2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup

The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 12th CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 22nd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The United States was the host nation.

2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Tournament details
Host country	United States
Dates	July 7–28
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	13 (in 13 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	United States (5th title)
Runners-up	Panama
Tournament statistics
Matches played	25
Goals scored	67 (2.68 per match)
Attendance	907,208 (36,288 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Landon Donovan Gabriel Torres Chris Wondolowski (5 goals each)
Best player(s)	Landon Donovan
Best goalkeeper	Jaime Penedo
Fair play award	Panama
← 2011 2015 →

The competition began on July 7, 2013, at the Rose Bowl,^[1] and ended with the final on July 28, 2013, at Soldier Field,^[2] with the United States defeating Panama 1–0. In this edition of the Gold Cup, Mexico participated with an alternative squad due to the main players competing at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup prior to the Gold Cup. Despite not playing with their full squad, they reached the semi-finals where they lost to eventual runners-up Panama with a score of 1–2.

United States won the tournament, which qualified them for a play-off match against the champions of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup, to decide which team would represent CONCACAF in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.^[3] The playoff was played in a single match held on October 10, 2015, which Mexico won 3–2.

A total of 12 teams qualified for the tournament. Three berths were allocated to North America, five to Central America, and four to the Caribbean.

Bold indicates that the corresponding team was hosting the event.

Thirty venues across the United States participated in the start of the stadium selection process with Soccer United Marketing, the event partner for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.^[4]

CONCACAF announced the 13 host cities and venues for the tournament on January 23, 2013.^[5] Each venue will host two matches, with the final being held at Chicago's Soldier Field:

Each team can register a squad of 23 players; 3 of them must be goalkeepers. Any team that qualifies for the knockout stage may replace up to four players in the squad after completion of the group stage, where the new players must come from a provisional list of 35 players chosen before the tournament.^[6][7]

Each CONCACAF federation submitted a list of match officials to the CONCACAF Referee's Commission for the 2013 Gold Cup Tournament.

CONCACAF announced the groups, where the twelve teams were divided into three groups of four teams, and the match schedule for the 2013 Gold Cup on March 13, 2013.^[2][8]

In the group stage, if two or more teams are equal on points (including among third-placed teams in different groups), the ranking of teams will be determined as follows:^[6]

1. Greater goal difference in all group matches
2. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
3. Greatest number of points obtained in group matches between the teams concerned (applicable only to ranking in each group)
4. Drawing of lots by the Gold Cup Organizing Committee

This was changed from previous tournaments, where head-to-head record was used as the primary tiebreaker.^[7]

All times given are US Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)

In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time shall be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.^[6]

5 goals

4 goals

•   Rodolfo Zelaya

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

•   Dalton Eiley (playing against Costa Rica)

Notes

¹ Award is shared between the three players. It was the third time that Landon Donovan has been the competition's top scorer and also the third time he has shared the award with others.

"Cups" by actress Anna Kendrick (from the film Pitch Perfect) is the official song of the tournament.^[12]

In December 2012, Traffic Sports USA were awarded the rights to manage the marketing of the tournament, which continued a relationship between CONCACAF and the parent company Traffic Sports Marketing.^[13] In 2015, this business deal led to charges in the 2015 FIFA corruption case, which identified bribes given from top Traffic officials to CONCACAF chairman, Jeffrey Webb.^[14]

• On July 7, 2013 – A Guinness world record 566 mariachis performed at the half-time of the first-round game between Mexico and Panama at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California.^[15]

• Official website