Guyana to play Guatemala on Gold Cup quest

On their quest to play in a second CONCACAF Gold Cup, Guyana will first need to overcome Guatemala in the preliminary round. Guyana’s fate was decided on Monday evening during the official draw for the 2021 event.
It marked the first time in history that CONCACAF conducted a draw for its prestigious regional national-team tournament.
Twelve teams thus far have punched their ticket to the 16-team group stage. They include the winners and runners-up in 2019-20 CONCACAF Nations League League A groups, and the winners of CNL League B groups, including Canada, Costa Rica, Curaçao, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Suriname, and the United States.
The 12 teams will be joined in the group stage by AFC Asian Cup Champions, Qatar, who will compete as a guest as part of a major collaboration between CONCACAF and the host country of the FIFA World Cup 2022™.
The four teams from Pot 1 will be the seeded teams, with Mexico in Group A, the United States in Group B, Costa Rica in Group C and Honduras in Group D.
The prelims will comprise the 12 national teams who qualified through their 2019-20 CONCACAF Nations League performances, including the third-placed teams from League A groups, the second- placed teams from League B groups, and the winners of League C groups. Those teams are The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Montserrat, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Also, the three teams that advance from the prelims are placed into Pot 4 of the main 2021 Gold Cup Draw and, along with Qatar, will be drawn out of Pot 4.
The matches for the prelims will be played in a direct elimination format and will take place July 2-6 at a centralised location in the United States.