U.S. Bank Stadium to host Gold Cup quarterfinal doubleheader on June 29

In June, U.S. Bank Stadium will host something Minnesota has never seen before: a knockout game in a major international tournament. And CONCACAF has gone one better, by putting a doubleheader in Minneapolis.

On June 29, two of the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup — the biannual tournament for men’s international teams in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean — are coming to U.S. Bank Stadium. Games will be at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Assuming it works like other CONCACAF events, like when Allianz Field hosted group-stage games in 2019, ticket packages will include seats for both games.

The groups for the tournament are as follows:

Group A: Mexico, Costa Rica, Suriname, Dominican Republic

Group B: Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, Curacao

Group C: Panama, Jamaica, Guatemala, Guadeloupe

Group D: United States, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia

The quarterfinals will cross over between the groups. The first-place team from Group A will play the second-place team from Group D, and vice versa, and the same is true of Groups B and C — so the matchups are 1A vs. 2D, 1D vs. 2A, 1B vs. 2C, and 1C vs. 2B.

CONCACAF will announce which specific quarterfinal matchups are in Minneapolis following the end of the group stage. The most likely scenario would see the four top-seeded teams — Mexico, Canada, Panama and the United States — win their respective groups, and thus not meet until the semifinals.

The USA opens the tournament against Trinidad and Tobago in San Jose, Calif., then plays “guest team” Saudi Arabia in Austin, Texas, and finishes the group stage with a game against Haiti at AT&T Stadium — the home of the Cowboys — in Arlington, Texas.

Saudi Arabia is the wild card of the tournament. Famously, the Saudis became the first Asian team to defeat Argentina at the World Cup, beating the eventual champions 2-1 in the group stage. They followed that, though, by losing to Poland and Mexico and missing out on the knockout round.

Canada, along with Minnesota United players Tani Oluwaseyi and Dayne St. Clair, will play one of its group-stage games in Vancouver, and the other two in Houston — slightly faraway scheduling for the tournament’s second-seeded team.

Canada will take on Honduras — featuring Loons defender Joseph Rosales and former Loon Kervin Arriaga — in Group B. Loons defender Carlos Harvey and Panama will play their games in San Jose and Austin.

Mexico will take on the Dominican Republic in the opening game of the tourament at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. When the CONCACAF Nations League finals were played in March at SoFi, Mexico was far and away the top-drawing team in terms of fans.

The group stage runs from June 14 through June 24, with the quarterfinals set for June 28 and 29. Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., and Energizer Park in St. Louis will play host to semifinals on July 2, and NRG Stadium in Houston will hold the final on July 6.