Christian Pulisic of the U.S. passes the ball away from Jamaica defenders in the first half of the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Nations League on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, at CityPark.
Energizer Park was chosen as the site for one of the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, which could mean a return to St. Louis of the U.S. men’s national team for the fourth time in three years.
The game will be played at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 2, but while the teams won’t be known until the quarterfinal round is completed, who goes to which semifinal site will be determined by tournament organizers in order to maximize attendance.
About the only thing that seems certain is that Mexico will not come to St. Louis. If Mexico, which always draws huge crowds when it plays in America, advances, it will most likely be sent to the semifinal match at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., which seats 68,500.
Assuming the United States and Mexico each win their groups, they would be opposite halves of the bracket and wouldn’t meet until the finals. That would mean the United States, if it advanced to the semifinals, would be in the other game and end up in St. Louis. If one of the teams, however, were to finish second in its group, the teams would be on the same half of the bracket and meet in the second round.
After the U.S. team’s poor finish in the CONCACAF Nations League in March, when it lost to Panama in the semifinals and then to Canada in the third-place game, coach Mauricio Pochettino is expected to bring the best possible roster to the Gold Cup, rather than bringing a B team as has happened in the past. This will be the last official competition for the national team prior to hosting the 2026 World Cup.
The United States is in Group D, along with Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and Saudi Arabia, a guest team in the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. Mexico is in Group A with Costa Rica, Suriname and the Dominican Republic.
In 2023 when the Gold Cup came to St. Louis, the United States played a group stage match against St. Kitts and Nevis. Later that year the U.S. team played Uzbekistan here in a friendly and then in 2024 played Jamaica in a Nations League quarterfinal.
Group B consists of Canada, Honduras, El Salvador and Curacao, and Group C has Panama, Jamaica, Guatemala and Guadeloupe.
Jamaica replaces China for US women
The U.S. women’s national team will get a new opponent for its match June 3 at Energizer Park, with Jamaica replacing China.
China had agreed to play the United States twice in the upcoming FIFA window, first in St. Paul, Minn., on May 31 and then in St. Louis, but then said it could play only the first match.
Instead, the U.S. will face Jamaica for the first time since 2022, when the Americans won 5-0 in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup in Monterrey, Mexico. This will be the sixth meeting between the countries, with the U.S. team winning the previous five, by a combined score of 31-0 (though the matches have been getting closer). Jamaica has qualified for the past two Women’s World Cups and got to the round of 16 in 2023, losing to Colombia 1-0.
The match will feature a pregame celebration for Becky Sauerbrunn, the St. Louis native and longtime national team player who retired in December. Sauerbrunn played 219 games for the United States, appearing in three Olympic tournaments and three Women’s World Cups.
This will be the second straight international match at Energizer Park between the two countries. In November, the men’s teams of the United States and Jamaica met here in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Nations League.
