2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup

2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup
Tournament details
Host countries	United States; Canada
Dates	July 7–26
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	14 (in 14 host cities)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	10
Goals scored	25 (2.5 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Oribe Peralta; Clint Dempsey ; (3 goals each)
	← 2013 2017 →

The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup is the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 23rd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. It is currently being held in the United States, with two matches being played in Canada, marking the first time the CONCACAF Gold Cup is played in that country.^[1]

The United States are the defending champions. The competition will include a third place match for the first time since 2003.^[2]

Qualification for other tournaments

The champion of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup will qualify for a one-off play-off match against the United States, the champion of the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, to decide which team will represent CONCACAF in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. If the United States win the 2015 Gold Cup, they will qualify automatically to the Confederations Cup.^[3]

In addition, the top four teams excluding those which have qualified before the tournament, namely the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica (winners of the 2014 Copa Centroamericana), and Jamaica (winners of the 2014 Caribbean Cup), will qualify for play-offs which will determine the final two places of the Copa América Centenario in 2016.^[4] In the case where the champion of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup is not one of the already qualified teams, they will qualify directly to the 2016 Copa América Centenario.^[5]

Qualified teams

A total of 12 teams qualified for the tournament. Three berths were allocated to North America, four to Central America, and four to the Caribbean. For the first time, the two overall fifth-placed teams of the Caribbean zone and the Central America zone competed for the final berth of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Previously, five berths were allocated to Central America and four were allocated to the Caribbean.^[6]

Team	Qualification	Gold Cup appearances	Previous best performance	FIFA Ranking at start of event
North American zone
United States (Title holders)	Co-hosts / Automatic	13th	Champions (1991, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2013)	27
Mexico	Automatic	13th	Champions (1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2011)	23
Canada	Co-hosts / Automatic	12th	Champions (2000)	109
Central American zone qualified through the 2014 Copa Centroamericana
Costa Rica	Winners	12th	Runners-up (2002)	14
Guatemala	Runners-up	10th	Fourth Place (1996)	93
Panama	Third Place	7th	Runners-up (2005, 2013)	54
El Salvador	Fourth Place	9th	Quarterfinals (2002, 2003, 2011, 2013)	89
Caribbean zone qualified through the 2014 Caribbean Cup
Jamaica	Winners	9th	Third Place (1993)	65
Trinidad and Tobago	Runners-up	9th	Third Place (2000)	67
Haiti	Third Place	6th	Quarterfinals (2002, 2009)	76
Cuba	Fourth Place	8th	Quarterfinals (2003, 2013)	107
Play-off winner between Caribbean zone fifth place and Central American zone fifth place
Honduras	Play-off	12th	Runner-up (1991)	75

Bold indicates that the corresponding team was hosting the event.

Gold Cup and Copa América

Mexico and Jamaica sent representative teams at both the 2015 Gold Cup and the 2015 Copa América. In March 2010, then CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer restricted Mexico and Jamaica to fielding an under-22 team at the Copa América. An agreement was made with the Mexican Football Federation that CONCACAF competitions would remain top priority to play with their senior team. In exchange, CONCACAF gave permission Mexico to have representatives in the CONMEBOL-organised Copa Libertadores.^[7]^[8] However, CONCACAF has yet to decide which team Mexico and Jamaica can take to 2015 Copa America hoping to have the best representation possible in the tournament. CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb said he is still considering the possibility that Mexico can compete in the Copa America 2015 with a team without age restriction.^[9]

Venues

A total of 14 venues will be used for the tournament. CONCACAF announced the host cities and venues for the tournament on December 16, 2014.^[1] Apart from the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia which will host the final and the PPL Park in Chester which will host the third place match (both located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area), the other 12 venues will host two matches. The assignment of matches for the knockout round and the awarding of the final were announced on March 12, 2015.^[10]

East Rutherford	Charlotte	Atlanta	Baltimore	Philadelphia
MetLife Stadium	Bank of America Stadium	Georgia Dome	M&T Bank Stadium	Lincoln Financial Field
Capacity: 82,566	Capacity: 74,455	Capacity: 74,228	Capacity: 71,008	Capacity: 69,176
Quarter-finals	Group C	Semi-finals	Quarter-finals	Final

Foxborough	Carson Glendale Frisco Houston Kansas City Chicago Toronto Atlanta Charlotte Baltimore Philadelphia East Rutherford Foxborough Chester 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup (the United States)			Chicago
Gillette Stadium				Soldier Field
Capacity: 68,756				Capacity: 63,500
Group A				Group C

Glendale				Carson
University of Phoenix Stadium				StubHub Center
Capacity: 63,400				Capacity: 30,510
Group C				Group B

Houston	Toronto	Frisco	Chester	Kansas City
BBVA Compass Stadium	BMO Field	Toyota Stadium	PPL Park	Sporting Park
Capacity: 22,039	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 20,500	Capacity: 18,500	Capacity: 18,467
Group B	Group B	Group A	3rd Place Match	Group A

Draw

The seeded teams which headed up each group was announced on December 16, 2014: United States (Group A), Costa Rica (Group B), and Mexico (Group C).^[1] Seeded teams were determined based on November 27, 2014 FIFA rankings (shown in brackets).^[11]

Seeded	Unseeded
Costa Rica (16) Mexico (20) United States (28)	Trinidad and Tobago (54) Panama (56) Haiti (68)	Jamaica (71) Honduras (72)† Guatemala (73)	Cuba (79) El Salvador (93) Canada (110)

† Qualification was not guaranteed at the time of the seedings announcement, and was later secured by a two-legged playoff in late March 2015.

The composition of the groups and the schedule of the tournament were announced by CONCACAF on March 12, 2015.^[10]

Squads

An initial provisional list of 35 players is submitted to CONCACAF before June 7, 2015. A final list containing 23 players was to have been submitted for June 27, 2015. Three of the players named in the final list must be goalkeepers.^[12] The players named in the final list must have shirts numbered 1 to 23, number 1 is reserved for a goalkeeper.

Teams qualifying for the quarter final stage may replace up to six players. The replacements must have been named on the provisional list and will have a shirt numbered between 24 to 29.

An injured player from the final list may be replaced by another from provisional list 24 hours before his national team's first game.

Match officials

CONCACAF Referee's committee will chose number of referees and assistant referees for the 2015 Gold Cup tournament. Though no official announcement has been made on referees, the Professional Referee Organization has released the names of US and Canadian referees from the tournament.^[13]

Referees

Assistant referees

Daniel Belleau
Philippe Brière
Warner Castro
Octavio Jara
Leonel Leal
Hiran Dopico

William Torres
Juan Zumba
Hermenerito Leal
Gerson Lopez
Christian Ramirez
Ricardo Morgan
Garnet Page

Jose Luis Camargo
Alberto Morin
Daniel Williamson
Eric Boria
Peter Manikowski
CJ Morgante

Group stage

The top two teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams qualify for the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

The ranking of each team in each group will be determined as follows:

Greatest number of points obtained in group matches
Goal difference in all group matches
Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches
Greatest number of points obtained in group matches between the teams concerned;
Drawing of lots by the Gold Cup Committee.^[12]

Group A

Template:2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group A table

July 7, 2015