U.S. Cup

U.S. Cup
U.S. Cup
Status	cancelled
Genre	sporting event
Date(s)	mid-year
Frequency	biannual (men); annual (women)
Country	U.S.
Inaugurated	1992 (men); 1995 (women)
Most recent	2000 (men); 2002 (women)

U.S. Cup (also known as the USA Cup, United States Cup and Nike U.S. Cup) was a soccer competition held annually in the United States from 1992 to 2000, except for the World Cup years of 1994 and 1998. The tournament, hosted by the United States Soccer Federation, was contested between the United States and three guest teams.

The cup was created to train the American soccer team and to popularize the sport in the US before the men's 1994 FIFA World Cup.^[1] Originally known as the U.S. Cup, the name was changed to the Nike U.S. Cup after Nike, Inc. signed a ten-year, $120 million contract with the United States Soccer Federation to sponsor the U.S. national teams in October 1997. As part of the contract, USSF added Nike's name to the U.S. Cup title.^[2]

In 1995, USSF added a women's competition which ran every year until 2002. The 2001 edition was abandoned after three matches due to the September 11 attacks.

Format

The cup was traditionally played in a single round-robin format between the four participating national teams.

The 1999 edition of the men's and 2000 edition of the women's tournaments, were played in single elimination format. The first round was the semifinals. The losers of the semifinals played for third place, and the winners of the semifinals played the Final match.

List of champions

Men's tournament

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
1992 details	United States	Italy	Republic of Ireland	Portugal
1993 details	Germany	Brazil	United States	England
1995 details	United States	Colombia	Mexico	Nigeria
1996 details	Mexico	Republic of Ireland	United States	Bolivia
1997 details	Mexico	Denmark	Peru	United States
1999 details	Mexico	United States	Guatemala	Bolivia
2000 details	United States	Republic of Ireland	Mexico	South Africa

Women's tournament

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
1995 details	United States	Norway	Australia	Chinese Taipei
1996 details	United States	China	Japan	Canada
1997 details	United States	Italy	Australia	Canada
1998 details	United States	Brazil	Russia	Mexico
1999 details	United States	Brazil	Finland	South Korea
2000 details	United States	Canada	Mexico	South Korea
2002 details	United States	Australia	Italy	Russia

Titles by country

Men's tournament

United States 3 times (1992, 1995, 2000)
Mexico 3 times (1996, 1997, 1999)
Germany 1 time (1993)

Women's tournament

United States 7 times (all, except for the abandoned 2001 edition)

National team appearances

Men’s

Rank	Team	Appearance
1	United States (hosts)	7
2	Mexico	5
3	Republic of Ireland	3
4	Bolivia	2
5	Brazil	1
	Colombia
	Denmark
	England
	Germany
	Guatemala
	Italy
	Nigeria
	Peru
	Portugal
	South Africa

Women’s

Number of appearance excludes the abandoned 2001 edition.

Rank	Team	Appearance
1	United States (hosts)	7
2	Australia	3
2	Canada	3
3	Brazil	2
	Italy
	South Korea
	Mexico
	Russia
4	China	1
	Finland
	Japan
	Norway
	Chinese Taipei

Venues

Frontier Field, Rochester, NY 1998 (2 games)
RFK Stadium, Washington, DC-1992, 1993 (2 games), 1995 (2 games), 1996, 2000
Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough, MA-1992 (2 games), 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000
Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA-1996, 1997 (4 games)
Soldier Field, Chicago, IL-1992 (2 games), 1993, 2000
Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ-1996 (2 games), 2000 (2 games)
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, CA-1997 (2 games), 1999 (2 games)
Yale Bowl, New Haven, CT-1992, 1993
Rutgers Stadium, Piscataway, NJ-1995 (2 games)
Cotton Bowl, Dallas, TX-1996, 2000
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA-1999 (2 games)
Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, MI-1993

References

^ Filip Bondy (March 4, 1992). "Soccer; US Cup Might Raise Americans' Game". New York Times. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
^ "Soccer America". www.socceramerica.com. Archived from the original on January 24, 2004. Retrieved March 14, 2022.

External links

[1] Filip Bondy (March 4, 1992). "Soccer; US Cup Might Raise Americans' Game". New York Times. Retrieved November 9, 2015.

[2] "Soccer America". www.socceramerica.com. Archived from the original on January 24, 2004. Retrieved March 14, 2022.

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