The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup is a men's football competition for national teams organized by CONCACAF and it is held every other year. This year the Gold Cup will be from July 10th to August 1st and the venues include multiple stadiums across eight cities in the USA. What is interesting about the tournament this year is that for the first time the VAR system (video assistant referee) will be used.
In this article, we will discuss the Gold Cup teams participating in the 2021 tournament.
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The Twelve Qualified Gold Cup Teams
The Gold Cup teams that qualify directly for the tournament are the four group winners and runners-up from League A and the four winners from League B. In addition to these participants, there is a mini-tournament (2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament) that will decide which three Gold Cup teams will join the winners and runners-up from League A & League B.
These are the thirteen teams that already qualified for the Gold Cup via the CNL tournament in 2019/2020:
- Canada – Group A 2nd place
- United States – Group A 1st place
- Jamaica – Group C 1st place
- Grenada – Group A 1st place
- Honduras – Group C 1st place
- Mexico – Group B 1st place
- El Salvador – Group B 1st place
- Costa Rica – Group D 1st place
- Curaçao – Group D 2nd place
- Martinique – Group C 2nd place
- Panama – Group B 2nd place
- Suriname – Group D 1st place
- Qatar – official guest
2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup Qualification Tournament
Twelve teams will participate in the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament, which will be from the 2nd of July until the 6th of July 2021. The qualification tournament will take place at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Originally four teams from the qualification were supposed to join the Gold Cup, but Qatar was invited as a guest, so only three of the teams will go on to the Gold Cup.
2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup Teams Participating in the Qualification
There are four teams in Leagues A, B, and C of the qualification tournament, and they are based on the results from the 2019/2020 CONCACAF Nations League. The first-round matches are as follows:
- Haiti vs Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (July 2nd)
- Bermuda vs Barbados (July 2nd)
- Guatemala vs Guyana (July 3rd)
- Guadeloupe vs the Bahamas (July 3rd)
- Trinidad and Tobago vs Montserrat (July 2nd)
- Cuba vs French Guiana (July 3rd)
The winners of each of the first-round matches will face each other at a pre-determined table as they play through the second-round games, which will be on July 6th. The winners from the three matches on July 6th will continue as one of the already qualified 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup teams.
2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup Drawing Results
The draw for the group stage was held in August 2020 based on the CONCACAF rankings. These are the four groups for that stage of the tournament.
Group A
- Mexico
- El Salvador
- Curacao
- Qualification winner
Group B
- United States
- Canada
- Martinique
- Qualification winner
Group C
- Costa Rica
- Jamaica
- Suriname
- Qualification winner
Group D
- Honduras
- Panama
- Grenada
- Qatar
Check out the CONCACAF Gold Cup schedule to see all of the upcoming fixtures.
CONCACAF History of the Participating Gold Cup Teams
Let's start with the previous title holders – Mexico. This will be their sixteenth appearance on the Gold Cup and before that, they participated in the CONCACAF Championship twenty-four times. They have eight CONCACAF Gold Cups under their belt and three CONCACAF Championships.
The United States hosted and co-hosted most of the Gold Cups over the years. This will be the sixteenth time they will participate in the tournament and before that they played in eighteen CONCACAF Championships. They have six Gold Cups under their belt but haven't won any of the CONCACAF Championships.
Canada will play at the Gold Cup for the fifteenth time and before that, they only won the tournament only once in 2000. They also won the CONCACAF Championship once in 1985.
Honduras will participate in the Gold Cup for the sixteenth time and has twenty-one CONCACAF Championship appearances under their belt. Their best performance at the Gold Cup was in 1991 when they finished as runners-up.
Costa Rica hasn't won the Gold Cup, ever, but they have finished second in 2002 and have three CONCACAF Championships under their belt out of twenty-one seasons, and this will be their fifteenth time participating in a Gold Cup.
Jamaica will participate for the twelfth time and before that, they got second place twice. El Salvador will also participate for the 12th time and before that their best performance was finishing in the quarter-finals five times.
Panama will participate for the third time in the Gold Cup and their highest achievement in the tournament was finishing as runners-up two times. This is the first time that Surname and Qatar will participate in the Gold Cup since it was created.
Martinique participated in the tournament seven times before and their highest rank was finishing in the quarter-finals in 2002. Grenada and Curacao participated only three times in the Gold Cup before and both teams haven't gotten to the semi-finals stage, yet.
