PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Timbers today announced that midfielders Will Johnson (Canada) and Rodney Wallace (Costa Rica) and forward Frederic Piquionne (Martinique) have been called up by their respective national teams for the upcoming 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup in July.
The Gold Cup is CONCACAF’s biennial championship and features the top 12 nations across the region. The 2013 tournament kicks off with group play Sunday, July 7, and the final will take place Sunday, July 28, at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Click here for more on the Gold Cup.
Wallace and the Costa Rica National Team will be featured as part of a group stage doubleheader at Portland’s JELD-WEN Field on Tuesday, July 9. Costa Rica will play Cuba in the opening game at 5:30 p.m., followed by a match between the United States and Belize at 8 p.m. (Pacific). Tickets, which allow entry into both matches of the doubleheader, start at $25 and are available for purchase through the JELD-WEN Field box office and online at www.JELD-WENField.com.
Wallace departs for national team duty Friday and Johnson is scheduled to report for Canada’s training camp in Oxnard, Calif., on Sunday. Piquionne will join Martinique during the team’s training camp in Portland. Click here for the final rosters for all 12 Gold Cup participants.
Johnson and the Canada National Team face Martinique in the opening match of the Gold Cup on July 7, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., at 2:30 p.m. (Pacific). In Group A, Canada faces Mexico on Thursday, July 11, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Wash., at 8 p.m. (Pacific), and then take on Panama on Sunday, July 14, at 12:30 p.m. (Pacific) at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo.
Johnson, 26, will compete in a third straight Gold Cup and was a member of Canada’s squad that reached the quarterfinal of the 2009 Gold Cup. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Johnson has 33 caps with the Canada National Team, making his senior international debut at the age of 18 in a 1-0 win over Luxembourg on Nov. 16, 2005. He earned seven caps in 2012, including five starts in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Johnson recently played in a pair of friendlies for Canada in Qatar in late March.
Following the opening match against Canada on July 7, Piquionne and the Martinique National Team will play Panama on July 11 at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field at 5:30 p.m. (Pacific) and conclude Group A play on July 14 against Mexico at 3 p.m. (Pacific) at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver.
Piquionne, 34, first represented Martinique in 2002 and recently helped the Caribbean island to a top-four finish in the 2012 Caribbean Cup, which earned Martinique entry into the Gold Cup. He made five appearances during the 2012 Caribbean Cup, scoring two goals, including the game-winner in a 1-0 win over Cuba on Dec. 8, 2012. Piquionne, who was born in New Caledonia but lived in Martinique as a youth, also has been capped by the France National Team.
Costa Rica begins Group C play on July 9, against Cuba at Portland’s JELD-WEN Field. Costa Rica then takes on Belize on Saturday, July 13, at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, at 3 p.m. (Pacific) and closes out group play Tuesday, July 16, in East Hartford, Conn., against the United States at Rentschler Field at 5 p.m. (Pacific).
Wallace, 25, has 14 caps and scored three goals for Costa Rica since making his international debut on Sept. 2, 2011. He tallied the game-winner in his debut, contributing to a 1-0 victory over the United States. Born in San José, Costa Rica, Wallace helped the Ticos win the 2013 Copa Centroamericana in January, appearing in all five games of the tournament and scoring the game-winner in the semifinal against El Salvador. He was recently called up for 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers June 7-18.
The top two teams from each of the three groups and the two highest-seeded third-place finishers advance to the knockout stages of the 2013 Gold Cup. The quarterfinals will take place July 20-21 and the semifinals on July 24.
