2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup

2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF 2021 (Spanish) Coupe D'or CONCACAF 2021 (French) CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021 (Dutch)
This Is Ours Spanish: Esto Es Nuestro French: C'est à nous Dutch: Dit is van ons
Tournament details
Host country	United States
Dates	July 10 – August 1
Teams	16 (from 2 confederations)
Venue(s)	10 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	United States (7th title)
Runners-up	Mexico
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	89 (2.87 per match)
Attendance	636,770 (20,541 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Almoez Ali (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Héctor Herrera
Best young player	Tajon Buchanan
Best goalkeeper	Matt Turner
Fair play award	United States

The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 16th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be held from 2 through July 25, 2021, but was later rescheduled for July 10 through August 1. Mexico were the defending champions. For the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system was used at the tournament.

The United States won their seventh Gold Cup title by defeating Mexico 1–0 in the final.

Qualified teams

Twelve teams qualified directly via the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League. These were the four group winners of League A, four group runners-up of League A and the four group winners of League B.

Furthermore, twelve teams were entered into the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament (GCQ), also based on the results of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League. These teams were the four group third-placed teams of League A, the four group runners-up of League B, and the four group winners of League C.

In the original format as announced in September 2019, four teams were to advance out of the GCQ. However, in September 2020, CONCACAF announced that 2019 AFC Asian Cup champions and 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts Qatar would participate as a guest in the 2021 and 2023 tournaments. It was the first time since 2005 that a non-CONCACAF association took part in the tournament. Consequently, just three teams qualified for the 2021 edition via the qualifiers.

On July 9, 2021, CONCACAF announced that Curaçao, which had originally qualified as the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League A Group D runners-up, would not participate in the tournament because of its high number of COVID-19 cases. They were replaced in Group A by Guatemala, the next-highest ranked team in qualifying.

Team	Qualification	Date of qualification	Gold Cup appearances (+ CONCACAF Championship)	Last appearance (+ CONCACAF Championship)	Previous best Gold Cup performance (+ CONCACAF Championship)	FIFA Ranking at start of event	CONCACAF Ranking at start of event
Canada	CNL League A Group A runners-up	October 11, 2019	15th (18th)	2019	Champions (2000) Champions (1985)	70	3
Honduras	CNL League A Group C winners	October 13, 2019	15th (21st)	2019	Runners-up (1991) Champions (1981)	67	5
Grenada	CNL League B Group A winners	November 14, 2019	3rd (3rd)	2011	Group stage (2009, 2011)	160	23
Jamaica	CNL League B Group C winners	November 15, 2019	12th (14th)	2019	Runners-up (2015, 2017)	45	6
United States (host)	CNL League A Group A winners	November 15, 2019	16th (18th)	2019	Champions (1991, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2017)	20	2
Mexico (title holders)	CNL League A Group B winners	November 15, 2019	16th (24th)	2019	Champions (1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2019) Champions (1965, 1971, 1977)	11	1
El Salvador	CNL League B Group B winners	November 16, 2019	12th (18th)	2019	Quarter-finals (2002, 2003, 2011, 2013, 2017) Runners-up (1963, 1981)	69	10
Costa Rica	CNL League A Group D winners	November 17, 2019	15th (21st)	2019	Runners-up (2002) Champions (1963, 1969, 1989)	50	4
Martinique	CNL League A Group C runners-up	November 17, 2019	7th (7th)	2019	Quarter-finals (2002)	N/A	11
Suriname	CNL League B Group D winners	November 18, 2019	1st (3rd)	N/A (1985)	Debut 6th place (1977)	136	15
Panama	CNL League A Group B runners-up	November 19, 2019	10th (11th)	2019	Runners-up (2005, 2013)	78	7
Qatar	Invited guest	September 2, 2020	1st	N/A	Debut	58	N/A
Trinidad and Tobago	GCQ winners	July 6, 2021	11th (16th)	2019	Third place (2000)	103	13
Haiti	GCQ winners	July 6, 2021	8th (16th)	2019	Semi-finals (2019) Champions (1973)	83	9
Guadeloupe	GCQ winners	July 6, 2021	4th (4th)	2011	Semi-finals (2007)	N/A	16
Guatemala	Next best-ranked team from GCQ	July 9, 2021	11th (19th)	2015	Fourth place (1996) Champions (1967)	127	8

Venues

On April 13, 2021, CONCACAF announced that the final would take place on August 1, 2021, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, United States. On April 22, CONCACAF confirmed the tournament would be held across 9 cities in the U.S.

Dallas	Arlington, Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth area)	Houston
Cotton Bowl	AT&T Stadium	NRG Stadium	BBVA Stadium
Capacity: 92,100	Capacity: 80,000	Capacity: 71,795	Capacity: 22,039
Glendale, Arizona (Phoenix area)	Orlando Glendale Kansas City Arlington Frisco Dallas Austin Paradise Houston		Paradise, Nevada (Las Vegas area)
State Farm Stadium			Allegiant Stadium
Capacity: 63,400			Capacity: 61,000
Orlando	Austin	Frisco, Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth area)	Kansas City, Kansas (Kansas City area)
Exploria Stadium	Q2 Stadium	Toyota Stadium	Children's Mercy Park
Capacity: 25,500	Capacity: 20,500	Capacity: 20,500	Capacity: 18,467

Final draw

The group stage draw took place in Miami, Florida on September 28, 2020, 20:00 EDT (UTC−4), along with the draw for the preliminary round. This was the first ever group stage draw for the Gold Cup. The teams were split into four pots based on the CONCACAF Rankings of August 2020. The four teams of Pot 1 were automatically seeded, with Mexico in Group A, the United States in Group B, Costa Rica in Group C and Honduras in Group D. Guests Qatar were placed in Pot 4 and pre-drawn into Group D, which began play on the latest date, as they were also slated to participate in the 2021 Copa América prior to the Gold Cup before subsequently withdrawing from that tournament.

Seeding

The following was the composition of the draw pots (pots were based on the August 2020 CONCACAF Rankings, and teams in italics are prelim winners whose identity was not known at the time of the seeding):

Pot 1 Team Rank Mexico 1 United States 2 Costa Rica 3 Honduras 4

Pot 2 Team Rank Jamaica 5 Canada 6 Panama 8 El Salvador 10

Pot 3 Team Rank Martinique 11 Curaçao 13 Suriname 15 Grenada 20

Pot 4 Team Rank Haiti — Guadeloupe Trinidad and Tobago Qatar

Draw results and group fixtures

The draw resulted in the following groups (teams in italics are prelim winners whose identity was not known at the time of the draw):

Group A Pos Team A1 Mexico A2 El Salvador A3 Guatemala A4 Trinidad and Tobago

Group B Pos Team B1 United States B2 Canada B3 Martinique B4 Haiti

Group C Pos Team C1 Costa Rica C2 Jamaica C3 Suriname C4 Guadeloupe

Group D Pos Team D1 Honduras D2 Panama D3 Grenada D4 Qatar

Group stage schedule

Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	July 10–13, 2021	2 v 3, 1 v 4
Matchday 2	July 14–17, 2021	4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3	July 18–20, 2021	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Squads

Each team had to submit a list of 23 players, of which 3 players must be goalkeepers.

Match officials

On June 29, 2021, CONCACAF announced a total of 19 referees, 25 assistant referees and 12 video assistant referees (VAR) appointed for the tournament. In addition, the CONCACAF Referee Committee approved the participation of 12 referees from CONCACAF's Targeted Advanced Referee Program (TARP) who trained with elite officials in order to prepare for future competitions.

Gambian referee Bakary Gassama and Senegalese assistant referee Djibril Camará participated in the tournament as part of a referee exchange between the Confederation of African Football and CONCACAF. Originally, the African refereeing team was also conformed by referee Maguette N'Diaye and assistant referee El Hadji Malick Samba, both from Senegal. However, these two officials had problems with their visas, preventing them from traveling.

Referees

Assistant referees

Video assistant referees

Targeted advanced referee program (TARP)

Group stage

The match schedule was announced on May 13, 2021.

All match times listed are EDT (UTC−4), as listed by CONCACAF. If the venue was located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.

Tiebreakers

The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:

1. Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat);
2. Goal difference in all group matches;
3. Number of goals scored in all group matches;
4. Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
5. Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
6. Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
7. Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match):
   • Yellow card: −1 points;
   • Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points;
   • Direct red card: −4 points;
   • Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points;
8. Drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	3	2	1	0	4	0	+4	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	El Salvador	3	2	0	1	4	1	+3	6
3	Trinidad and Tobago	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2
4	Guatemala	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States (H)	3	3	0	0	8	1	+7	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Canada	3	2	0	1	8	3	+5	6
3	Haiti	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	Martinique	3	0	0	3	3	12	−9	0

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Costa Rica	3	3	0	0	6	2	+4	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Jamaica	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6
3	Suriname	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3
4	Guadeloupe	3	0	0	3	3	7	−4	0

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar	3	2	1	0	9	3	+6	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Honduras	3	2	0	1	7	4	+3	6
3	Panama	3	1	1	1	8	7	+1	4
4	Grenada	3	0	0	3	1	11	−10	0

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each), with each team being allowed to make a sixth substitution. If still tied after extra time, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out.

As with every tournament since 2005 (except 2015), there was no third place play-off.

All match times listed are EDT (UTC−4), as listed by CONCACAF. If the venue was located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	24 July – Glendale
	Qatar	3
					29 July – Austin
	El Salvador	2
					Qatar	0
	25 July – Arlington
					United States	1
	United States	1
									1 August – Paradise
	Jamaica	0
									United States (a.e.t.)	1
	24 July – Glendale
									Mexico	0
	Mexico	3
					29 July – Houston (NRG)
	Honduras	0
					Mexico	2
	25 July – Arlington
					Canada	1
	Costa Rica	0
	Canada	2

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 89 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 2.87 goals per match.

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: CONCACAF

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.

• Golden Ball Award: Héctor Herrera
• Golden Boot Award: Almoez Ali
• Golden Glove Award: Matt Turner
• Young Player Award: Tajon Buchanan
• Goal of the Tournament: Bobby Decordova-Reid (against Suriname)
• Fighting Spirit Award: Bryan Tamacas
• Fair Play Award: United States

Best XI

The following players were chosen as the tournament's best eleven.

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Matt Turner	Miles Robinson Edson Álvarez Shaq Moore Damion Lowe	Héctor Herrera Celso Borges Tajon Buchanan	Akram Afif Rogelio Funes Mori Almoez Ali

Prize money

Each team received a participation fee of $200,000, with the runners-up earning $500,000 and the winners earning $1 million.

Round achieved	Amount	Teams
Final tournament	$200,000	16
Runners-up	$500,000	1
Winners	$1,000,000	1

Marketing

Logo and slogan

The official logo was unveiled on September 28, 2020, during the final draw in Miami, Florida. The official slogan of the tournament was "This Is Ours".

Match ball

Flight by Nike was the tournament's official match ball.

Official songs and anthems

"All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)" by Canadian musicians Widelife and Simone Denny, and "Cool" by Irish singer-songwriter Samantha Mumba, served as the two official songs of the tournament. Mumba's first singles "Baby Come on Over" and "Gotta Tell You" were initially selected but were replaced as Mumba's previous label Polydor rejected the usage.

"Glorious" by English-Canadian girl group All Saints served as the official anthem of the tournament.

"Fútbol a la Gente" by Puerto Rican singer Guaynaa and Mexican cumbia group Los Ángeles Azules, and "Pa'lante" by Colombian singer Lao Ra and Dominican DJ Happy Colors, served as the two official Spanish-language songs of the tournament, the former being selected by Univision as part of their coverage.

"Juega" was the official Spanish anthem, by Colombian duo Cali y El Dandee featuring Jamaican singer Charly Black.

Broadcasting rights