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 regions organized by CONCACAF.
The tournament was originally scheduled 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 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, 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.
| Team | Qualification | Date of qualification | Gold Cup appearances | Last appearance | Previous best Gold Cup performance | FIFA Ranking at start of event | CONCACAF Ranking at start of event |
| 15th | 2019 | Champions | 70 | 3 | |||
| 15th | 2019 | Champions | 67 | 5 | |||
| 3rd | 2011 | 160 | 23 | ||||
| 12th | 2019 | 45 | 6 | ||||
| 16th | 2019 | 20 | 2 | ||||
| 16th | 2019 | Champions | 11 | 1 | |||
| 12th | 2019 | Runners-up | 69 | 10 | |||
| 15th | 2019 | Champions | 50 | 4 | |||
| 7th | 2019 | 11 | |||||
| 1st | N/A | 6th place | 136 | 15 | |||
| 10th | 2019 | 78 | 7 | ||||
| 1st | N/A | Debut | 58 | N/A | |||
| 11th | 2019 | 103 | 13 | ||||
| 8th | 2019 | Champions | 83 | 9 | |||
| 4th | 2011 | 16 | |||||
| Next best-ranked team from GCQ | 11th | 2015 | Champions | 127 | 8 |
Venues
On April 13, 2021, CONCACAF announced that the final would take place on August 1, 2021, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. 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, United States on September 28, 2020, 20:00 EDT, 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 :Draw results and group fixturesThe draw resulted in the following groups :
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