Glendale will play host to a pair of quarterfinal matches Saturday in the Gold Cup — a soccer tournament featuring teams from North and Central America. In the first game, Panama will take on Honduras, while Mexico and Saudi Arabia will play in the second game. Saudi Arabia was invited to play in this version of the tournament.
The Gold Cup takes place every two years and is put on by CONCACAF, which is the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football. In the other quarterfinal games, Canada will face Guatemala in one match, while the U.S. plays Costa Rica in the other; those games are in Minneapolis.
Jon Arnold, a soccer reporter who writes the "Getting CONCACAFed" newsletter, joined The Show to talk about the tournament and preview the games at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Jon, if one exists, what has been the overarching theme of this tournament so far?
JON ARNOLD: Well I mean I feel like the Gold Cup is always this celebration of soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, but unlike many continental championships that rotate host sites, the Gold Cup always takes place in the U.S., and a huge part of that is the many diaspora communities that we have in the U.S.
It is very easy to find large groups of Mexican fans who want to go to soccer matches, but also Salvadoran fans and Honduran fans and Guatemalan fans and even some fans of the Caribbean teams that get really good support in the U.S., whereas if you took, you know, this tournament to Costa Rica or Canada or maybe even an island somewhere in the Caribbean, you likely wouldn't have that fan support or as many of the teams.
The big kind of narrative I guess this year if there's been a thread is that we've seen some of that but not as much as we're used to seeing. You know, Mexico fans still are turning up to the stadiums. Mexico is still a very well supported team, but amid this political moment that we're living in and especially in Los Angeles where the first match took place and that was right in the midst of it was, you know, Mexico's match was the same day as the No Kings protests, It feels different. It feels very subdued in the stands, the tailgating atmosphere beforehand is usually a very big party vibe. I feel like that's been dampened. You can still find people listening to music, smoking meats, drinking a beer, but I think for the most part, some of the vibrancy has kind of been sucked out of this tournament.
The other thing that's going on is, there's another soccer tournament happening in the United States this summer. There were games in LA. There were games in Seattle. Most of the games are on the East Coast, but I do think there's also a level of, I would call it football fatigue where the U.S. has become sort of this ATM for, you know, I mentioned, hey, there's big fan groups for all these different countries in the same way.
There's big fan groups for Premier League teams and LaLiga teams and even teams from Argentina and Brazil and, and I think they've, they've come over here often for the tours and at some point, fans are only able to go to so many matches they're only gonna spend so many dollars, and I think you're seeing some of that as well.
So you know, maybe not the best sign for people trying to get excited for the quarterfinals in Glendale, but, something to be aware of that it just doesn't seem like this tournament maybe has had the vibrancy and resonance with fans that maybe past editions of the Gold Cup has had, even though we thought this was going to be such a great tournament one year ahead of the FIFA World Cup taking place here.
BRODIE: Right, absolutely. Well, so you mentioned the games coming up in Glendale on Saturday. There's Panama versus Honduras, then Mexico versus Saudi Arabia. You mentioned the, you know, the Mexican fans often show up and you would assume in a place like Arizona which has a lot of Mexican soccer fans, there will be a lot of those fans at State Farm Stadium. How do you see the games themselves shaking out?
ARNOLD: Well, Mexico against Saudi Arabia looks like a bit of a mismatch. Saudi Arabia is the guest team, invited another sort of political conversation. Qatar was the previous guest. Now with the 2034 men's World Cup taking place in Saudi Arabia, they're already trying to ramp up their investment and kind of win over hearts, if not minds. But they haven't been a very good team on the field, to be honest, the Asian qualification just took place, and, and they came into the U.S., I think, a little tired. They're not good in the attack.
All that to say that Mexico comes in as a huge favorite and you would think, you know, most analysts would expect Mexico to have a relatively easy time and send the L3 fans home happy.
The other game I think is pretty intriguing because Panama has established itself as the giant of Central America. They've made the last two important CONCACAF finals both in this year's Nations League and in the Gold Cup in 2023. They're missing a number of key players, but Honduras hasn't really shown that they can compete.
But at the same time Panama has a target on their back from some of these smaller teams that want to knock off the giant of Central America, so I think there's gonna be maybe more drama on the field in that game and probably a much better atmosphere for the second.
BRODIE: So I want to ask you about the political situation ahead of, as you referenced the World Cup that will be co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada coming up. And obviously there won't be any games in that World Cup here in Glendale, but do you think that will still be playing a role?
We of course can't see the future and know what's going to be happening at that point. But does the vibe seem to be that what we're seeing in terms of, you know, fans showing up in the atmosphere at some of the games, does that seem like a harbinger for what might be coming up next year?
ARNOLD: I think it's impossible to separate the political situation with a global event like the World Cup. You could argue that maybe outside of the Olympics, which are also coming to this country, there's no event more global than the World Cup, the men's World Cup, and this is the biggest one ever with the field being expanded for more teams.
I think that the vibe will shift both because of the politics and because of kind of the knock-on effects. What I mean by that is I've been fortunate to be at World Cups and you have these huge, huge traveling fan groups for every team. I think in the U.S. people want to see games.
I live in Dallas where there are nine matches being planned and everyone is telling me, I don't care if it's an unattractive matchup. I don't care if it's without, you know, disrespecting these random countries like Bolivia versus Senegal. I'm gonna be there and, and I do think that's what's gonna happen in the U.S. is the stadiums will fill, but in the past maybe it's filled with Bolivians or Senegalese, and I think this time around it'll fill with American fans who want to see what's going on in their backyard.
That isn't a problem necessarily, and FIFA will probably still get the same amount of revenue, but then you don't have thousands and thousands of screaming and chanting Bolivians. You have people who are just there for the show. So I definitely think it will affect the atmosphere at the World Cup.
And I'm also worried about just generally a team like Haiti who's in this Gold Cup right now allowed into the country despite Haiti being on Trump's travel bans. There are exceptions for high level competition that the players, their families and staff can get into the country, but even a country like Iran, which is qualified, also on the list, there's a huge number of soccer fans who want to travel to see their team and just wouldn't be able to get in as the situation stands. So I think it really will shift and those teams are gonna be at a huge disadvantage through no real fault of their own, you know, with anything they've done on the field or or even in their own personal lives.
So I, I think that's something to keep an eye on and, and I think it's impossible to to imagine the 2026 World Cup not being affected by what's happening now and what will be happening next year in American politics.
BRODIE: Interesting. All right, so crystal ball time. The final has happened, which of the countries that's still in it is lifting the Gold Cup trophy?
ARNOLD: I still think that Mexico has the strongest team. I think they have shown on the field why they've gotten to this point, why they're the reigning Gold Cup holders, and the U.S. has just a few too many doubts, for me. I do think the U.S. will make the final, but I think they'll fall there to Mexico and, and it'll be L3 again sort of solidifying themselves as the best team, not just in North America but the entire CONCACAF region and one of the best teams in the Americas.
Again, you know, we talked about this tournament as being the buildup, hey, what's 2026 gonna look like? It's so important with all three of these North American teams wanting to have their best ever tournament. I think Mexico will get the good vibes going into next year.
