2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup

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. Mexico were the defending champions. For the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system was used at the tournament.

The United States won their seventh Gold Cup title by defeating Mexico 1–0 in the final at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada.

Qualified teams


Twelve teams qualified directly via the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League. These were the four group winners of League A, four group runners-up of League A and the four group winners of League B.

Furthermore, twelve teams were entered into the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament (GCQ), also based on the results of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League. These teams were the four group third-placed teams of League A, the four group runners-up of League B, and the four group winners of League C.

In the original format as announced in September 2019, four teams were to advance out of the GCQ. 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. 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.

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.

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. On April 22, CONCACAF confirmed the tournament would be held across 9 cities in the U.S.

Final draw
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. 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):

Draw results and group fixtures
The draw resulted in the following groups (teams in italics are prelim winners whose identity was not known at the time of the draw):

Squads
Each team had to submit a list of 23 players, of which 3 players must be goalkeepers.

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.

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. 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.

Referees


 * Drew Fischer
 * Ricardo Montero
 * Juan Gabriel Calderón
 * Bakary Gassama
 * Reon Radix
 * Mario Escobar
 * Bryan López
 * Selvin Brown
 * Said Martínez
 * Oshane Nation
 * Daneon Parchment
 * Adonai Escobedo
 * Fernando Guerrero
 * Fernando Hernández
 * César Ramos
 * Iván Barton
 * Ismael Cornejo
 * Jair Marrufo
 * Armando Villarreal
 * Ismail Elfath

Assistant referees


 * Iroots Appleton
 * Micheal Barwegen
 * William Arrieta
 * Juan Carlos Mora
 * Gerson López
 * Walter López
 * Christian Ramírez
 * Roney Salinas
 * Nicholas Anderson
 * Ojay Duhaney
 * Jassett Kerr
 * Miguel Hernández
 * Michel Morales
 * Alberto Morin
 * Henri Pupiro
 * Geovany García
 * David Morán
 * Juan Francisco Zumba
 * Djibril Camará
 * Zachari Zeegelaar
 * Caleb Wales
 * Frank Anderson
 * Kyle Atkins
 * Logan Brown
 * Kathryn Nesbitt
 * Corey Parker

Video assistant referees


 * David Gantar
 * Carlos Ayala
 * Arturo Cruz
 * Leon Barajas
 * Erick Miranda
 * Angel Monroy
 * Joel Rangel
 * Tatiana Guzmán
 * Allen Chapman
 * Tim Ford
 * Edvin Jurisevic
 * Chris Penso

Targeted advanced referee program (TARP)


 * Pierre-Luc Lauzière
 * Keylor Herrera
 * Benjamin Pineda
 * Diego Montaño
 * José Torres
 * Tristley Bassue
 * Nima Saghafi
 * Rubiel Vazquez

Group stage
The match schedule was announced on May 13, 2021.

''All match times listed are EDT (UTC−4), as listed by CONCACAF. If the venue was located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.''

Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:
 * 1) Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat);
 * 2) Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 3) Number of goals scored in all group matches;
 * 4) Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 5) Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 6) Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 7) Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match):
 * 8) Drawing of lots.

Knockout stage
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.

As with every tournament since 2005 (except 2015), there was no third place play-off.

''All match times listed are EDT (UTC−4), as listed by CONCACAF. If the venue was located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.''

Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.
 * Golden Ball Award: 🇲🇽 Héctor Herrera
 * Golden Boot Award: 🇶🇦 Almoez Ali
 * Golden Glove Award: 🇺🇸 Matt Turner
 * Young Player Award: 🇨🇦 Tajon Buchanan
 * Goal of the Tournament: 🇯🇲 Bobby Decordova-Reid (against 🇸🇷 suriname)
 * Fighting Spirit Award: 🇸🇻 Bryan Tamacas
 * Fair Play Award: 🇺🇸 united states

The following players were chosen as the tournament's best eleven.
 * Best XI

Prize money
Each team received a participation fee of $200,000, with the runners-up earning $500,000 and the winners earning $1 million.

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.

Official songs and anthems
"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.

"Juega" was the official Spanish anthem, by Colombian duo Cali y El Dandee featuring Jamaican singer Charly Black.

Controversy
At the 88th minute of the semifinal match between Mexico and Canada, the referee briefly suspended the match because the Mexican fans had been heard yelling the homophonic chant "Puto". Mexico was able to catch a crucial break and ended up scoring the match winning goal at the 99th minute.