Introduction

This was the first Gold Cup to be contested and it was played shortly after World Cup VIII. There were a total of 12 teams who took part in the competition; all 8 of the CONCACAF sides who had participated in World Cup VIII qualifying plus the return of Guadeloupe and Suriname, along with El Salvador and Panama, who were making their CONCACAF debut.

CONCACAF decided to not have qualifying and instead just have a 12 team competition, which was different from most other confederations who were using 10-team formats at the time.

Teams Entered: 12
Champion: Jamaica (1st)
Top Scorer: Fuller (6)

Qualification

There were only 12 teams participating, so no qualification phase was needed.

Seeding

The draw for the groups was seeded. Teams were ranked based on their performance against other continental teams throughout World Cup qualifying for the first eight World Cups. Since various teams had only played in certain competitions, there was no way to compare them directly. Instead, the results were normalized to "points per game" to determine seeding.

United States - 90 pts +8 GD [52] 90/52 = 1.731
Suriname - 62 pts +11 GD [36] 62/36 = 1.722
Costa Rica - 77 pts +14 GD [52] 77/52 = 1.481
Jamaica - 67 pts +4 GD [48] 67/48 = 1.396
Mexico - 69 pts -3 GD [54] 69/54 = 1.277
Honduras - 23 pts -6 GD [18] 23/18 = 1.277
Canada - 25 pts +0 GD [20] 25/20 = 1.25
Guadeloupe - 29 pts -22 GD [32] 29/32 = 0.906
Trinidad & Tobago - 33 pts -20 GD [40] = 33/40 = 0.825
Curacao - 5 pts -2 GD [6] 5/6 = 0.833
El Salvador - 0 pts +0 GD 0/0 = 0.000
Panama - 0 pts +0 GD 0/0 = 0.000

Pot A: United States, Suriname, Costa Rica
Pot B: Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras
Pot C: Canada, Guadeloupe, Trinidad & Tobago
Pot D: Curacao, El Salvador, Panama

Gold Cup

Group A

Panama - 9 pts +5 GD 7 GF 2 GA
United States - 6 pts +1 GD 6 GF 5 GA
Mexico - 3 pts +1 GD 5 GF 4 GA
Trinidad & Tobago - 0 pts -7 GD 2 GF 9 GA

Mexico 0 – 1 Panama [R. Escobar]
Trinidad & Tobago 1 – 2 United States [Yorke; Donovan, Eddie Johnson]

Mexico 3 – 0 Trinidad & Tobago [Guardado, Dos Santos, Torrado]
United States 1 – 2 Panama [Casey; Renteria x2]

United States 3 – 2 Mexico [Dempsey x2, Casey; G. Franco x2]
Panama 4 – 1 Trinidad & Tobago [Quintero x2, L. Tejada x2; C. Edwards]

Group B

Jamaica - 6 pts +1 GD 6 GF 5 GA
Curacao - 6 pts +1 GD 3 GF 2 GA
Costa Rica - 4 pts +0 GD 4 GF 4 GA
Canada - 1 pts -2 GD 6 GF 6 GA

Canada 2 – 3 Jamaica [Berner, Gbeke; Fuller x2, Euell]
Curacao 1 – 0 Costa Rica [Martina]

Canada 0 – 1 Curacao [Benschop]
Costa Rica 2 – 1 Jamaica [C. Davis OG, Andy Furtado; J. Williams]

Costa Rica 2 – 2 Canada [Saborio, Sirias; Marcel de Jong x2]
Jamaica 2 – 1 Curacao [Lisbie x2; Deul]

Group C

Honduras - 6 pts +4 GD 10 GF 6 GA
El Salvador - 6 pts -2 GD 5 GF 7 GA
Suriname - 4 pts +1 GD 6 GF 5 GA
Guadeloupe - 1 pts -3 GD 3 GF 6 GA

Guadeloupe 1 – 2 Honduras [Antoine-Curier; Walter Martinez x2]
El Salvador 2 – 0 Suriname [Quintanilla, V. Turcios]

Guadeloupe 0 – 2 El Salvador [A. Alvarez, R. Zelaya]
Suriname 4 – 1 Honduras [Denneboom x2, Lens x2; David Suazo]

Suriname 2 – 2 Guadeloupe [Denneboom x2; Wiltord, Saha]
Honduras 7 – 1 El Salvador [David Suazo x3, Walter Martinez x3, Pavon; D. Alas]

Quarterfinals

Jamaica 5 – 2 El Salvador [Fuller x3, Lisbie, A. Williams; Magico Gonzalez, R. Zelaya]
United States 2 – 0 Curacao [Eddie Johnson x2]

Semifinals

Panama 4 – 4 United States [Bonaga, L. Tejada, Blas Perez, G. Gomez - OT; C. Davies x2 - 1OT, Casey, Donovan] (3-2 PKs)
Honduras 1 – 2 Jamaica [Leon - OT; Hayles - OT, Kelly - OT]