Every 2 years our great soccer confederation, also known as CONCACAF, comes together to see who is the best in these parts in what is known as the gold cup. Around the world CONCACAF is like the fat kid at the beach...it gets NO love. Some experts would say that it is the 2nd worst confederation in the world behind the oceanic. The region is dominated by 2 rival nations, the U.S.A. and Mexico. The US have been the overall more successful squad in recent years. This being ironic considering that soccer in this country rates slightly above checkers and well below video games. The 2009 edition has sparked my interest and has me wanting to dig a little bit deeper.
The gold cup isn't the beginning of the story for CONCACAF. There has been a championship tournament since 1963. To understand that, you must understand this. CONCACAF was formed in 1961 and is the youngest major confederation (excluding Oceana). It is actually 3 regions in 1. It is the combination of North America, Central America, and the Carribeans. 'CAF also has a couple of overseas territories that aren't even in FIFA....but i'll hit that up at a later time. Each region has its own nation of traditional dominance. For north america its Mexico, for central america its costa rica, and for the carribeans its the island nation trinadad and tobago.
The year is 1961 and the heads of the 3 confeds meet and for the glory known as CONCACAF. Qualifying for the first regional championship began in '62 and the tourney, named the Campionato de Naciones, kicked off in El Salvador '63. Costa Rica came home champions of the 6 team championship. The campeonato then took a interesting turn when in 1973 it was declared that the winner would receive the regions only world cup spot. This led to host Haiti shocking the world by winning the tournament and earning a birth to west germany '74. Because of this shocking upset, the championship was moved to mexico (in order to ensure that the regions most dominate team, mexico, would represent CONCACAF at the world cup). The touney eventually lost a host all together in its last 2 editions. Costa Rica and mexico dominated the pre-gold cup era of the championship winning 3 titles. The dominance was a surprise too little as costa rica were already a giant force in their former central american region. Their success didn't carry over to the world stage (a common theme amongst CONCACAF). They failed to reach a world cup final until 1990. This and many other failure have caused the region to lose respect around the world. Mexican triumphs were so easy to predict that even Tommy Smyth couldn't get it wrong. They are (this has changed recently) the team that the world thinks of when they think of CONCACAF. Mexico has also hosted 2 world cups, but have failed to win the trophy. They are one of only 5 nations to have hosted a world cup and never win it in their history. Another 1 of those 5 nations just happen to be in CONCACAF.
In 1990, CONCACAF decided to create a showcase tournament seperate from their world cup qualifying. Similar to uefa and conmebol. The first edition of the newly founded "gold cup" was held in the US....southern california to be specific. The americans would recieve their 1st international honer in that tournament, defeating honduras on penalties. Since then, the golden trophey has never been south of mexico....with the americans, mexico and canada being the only victors. Also, 4 teams from outside concacaf have participated in the gold cup, columbia, south korea, peru, and brazil. The two shining moments of the tourney are ironically 2 upsets over brazil. One of those were a famous win by the US in '98 when kasey keller had the game of his life....a brick wall couldn't have been as effective. The other was in the '03 final when mexico defeated the five time world champions. The championship has lately turned into more of an american soccer showcase if anything else. The US have hosted the last 7 and won 3 of the 4. The winner of every other tournament receives a spot in the lucrative confederations cup. The US won over many fans in the recent confeds cup. And in 1999, Mexico defeated brazil to win the confederations cup....which to date is the region's only inter-confederation honor. That includes the olympics, futsal, beach soccer.....you name it and concacaf have not won it (excluding women's soccer)
Now that we're finished with the history lesson, i want to give explain my love for the gold cup. For starters, it's concacaf. Anything and everything can happen. Teams have more mood swings than a pregnant women. Mexico can go from looking like Brazil to looking like a 6th grade team in a span of 15 minutes. The US can light up the score bored in one half and fail to complete 3 consecutive passes in the 2nd half. So while the gold cup hasn't been what you would call unpredictable, its been exciting. It is also fun to watch differnt footballers at work. Sometimes it is good to see football from a non european/south american perspective. The football may not be silky smooth but it never lacks heart. Players leave everything on the line for their nations who don't always have a platform to showcase themselves. Players want to show their homelands, like grenada or guadeloupe, off to the world. Speaking of '07 semi-finalist guadeloupe, they are an interesting story. For starters, guadeloupe is not a country at all, in fact it is an overseas extension of france. To put it in perspective, it would be as if hawaii had their own team and played in the asian football championship. Many french footballers have root from guadeloupe, including, thierry henry, william gallas, eric abidal, and many others. Guadeloupe is not a part of FIFA so they can not qualify for the world cup. This means they must settle for the next best thing, the gold cup =).
The gold cup is home to some very rare occurances in the world's game. First of all, its the only tournament where every supporter holds their breath during a back pass. Nothing is done the easy way. Defenders will do a triple back flip to clear a ball....when a simple header is sufficient. Strikers will score on a 40 yard volley with a blind fold on, but they will send an empty net chance clear over the bar. The goalkeepers are known for some of their intersting play as well. 'Keepers will make the spectacular save, but minutes later let a slow roller right into their net. The refs are also quite interesting. Just because it's football played in america....doesn't mean it's american football. Sometimes i think a player has to be literally shot before a foul is called. Even the hair is different with the style of choice being long dreads because of the heavy african influence. Also I think the gold cup is the only place where a cross that kisses the moon can land down in the box and lead to a goal. And i lost count of haw many times ive seen a player go on a legendary run and then proceed to trip over the ball.
Sometimes football becomes too negative. All people seem to do is put others style down. The spaniards play too soft, the english have no skill, the italians are too defensive....everyone puts each other down in today's world. Critics call concacaf the weakest confederation and cast the gold cup to the side. But to me that's what i like to call antifootball. I am not a negative person and will look to the bright side of the compition. It's exciting and to the players it means everything. And to other fans of the game living in the concacaf region i leave you with this....it may not be the best football....but it's OUR football
GUELINHO
COPA
LIGA
CHAMPIONS
Mes Que un Club
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