Headlines:
| Jamaica and Canada to play opening Gold Cup game |
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| Thursday, 02 July 2009 | |
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Two teams knocked out of
the six-team World Cup final round qualifying series, Jamaica and Canada, will on Friday contest the opening
game of the 10th CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Reggae Boyz, who are the Caribbean champions, will be making their seventh appearance and are confident of bettering their joint third place finish with Costa Rica in 1993. The Jamaicans twice advanced to the quarter finals. Jamaica came away one-nil winners the last time the teams met but Coach Theodore Whitmore says they cannot afford to dwell on the past. Two senior players, midfielder Jermaine Johnson and defender Damion Stewart, were fined by the Jamaica Football Federation for missing their team flight from Kingston to Miami on Tuesday. The Canadians, who were 2000 champions, are making their 9th appearance and their squad includes 11 players who contested the 2007 semi-finals. Now coached by Stephen Hunt, the Canadians are expressing the thoughts of winning another Gold Cup. In Friday's second game, Costa Rica, who are leaders of the World Cup qualifying series, will face El Salvador. The Costa Ricans are making their ninth appearance. |