CONCACAF GOLD CUP™
The CONCACAF Gold Cup™ is CONCACAF’s showpiece event for men’s teams as it crowns the regional champion.
The USA won the inaugural eight-team competition in 1991, defeating Honduras before 40,000 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The teams battled to a scoreless draw and the first Gold Cup was decided on penalties with the stars & stripes emerging as 4:3 victors.
Mexico dominated the remainder of the decade, winning three consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup™ titles (1993, 1996, 1998). Over 120,000 fans packed the Estadio Azteca as the tricolor claimed the 1993 title with a convincing 4:0 win over USA.
Three years later, the Gold Cup field included a guest team, defending FIFA World Cup Champions, Brazil, but still Mexico captured their second title with a 2:0 victory over the samba kings in the final in front of 88,000 spectators at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. The 1998 Gold Cup™ Final, also at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, drew a sell-out crowd of 91,255, as the tricolor once again claimed the CONCACAF crown thanks to a 1:0 win over the USA.
After the tournament field was increased to twelve teams for the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup™, Canada made history winning their first major international honour in more than 100 years of football by defeating Colombia in the final 2:0 at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
After the USA claimed its first CONCACAF Gold Cup™ crown in over 10 years by topping Costa Rica in the 2002 finals at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Mexico returned to the top of the Confederation with their fourth crown in 2003 with 1:0 win over Brazil in the final at the Estadio Azteca.
The 2005 edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup™ was won by the USA on penalties over Panama in the Final held at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
CONCACAF CAMPEONATO DE NACIONES’ ERA
When the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) was formed in 1961, the first official national team competition was held lmore than two years later in El Salvador. Nine teams took part in the first competition, Costa Rica defeating the host country in the final.
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 attaches: 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.
THE EARLY YEARS
Prior to the formation of CONCACAF, football in the region was divided into smaller, regional divisions. Two main bodies existed: the Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (CCCF) founded in 1938 and the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) founded in 1946.
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.
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