2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Lore & Background

The United States were the defending champions, having won the 2017 tournament. With the abolition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, the CONCACAF Cup was annulled and the Gold Cup did not qualify the winner to a major tournament for the first time since 2009. In February 2018, CONCACAF announced that the tournament would expand to 16 teams from 12. The qualification system was changed and no longer divided into Central American and Caribbean zones. Bermuda and Guyana made their Gold Cup debuts.

In Their Own Story

The air in Charlotte hung thick and humid, the kind of July heat that makes the grass glisten under the stadium lights. The Mexican end was a sea of green and white, scarves whipping in the breeze, the chant for Lozano already a low hum before kickoff. Across the pitch, the American end roared back, proud and loud, their national anthem still echoing in the concrete bowl. The first half was a chess match—Martino's men patient, probing, absorbing the pressure. Then, in the space of a few minutes, the script flipped. A through ball, a turn, a strike that kissed the inside of the net. The Mexican end detonated. The second half was a war of nerves, a goal conceded that sent a groan through the stands, and then the moment that would be replayed a thousand times on YouTube: a cross, a header, the net rippling, and the sound of thirty thousand people breathing out at once. The final whistle. The confetti. The green-and-white flags waving like a single organism. El Tri had done what they'd never done in a Gold Cup final. They had beaten the United States. And in that moment, in that humid Charlotte night, the rivalry had a new chapter written in it.

Reader's Guide

The tournament featured 16 teams. Six qualified directly after participating in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying Hexagonal, while the other 10 teams qualified through the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League qualifying. Each team had to submit a list of 23 players (three players had to be goalkeepers). The top two teams from each group qualified for the quarter-finals. In the knockout stage, if a match was tied after 90 minutes, extra time was played, where a fourth substitute was allowed for each team. If still tied after extra time, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out.

Did You Know?

• This was the first time the Gold Cup was held in the Caribbean, with all previous matches having taken place in the United States, Mexico, or Canada.
• The final was held at Soldier Field in Chicago.
• Costa Rica hosted a double-header in the first round of matches of Group B on June 16, 2019, at the Estadio Nacional in San José.
• Jamaica hosted a double-header in the first round of matches of Group C on June 17, 2019, at Independence Park in Kingston.