Carson, L.A. Among Sites for Gold Cup

The Coliseum and the Home Depot Center on Wednesday were included among seven stadiums in six cities that will serve as venues for soccer’s 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The 12-nation, 25-match tournament, which serves as the championship for national teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean but also includes a couple of guest teams, will be played July 6-24.

Canada, Mexico and the United States will represent North America in the tournament, and South Africa, the 2010 World Cup host, has been chosen as one of the guest teams. The other eight participants will not be known until after qualifying tournaments in Barbados and Guatemala in February.

In addition to the Southern California sites, where doubleheaders will be played at the Home Depot Center on July 8 and the Coliseum on July 10, the eighth Gold Cup will be staged at Reliant Stadium in Houston, the Orange Bowl in Miami, Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., Qwest Field in Seattle and Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Giants Stadium will play host to the semifinals July 21 and the final July 24. Mexico is the defending champion.

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-- Grahame L. Jones