CONCACAF Gold Cup

CONCACAF Gold Cup

Founded	1991
Region	North America, Central America & the Caribbean (CONCACAF)
Number of teams	12
Current champions	Mexico (5th title)
Most successful team	Mexico (5 titles)
Website	www.goldcup.org

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the regional champion of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

When the Gold Cup does not fall the same year as an edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, the winner, or highest place team that is a member of both CONCACAF and FIFA, qualifies for the next staging of that tournament.

History

Map of winning countries. Combined statistics from both CONCACAF Championship and CONCACAF Gold Cup eras.

Prior to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) being formed in 1961, association football in the region was divided into smaller, regional divisions. The two main bodies consisted of the Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (CCCF) founded in 1938 (consisting of Central America and most of the Caribbean) and the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) founded in 1946 (consisting of the North American nations of United States, Mexico, Canada, and Cuba). Each confederation held its own competition, the CCCF Championship and the NAFC Championship. The CCCF held 10 championships from 1941-1961, Costa Rica winning seven (1941, ’46, ’48, ’53, ’55, ’60, ’61), and one each by El Salvador (1943), Panama (1951) and Haiti (1957). The NAFC held two championships, in 1947 and 1949, won each time by Mexico.

CONCACAF was founded in its current form in 1961 after the merging of NAFC and CCCF and thus resulted in a single competition being held for the continent. However, the first official national team competition was not held until more than two years had passed, with El Salvador being selected as the first hosting country (1963). The CONCACAF Campeonato de Naciones, as it was called, was then held every two years from 1963-1971. The second edition (1965) held in Guatemala, saw Mexico defeat the host in the final of a six-team tournament. The 1967 competition was held in Honduras and saw a third different champion crowned, Guatemala. Costa Rica won their second title as hosts in 1969, knocking off Guatemala, while two years later, Mexico won their second championship as the tournament moved to the Caribbean for the first time, held in Trinidad & Tobago. In 1973, the tournament kept the same format of six teams in one site playing a single round-robin, but now there were bigger stakes attached: the Confederation’s berth in the FIFA World Cup finals. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the host country pulled off a shocking upset by winning the tournament and claiming a spot in West Germany 1974.

With the Campeonato de Naciones doubling as the final World Cup qualifying tournament, the next two editions were held in Ciudad de México and Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1977 and 1981, respectively, the host country came away as champion and grabbed the spots on offers each time. In 1985 and 1989, the winner of the World Cup qualifying tournament was again crowned Confederation champion. Canada and Costa Rica were named champions in ’85 and ’89, respectively, but without ever lifting a trophy.

In 1990, CONCACAF again created a tournament as its showpiece event to crown the regional champion. The event was named the CONCACAF Gold Cup, with the USA hosting the first competition in 1991. The host country was the inaugural champion of the eight-team tournament. Mexico dominated the remainder of the decade, winning three consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup titles in 1993, 1996 and 1998. In the 1996 edition, the Gold Cup field included its first guest team, inviting the defending FIFA World Cup Champions Brazil.

Starting with the 2000 Gold Cup, the tournament field was increased to twelve teams. Canada made history winning their first major international honour in more than 100 years of football.

The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup was contested in the United States from June 6 to June 24, 2007 where the hosts successfully defended their title beating Mexico in the final 2-1 in Chicago; Canada and Guadeloupe shared third-place. The 2009 Gold Cup took place July 3 to July 26, 2009.^[1] with Mexico claiming the title after beating the United States by a 5-0 score.

Since the formation of the Gold Cup in 1991, the CONCACAF Championship has been won five times by Mexico, four times by the United States, and once by Canada.

Qualification

North American zone

• Qualifies automatically, 3 teams.

Central American zone

• qualifies from UNCAF Nations Cup, top 5 teams.

Caribbean zone

• qualifies from Caribbean Cup, top 4 teams.

Tournament results

CONCACAF Championship
Year	Host		Final Group Rank
			Winner	Runner-up	3rd Place	4th Place
1963 Details	El Salvador		Costa Rica	El Salvador	Netherlands Antilles	Honduras
1965 Details	Guatemala		Mexico	Guatemala	Costa Rica	El Salvador
1967 Details	Honduras		Guatemala	Mexico	Honduras	Trinidad and Tobago
1969 Details	Costa Rica		Costa Rica	Guatemala	Netherlands Antilles	Mexico
1971 Details	Trinidad and Tobago		Mexico	Haiti	Costa Rica	Cuba
1973 Details (1)	Haiti		Haiti	Trinidad and Tobago	Mexico	Honduras
1977 Details (1)	Mexico		Mexico	Haiti	El Salvador	Canada
1981 Details (1)	Honduras		Honduras	El Salvador	Mexico	Canada
1985 Details (1)	CONCACAF, No Fixed Venue		Canada	Honduras	Costa Rica	El Salvador
1989 Details (1)	CONCACAF, No Fixed Venue		Costa Rica	United States	Trinidad and Tobago	Guatemala

CONCACAF Gold Cup
Year	Host		Final				Third Place Match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1991 Details	United States		United States	0–0 a.e.t. (4-3 pen)	Honduras		Mexico	2–0	Costa Rica
1993 Details	United States &  Mexico		Mexico	4–0	United States		Costa Rica  Jamaica	1-1 a.e.t.(2)
1996 Details	United States		Mexico	2–0	Brazil		United States	3–0	Guatemala
1998 Details	United States		Mexico	1–0	United States		Brazil	1–0	Jamaica
2000 Details	United States		Canada	2–0	Colombia		Peru  Trinidad and Tobago(3)
2002 Details	United States		United States	2–0	Costa Rica		Canada	2–1	Korea Republic
2003 Details	United States &  Mexico		Mexico	1-0 a.s.d.e.t.	Brazil		United States	3–2	Costa Rica
2005 Details	United States		United States	0–0 a.e.t. (3-1 pen)	Panama		Not held(3)
							Colombia  Honduras
2007 Details	United States		United States	2–1	Mexico		Canada  Guadeloupe
2009 Details	United States		Mexico	5–0	United States		Costa Rica  Honduras

(invited teams in italics)

¹ No formal tournament was held. In qualification for the World Cup, the top team in qualifying was considered champion.

² Costa Rica and Jamaica tied 1-1 after extra time and shared third place.

³ No third place match was played; third place was shared.

• Key:
  • aet - after extra time
  • asdet - after sudden death extra time
  • pen - after penalty shootout

Cumulative results

The following is a compiled national level championship table for CONCACAF region. Years in Italics indicate years prior to the Gold Cup.

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place
Mexico	8 (1965, 1971, 1977a[›], 1993a[›], 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009)	2 (1967, 2007)	3 (1973, 1981, 1991)	1 (1969)
United States	4 (1991a[›], 2002a[›], 2005a[›], 2007a[›])	4 (1989, 1993a[›], 1998a[›], 2009a[›])	2 (1996a[›], 2003a[›])	-
Costa Rica	3 (1963, 1969a[›], 1989)	1 (2002)	5 (1965, 1971, 1985, 1993, 2009)	2 (1991, 2003)
Canada	2 (1985, 2000)	-	2 (2002, 2007)	2 (1977, 1981)
Guatemala	1 (1967)	2 (1965a[›], 1969)	-	2 (1989, 1996)
Haiti	1 (1973a[›])	2 (1971, 1977)	-	-
Honduras	1 (1981a[›])	2 (1985, 1991)	3 (1967a[›], 2005, 2009)	2 (1963, 1973)
El Salvador	-	2 (1963a[›], 1981)	1 (1977)	2 (1965, 1985)
Brazilb[›]	-	2 (1996, 2003)	1 (1998)	-
Trinidad and Tobago	-	1 (1973)	2 (1989, 2000)	1 (1967)
Colombiab[›]	-	1 (2000)	1 (2005)	-
Panama	-	1 (2005)	-	-
Netherlands Antilles	-	-	2 (1963, 1969)	-
Jamaica	-	-	1 (1993)	1 (1998)
Guadeloupe	-	-	1 (2007)	-
Perub[›]	-	-	1 (2000)	-
Korea Republicb[›]	-	-	-	1 (2002)
Cuba	-	-	-	1 (1971)

^ a: Hosts
^ b: Teams invited to the tournament
Italic = Tournaments held before present Gold Cup.

Top scorers

Year	Player	Goals
1963	?
1965	?
1967	?
1969	Cesar Amando Melgar Marco Fión Victor Manuel Ruiz	3
1971	?
1973	Steve David	7
1977	Víctor Rangel	6
1981	Hugo Sánchez	3
1985	Roberto Figueroa	5
1989	Raúl Chacón Julio Rodas Evaristo Coronado Juan Arnoldo Cayasso Leonidas Flores Leonson Lewis Kerry Jamerson Philibert Jones	2
1991	Benjamin Galindo	4
1993	Zaguinho	12
1996	Eric Wynalda	4
1998	Paulo Wanchope Luis Hernández	4
2000	Carlo Corazzin	4
2002	Brian McBride	4
2003	Walter Centeno Landon Donovan	4
2005	DaMarcus Beasley Landon Donovan Carlos Ruiz Wilmer Velasquez Luis Tejada	3
2007	Carlos Pavón	5
2009	Miguel Sabah	4

In italics tournaments prior to Gold Cup

Total hosts

Time(s)	Nation	Year(s)	Gold Cup	Championship
10	United States	1991, 1993^, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003^, 2005, 2007, 2009	10	0
3	Mexico	1977, 1993^, 2003^	2	1
2	Honduras	1967, 1981	0	2
1	El Salvador	1963	0	1
1	Costa Rica	1969	0	1
1	Guatemala	1965	0	1
1	Trinidad and Tobago	1971	0	1
1	Haiti	1973	0	1
2	No Host	1985, 1989	0	2

In italics tournaments prior to Gold Cup.

^ Co-hosted by Mexico and USA.

Tournament appearances

Appearances	Nation	Gold Cup	Championship
18	Mexico	10	8
16	Guatemala	8	8
15	Costa Rica  Honduras	9 9	6 6
13	Trinidad and Tobago	7	6
12	El Salvador  Canada  United States	6 9 10	6 3 2
11	Haiti	4	7
9	Jamaica	7	2
7	Cuba	5	2
5	Panama	4	1
4	Netherlands Antilles	0	4
3	Martinique  Nicaragua  Brazil^  Colombia^	3 1 3 3	0 2 0 0
2	Guadeloupe  Suriname  Korea Republic^	2 0 2	0 2 0
1	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Peru^  Ecuador^  South Africa^  Grenada	1 1 1 1 1	0 0 0 0 0

^ Teams invited to the tournament.

Gold Cup results, 1991-2009

Rank	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-
1	United States	49	38	6	5	93	34	+59
2	Mexico	45	32	7	6	103	24	+79
3	Brazil	14	8	2	4	22	9	+13
4	Honduras	30	14	4	13	52	44	+8
5	Guadeloupe	9	4	1	4	10	13	-3
6	Canada	32	14	7	11	41	46	-5
7	Colombia	13	5	2	6	14	17	-3
8	Costa Rica	38	13	10	15	61	51	+10
9	El Salvador	17	5	1	11	11	31	-20
10	South Africa	4	1	3	0	7	6	+1
11	Peru	4	1	1	2	7	7	0
12	Jamaica	25	6	4	15	25	47	-22
13	Panama	17	4	6	7	23	26	-3
14	Trinidad and Tobago	19	4	4	11	24	35	-11
15	Haiti	12	2	4	6	10	19	-9
16	Guatemala	23	3	6	14	18	40	-22
17	Martinique	8	1	2	5	5	20	-15
18	Cuba	13	1	2	10	10	37	-27
19	Korea Republic	7	0	4	3	5	9	-4
20	Ecuador	2	1	0	1	2	2	0
21	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2	0	0	2	0	8	-8
22	Nicaragua	3	0	0	3	0	8	-8
23	Grenada	3	0	0	3	0	10	-10

References

See also

• American Championships

External links

• Official Gold Cup Site
• CONCACAF Info about Championship
• Copa Oro coverage on Univision.com
• Gold Cup at RSSSF
• Gold Cup & Championship on RSSSF Archive

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