Three days after a 4-0 trouncing by world football champion Spain in a friendly home match, the U.S. soccer team begins its Gold Cup campaign with a game Tuesday night in Detroit against Canada .

The only time Canada has beaten the American men on U.S. soil was back in 1957.

The Gold Cup is the North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region's biennial championship and features 12 teams divided into three groups of four for first round play in cities across the country.

After playing Canada, the U.S. will face Panama on Saturday at Tampa Bay, Florida, and Guadeloupe next Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri. First round matches for other teams are being played in Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, New York and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Besides regional bragging rights, the winner of this year's Gold Cup qualifies for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, an eight-team rehearsal for the World Cup to be played there one year later.

Mexico is the defending Gold Cup champion. The Mexicans opened with a lopsided 5-0 victory Sunday over El Salvador in Dallas before a crowd of 80,000 at Cowboys Stadium. Manchester United star forward Javier Hernandez led the way with three goals for the hat trick.