Weekly news: my Concacaf runneth over

News from Concacaf Gold Cup, Concacaf Champions Cup, Major League Soccer and beyond the sea

Concacaf W Gold Cup wraps up first round of games 

After the US beat the Dominican Republic 5-0 in Carson, California this past Tuesday, I noted the goal-margin, and wondered if it was actually that resounding of a win. 

Make no mistake: it was a fun game, players like Midge Purce stood out, young talents got essential experience, and they imposed themselves on the opponent. But Kilgore is in part using the W Gold Cup as practice for major tournaments. And the difference between success or otherwise in major tournaments often comes down to small margins like goal differential. 

Reminder here on the format for the W Gold Cup: after the groups, teams are reseeded based on group stage performance, with the number one seed meeting the number eight seed, the number two meeting the seven, etc. 

With goal differential the first tiebreaker after point total, and number of cautions to follow, the US finished the first rounds of games in third-place behind Canada and Colombia. If my calculations are correct, the field looks like this after the first round of games: