United States Gold Cup squad announced, Holden set for summer tournament

For those unaware, the Gold Cup is a tournament that takes place every two years with the nations of CONCACAF taking part. 12 teams, qualifying through regional tournaments like the Copa Centroamericana and Caribbean Cup with the United States, Mexico, and Canada automatically in, are set to compete.

Typically held on odd years (2011, 2013, 2015, etc), the tournaments that fall on the year before the World Cup usually don't mean anything. That changes this year as the winner of the 2013 Gold Cup will face 2015's winner for a spot in the 2017 Confederations Cup (previously, it would have just been the 2015 winner in).

This year, the participating nations are as follows: United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti, Martinique, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, and Panama.

Some details of the American squad had leaked out over the last few days to start piecing the puzzle around the already-confirmed Stu Holden. We knew that Landon Donovan, Jack McInerney, and Jose Francisco Torres were all included but now, the full 23-man squad has been made official.

The full squad list is below:

Goalkeepers

Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

Defenders

Corey Ashe (Houston Dynamo), DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Edgar Castillo (Club Tijuana), Clarence Goodson (Brondby), Oguchi Onyewu (Malaga), Michael Orozco Fiscal (Puebla), Michael Parkhurst (FC Augsburg)

Midfielders

Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Helsinborg), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Joshua Gatt (Molde FK), Stuart Holden (Bolton), Jose Torres (Tigres)

Forwards

Will Bruin (Houston Dynamo), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Herculez Gomez (Club Tijuana), Jack McInerney (Philadelphia Union), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

The United States are in Group C with Costa Rica, Belize, and Cuba. Their involvement kicks off on the 9th of July at 11 PM EST (4 AM GMT) at Portland Timbers' Jeld-Wen Field against Belize. Four days later, they take on Cuba at Real Salt Lake's Rio Tinto Stadium with a 4 PM EST kickoff (9 PM GMT). The Americans conclude their group stage on the 16th of July at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut against Costa Rica. That match will kick off at 10 PM EST (3 AM GMT).

The top two teams in each group automatically move on, as do the best two third-place teams in the groups. The quarter-finals will take place on the 20th and 21st of July at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The semi-finals will be played three days later at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas and the final takes place four days after that, at Chicago's Soldier Field.

The tournament will be shown on Fox, Fox Soccer, and Univision in the United States, Sportsnet World in Canada, and ESPN in the UK.