Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field Selected to Host the 2015 Gold Cup Final

After a little twitter conversation, speculation rose that Philadelphia would be the host city of CONCACAF's championship at the end of July. The speculation was continued by the picture of a banner ad on CONCACAF's website that displayed Philadelphia with the dates July 25/26. 2015 on them. The ad was removed, but the speculation continued. The 2015 edition will be played from July 7th to the 26th and it was confirmed by Jonathan Tannenwald during the SuperDraft proceedings this afternoon that Philadelphia was in fact the host city for not only the final, but a third place game as well.

This will be the first time Philadelphia will host an international tournament final, but not their first go around with hosting Gold Cup matches. In 2009, the Linc played host to a quarterfinal doubleheader, which featured the United States vs Panama and Canada vs Honduras. The United States would win that game as well as the semifinals, before getting demolished by Mexico 5-0 in the Final. Perhaps US Soccer will receive a boost from the host city, as they are undefeated in their 3 appearances at the Linc. Those matches include their 2-1 extra time win against Panama in 2009, a 2-1 win over Turkey in the World Cup sendoff series in 2010, and finally a 1-1 draw against Mexico in Jurgen Klinsmann's debut as national team manager.

This year's Gold Cup has quite a bit on the line with not only regional dominance on the line, but a trip to the Confederations Cup in 2017 hanging in the balance. If the United States were to lift their 6th title on the sweet grass of the Linc, they would automatically receive a berth to the appetizer tournament of the World Cup in Russia. Always an important tournament, the US will most likely field the strongest team possible in order to get to the Confederations Cup.