entrant in the tournament, on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, with the winners advancing to a semifinal in Santa Clara, California.
CONCACAF left which teams would play in which semifinal venue up in the air until the conclusion of group play so it could maximize attendance for the event. With Mexico a huge draw in the United States, it wanted Mexico to play in the larger venue, Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers. With Mexico and the United States both winning their groups, that placed those teams in opposite sides of the bracket, meaning the United States would get the smaller venue, at Energizer Park in St. Louis.
People are also reading…
If the U.S., which went undefeated in group play, advances to the semifinals, it would be the team’s fourth appearance at Energizer Park since the stadium opened in late 2022. In June 2023, the U.S. beat St. Kitts and Nevis 6-0 in a Gold Cup group-play match, and then in August of that year, it faced Uzbekistan in a friendly match. In November 2024, it faced Jamaica in a CONCACAF Nations League match. In all three matches, the U.S. team has won by shutout.
