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.[1][2]Mexico were the defending champions. For the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system was used at the tournament.[3]
The United States won their seventh Gold Cup title by defeating Mexico 1–0 in the final.
In the original format as announced in September 2019, four teams were to advance out of the GCQ.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7]
^Bold indicates that the corresponding team was hosting or co-hosting the event.
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.[10] On April 22, CONCACAF confirmed the tournament would be held across 9 cities in the U.S.[11]
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.[12] 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):[13]
Each team had to submit a list of 23 players, of which 3 players must be goalkeepers.[14]
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.[15]
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.[16][17] 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.[18][19]
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.[14]
Each team received a participation fee of $200,000, with the runners-up earning $500,000 and the winners earning $1 million.[37][additional citation(s) needed]
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.
"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.[38]
"Juega" was the official Spanish anthem, by Colombian duo Cali y El Dandee featuring Jamaican singer Charly Black.
^The Guatemala vs Mexico match, originally scheduled at 21:30 CDT (UTC−5), was delayed until 22:30 CDT due to torrential rain in the area.[21]
^The Costa Rica vs Jamaica match was stopped after two minutes of play due to thunderstorms in the area. The match was resumed at 21:20 EDT (UTC−4).[22][23]
^The Qatar vs Panama match, originally scheduled at 19:00 EDT (UTC−4), was delayed until 20:50 EDT due to thunderstorms in the area.[24][25][26]
^The Honduras vs Grenada match, originally scheduled at 21:00 EDT (UTC−4), was delayed until 23:10 EDT due to the weather delay in the first match between Qatar and Panama.[27]
^The Panama vs Grenada match, originally scheduled at 21:30 EDT (UTC−4), was delayed until 23:30 EDT due to the weather delay in the Group C match between Costa Rica and Jamaica.[28]
^Straus, Brian (July 15, 2021). "Gold Cup's Big-Picture Prestige Problem—and a Potential Solution". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved July 17, 2021. Concacaf had plans to double this year's Gold Cup prize money, which previously was $1 million to the champion and $500,000 for the runner-up
United States (7th title)
Mexico
Almoez Ali
Tajon Buchanan
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