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(FIFA.com) Sunday 10 June 2007
Though a CONCACAF national championship has existed in some form since the 1940s, this year's Gold Cup - with thrills and spills aplenty - looks like being one of the most captivating. At the very least, the first edition of the tournament since 1993 to actually consist of only local representatives acts to underscore an intriguing present, past and future for the event.
Gone are the exotic guests of previous years like Brazil, Colombia and Korea Republic, who were invited to play in the last six competitions. With their absence it is guaranteed that a truly continental champion will be crowned in the final on 24 June.
Primetime rivalry interrupted
Though any tournament would miss the bright shine of Brazilian football, this Gold Cup should be particularly enlightening for the giants of CONCACAF - Mexico and USA, who have dominated the tournament historically but have not met in the final since 1998. Particularly frustrating for some is that the two superpowers have not met at any point in the tournament since then. At least one of the big two has been eliminated by an invited nation in each of the intervening four installments.
Despite this, the supremacy of El Tri and the Stars and Stripes in the event has been almost total. Not only have they won four and three Gold Cups respectively - only Canada broke the monopoly with their stunning campaign in 2000 - but the neighbours and rivals have tallied outrageously lopsided numbers against the rest of the zone's competitors.
Since the modern tournament began in 1991, the two have racked up a staggering 48 victories, five draws and only a single loss (Canada beat Mexico on their way to the crown in 2000, and they lost to Honduras on Sunday) against other teams from CONCACAF. Overall, the USA hold the record for matches won with 30. Mexico are second with 25, and far behind in third is Costa Rica with ten victories.
Including this year's hot start, the States have taken a just-shy-of-perfect 61 points from their 21 all-time group matches. Not to be outdone, Mexico have actually won the event twice, in 1996 and 2003, without conceding a single goal.
They also have a record holder in Luis Roberto Alves. The 1994 FIFA World Cup™ veteran leads the all-time scoring charts with 12 goals, and remarkably all of his career tallies in the event came in one tournament. His dozen goals scored in 1993 are all the more striking because nobody else has ever been on the scoresheet more than four times in a single competition. Though, to be fair, he did bulge the net seven times in a 9-0 victory against a clearly overmatched Martinique.
Mexico hold the edge
Given how far the teams usually advance in the tournament, it is remarkable that the dynamic duo have only met three times in previous Gold Cups, with Mexico holding the advantage. The US won their first-ever major international tournament in large part thanks to their surprising 2-0 victory over Mexico in the semi-finals of the re-started event in 1991.
With their confidence stung, the Mexicans thumped their northern neighbours 4-0 in the following event's final match in front of no less than 120,000 supporters at the Azteca Stadium. They went on to win three consecutive Gold Cups, with the last of those, in 1998, achieved via Luis Hernandez's winner in front of a huge pro-Mexico crowd in Los Angeles.
Naturally, most CONCACAF watchers are expecting the two to finally meet again in this year's final, a particularly exciting prospect given the strength of the sides the nations have brought to compete. Along with the traditional animosity between the two, a place in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the race to establish regional momentum for two rebuilding sides have both of the sworn enemies committed to the tournament like never before.
Missing the boys from Brazil?
So, the continental heavyweights have brought their biggest punchers, but for some the high profile guest nations will be missed. Certainly the likes of Brazil - who have competed three times, reaching the final twice but never winning the event - kept sides like USA and Mexico honest. But the region has apparently moved into a new era.
"We have seen over the past decade a significant rise in the standards and successes of CONCACAF nations," said CONCACAF General Secretary and FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer said before the event. CONCACAF President and FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner agreed: "We can now stand on our own and have a Gold Cup that is truly indigenous to CONCACAF."
Ironically, the tournament's historic high points have largely included the Brazilians. Most USA supporters remember their remarkable 1-0 defeat of the five-time world champions in the 1998 semi-finals when goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who has now appeared in six Gold Cups after playing against Trinidad & Tobago Saturday, put in an exceptional performance. His ten saves, half of which could be considered world class, caused his most obvious victim that night, Romario, to remark after the match: "That was the greatest performance I have ever seen by a goalkeeper. It was an honour to be on the field with him...(he) was incredible."
Mexicans also consider their finest Gold Cup hour to have come in 2003 when they tallied not one but two 1-0 victories over a young Brazil side that included Kaka, Robinho, Diego and other emerging stars.
Historical oddities
Though the Gold Cup kicked off in its modern era in 1991, the region had more than its fair share of international competitions before then. There were ten tournaments held under the auspices of the C.C.C.F. (Caribbean and Central American Nations) between 1941 and 1961, while the North American teams had their own championships in 1947, 1949 and then again in 1990 and 1991. Costa Rica dominated the former with seven titles, while Mexico naturally bossed the latter winning three out of four events.
The first CONCACAF Championship was held in 1963 and lasted until 1971. Attendance by the associations was spotty, and in fact the zone had no continental event at all between 1973 and 1989 - FIFA World Cup qualifying serving to crown a default regional champion.
Interestingly, in those tournaments minnows thrived. One of the region's most noteworthy moments came when little Haiti qualified for the 1974 FIFA World Cup by winning the qualifying tournament in their capital city, Port-au-Prince. Honduras did the same in the 1982 qualifiers, while Canada and Costa Rica followed suit for the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups.
And though the Stars and Stripes and Mexico have dominated the latest tournaments, the likes of this year's Guadalupe are proof that CONCACAF's smaller members are alive and kicking. Of special note this time around, Trinidad & Tobago are making their Caribbean-best seventh appearance, while Cuba are setting a Caribbean record by making their fourth showing on the trot.
Canada pulled off the region's longest string of upsets when they beat Mexico, T&T and guests Colombia to win the event in 2000, but they would never have been in that position had they not won a coin toss after finishing dead-even with guests Korea Republic.
There are bound to be more records broken and events of special note as an impressive 2007 event grinds towards the final on 24 June.