The Gold Cup is a stand alone tournament of the CONCACAF nations. It is designed to mirror the Euro tournament which occurs every four years, two years after a World Cup. In the case of the Gold Cup it takes place every two years, the year following and the year just prior to World Cup competition. For this reason, it is often viewed as a tryout competition for future World Cup roster spots. In past years, the winner of the Gold Cup would compete in the Confederations Cup, which occurred the summer before a World Cup in the venues to be used the following year for the World Cup, against other World Cup bound teams, which conveyed an obvious advantage for logistics and player acclimatizing the following year. The Confed Cup has been abolished. Arguably the biggest win in US Soccer history came 10 years ago last week when the USA shocked the world and beat Spain, then considered invincible in the Confed Cup. That game would have never happened without a Gold Cup win.
The Gold Cup has nothing to do with WC qualifying. That will begin with the announcement of the new qualifying format next month. CONCACAF is now headed by a Canadian, so it is expected that there will be a reformatting to allow a virtually guaranteed spot in the World Cup for an improved, but still not world class Canadian squad. The Hex will likely go away. There’s lot of rumors about various formats but the days of the top six teams always being the richest countries and always keeping the broadcast money from the games played in their countries (the true purpose of the Hex) are probably over. Expect some form of early group stage two years out with home and homes with the likes of St Kitts where they make out like bandits to placate the “every one is equal crowd” followed by a second round of qualifying where there are pods or individual mini tournaments that are segregated so that it is stupidly likely that the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Canada don’t play each other. Followed by a brief Final Four like tourney to determine the order they are placed into the World Cup draw, make money, and train the squads. So the days of USA-Mexico meaning something tangible are probably over, at least this cycle, just so Canada gets to go. And it leaves legit teams like Honduras and Panama wondering if they are actually getting a shot to go to the WC, since if they don’t beat the USA or Mexico at least once in the home and home of the second round, they could be out of the World Cup dream two years before it happens. Waiting six years for another chance is a whole generation of players. It’s also bad news for the US women, who depend upon the windfall of the Men’s hex broadcast contracts to pay for all their employee benefits and fund their domestic tour games that all lose money but we must support regardless.