2019 Gold Cup Group C Preview

Group C is an interesting one. Though it is the only group without a member of the so called Big 3 in it, it is also the deepest group in the tournament and one of the deepest in Gold Cup history. With Honduras, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Curaçao, it's possible for any combination of two teams to advance. Everyone has a chance at the knockout stage, which should make all six matches in this group extra tense and extra exciting.

Honduras

Since 2005, Honduras have mostly been perennial semifinalists, though in 2017 they lost in the quarters to Mexico. This tournament, as is the case with this entire group, could go two ways for them. Perhaps they win the group and get an easier road to the semifinals, make something happen and get a crack at the title. Or perhaps they fold in a very difficult group and crash out in the first stage. It's tough to tell for Los Catratchos, who did perform well in their first warmup match, drawing 1-1 in Paraguay. They lost the second match 7-0 to Brazil, however.

This Honduras squad is a fun mix of veterans and newcomers alike who are spread far and wide across the region. Only three of the 23 players on the squad are employed outside of Concacaf countries. Captain Maynor Figueroa is back for the millionth time at a Gold Cup, and is accompanied by some pretty decent defensive partners in Brayan Beckeles and Emilio Izaguirre. Bryan Acosta just became a DP for FC Dallas this year and will have a lot to do in the midfield. Up front the most exciting man of the bunch is Alberth Elis, who can only be described as a game changing winger. Perhaps not every night, but when he's on his A-game it feels like there's nothing you can do to stop him.

Jamaica

Jamaica have made two straight finals, upsetting USA in 2015 and Mexico in 2017. They've also just cleanly beaten the US again in a warm up match. They also also have a huge advantage in that their toughest group stage match, against Honduras, will be played at home as Jamaica won hosting rights to a single group stage matchday. They're in good form and in great position to make another deep run.

Starting from between the sticks, Andre Blake is perhaps the best goalkeeper at this tournament, and Kemar Lawrence is a great left back who can get forward on the counter in a hurry. Speed is a Jamaican national team trope of course, but this side definitely packs it all around. Shamar Nicholson, who scored a BANGER against the US in that friendly win for his first goal with the national team, might just be a breakout star at the tournament.

Jamaica have one star who stands above the rest though: Leon Bailey. The 21 year old from Bayer Leverkusen is finally going to make his Reggae Boyz debut, and the hype is very real for this kid. He could end up being a Golden Ball winner and the person that gets Jamaica over the hump and into the history books. Like Elis, he's a winger that is capable of picking apart basically any defense in this tournament and I think he'll show everyone that pretty quickly.

El Salvador

El Salvador are definitely a cut below Jamaica and Honduras, but there's no question they can compete with anyone in this group. Even though they barely qualified for this tournament, historically they've been a 2nd or 3rd place in the group type team, which usually lands them a quarterfinal spot. Of course, 3rd won't cut it anymore, and La Selecta need to come at their best to progress. They beat Haiti in their first warm up match but then strangely traveled all the way to Japan and lost 2-0, but more importantly may have put a lot of unnecessary travel fatigue in their system.

Much of this squad plays at home in the Salvadoran league, which is not the strongest, but on the plus side the back line has a lot of extra experience playing with one another. The team star Rodolfo Zelaya isn't here, which means its up to Oscar Ceren to carry the load and create for this team. The captain has the heart to do it and a lot of talent but it's a tall order to get too many goals out of this team with no Zelaya.

Ceren's brother, Darwin, will also be among the key players for La Selecta. Darwin is normally a bit more forward minded than his brother but I suspect Oscar will be asked to push up more than usual for this tournament. The goal for this team has to be the quarterfinals, which is very achievable but will not come easily. Anything beyond that would be a dream.

Curaçao

The islanders are 2022 hex hopefuls and cleaned up in qualifying, scoring 22 goals and conceding just two, both in the final match in which they were on auto-pilot. They were just crowned champions of the 2019 King's Cup, disposing of India and Vietnam to take the title. If you aren't in the know of Asian football, India are an easy victory but Vietnam are actually quite good. It's an impressive win for Curaçao and definitely a momentum builder, though like El Salvador they've had a lot of flying in the past week.

This squad is mostly known for captain and defensive stalwart Cuco Martina of Premier League fame, but they're a lot deeper than that. Leandro Bacuna plays for Coventry and had a long history in the Premier League himself with Aston Villa. However, the question mark surrounding this team is who will be doing the scoring? Of the five players registered as forwards on the roster, four of them have never scored for Curaçao. The exception, Gino van Kessel, has 8 goals in 19 caps but is hardly a goalscorer by trade.

Don't get it mistaken; this team DOES score a lot of goals, but there is just no consistent source. When it comes to crunch time there is no one player Curaçao can look to and say "Get us out of this one." I think in a group where they face three tough opponents, this will be their undoing. Somebody is going to be called upon in every single match, and I'm not sure someone will rise to the occasion all three times.