Posted on Saturday, 06.04.11

The European leagues have closed shop for the summer, and Barcelona’s much-hyped Champions League title over Manchester United is history. It’s time to turn attention to our home soil for the 2011 Gold Cup — a 12-team biennial regional tournament that opens Sunday in Dallas and makes a stop in Miami on Friday night.

As usual, Mexico and the United States are favored to make the final June 25 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., with defending champion Mexico getting a slight edge.

The Mexican team routed the United States 5-0 in the 2009 final and features Manchester United rookie phenom Javier “ El Chicharito” (the small pea) Hernandez, Tottenham’s Giovani dos Santos and captain Rafa Marquez, a veteran central defender who played for Barcelona and now is with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer.

Marquez and U.S. star Landon Donovan are among 32 MLS players on Gold Cup rosters, which raises the question: Why doesn’t MLS take a timeout for Gold Cup? But then, this is the same league that plays through the World Cup. Silly decisions, in my opinion, but I digress.

Mexico has won five Gold Cup titles, the United States has won four, and the border rivals have met four times in the final. The winner represents the CONCACAF region at the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil, site of the 2014 World Cup. Four years ago, the United States won the Gold Cup and earned a spot in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa. The Americans earned international respect there, shocking eventual World Cup champion Spain in the semifinals, and leading Brazil in the first half of the final.

EVALUATION TIME

The Gold Cup serves as a springboard to the next World Cup cycle. It is a chance for coaches to evaluate young talent and begin weeding out aging players.

“We certainly look at this Gold Cup as being such an important tournament for the United States and something that we really put a lot of time and effort into,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said.

Bradley’s Gold Cup roster has many holdovers from the World Cup last summer, including Donovan, Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Jozy Altidore of Boca Raton and Maurice Edu. He also will be looking at 18-year-old Juan Agudelo of the Red Bulls, a Colombian-born forward who scored two goals in his first four matches with the national team, including one against Argentina.

Other players to watch include much-hyped former teen phenom Freddy Adu, midfielder Alejandro Bedoya, who grew up in South Florida, and defenders Tim Ream and Eric Lichaj.

The Americans are in Group C with Canada, Panama and Guadeloupe. Their first match is Tuesday against Canada in Detroit. Mexico opens Sunday against El Salvador at Cowboys Stadium, and Cuba plays Costa Rica in the first half of the opening-day doubleheader. A crowd of nearly 100,000 is expected. Mexico gets huge crowds wherever it plays in the United States. A five-game pre-Gold Cup exhibition tour drew crowds averaging 51,000.

Group B — the group that plays Friday night at Florida International University — features Honduras, Jamaica, Grenada and Guatemala. Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz play Guatemala at 7 p.m., followed by Honduras vs. Grenada.

“I won’t go so far as to say that we are favorites,” Mexico coach Jose Manuel de La Torre said. “We are aspiring to be champions, but there are teams in this tournament that could surprise us.”

Costa Rica could make life difficult for Mexico. The Ticos are led by veteran coach Ricardo La Volpe and Bryan Ruiz, a creative playmaker based in the Dutch league. Honduras, which won the title in 1991, played in the 2010 World Cup and relies on the England-based trio Wilson Palacios, Maymor Figueroa and Hendry Thomas.

NOTABLE ABSENCES

Jamaica will be missing Tyrone Marshall and Omar Cummings, who decided to stay with the Colorado Rapids, but Reggae Boyz fans still have reason for optimism. L.A. Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts is minding the net, Theodore Whitmore is in the midfield and young speedster Dane Richards of the Red Bulls could make a name for himself.

Canada could make a run with a talented roster that includes Dwayne DeRosario and fleet-footed forward Simeon Jackson, a key reason Norwich City was promoted to the English Premier League for the 2011-12 season.

Guatemala, Guadeloupe, Cuba and Grenada are considered the lightweights — with an 8-31-9 combined Gold Cup record. Grenada will be without Shalrie Joseph, who chose to stay with the New England Revolution. Guatemala could be a surprise, with Carlos “ El Pescadito’’ Ruiz and Marco Pappa on the roster. And Cuba, led by Roberto Linares, played well at the recent Caribbean Cup, losing just once.

Fox Soccer Channel will be broadcasting all U.S. matches, the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. The U.S. team plays Canada at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Panama at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Guadeloupe at 8:30 p.m. on June 14.

Univision is televising the Mexico matches, beginning with the 8 p.m. Sunday opener, the Cuba vs. Costa Rica match Sunday (6 p.m.) and also the quarterfinals, semifinals and final.

Tickets for the matches at FIU are $20 to $60 and available at goldcup.org.