The 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 11th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, and the 21st CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's 50 years of existence. The United States was the host nation.
The competition started on June 5, 2011, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, and ended with the final on June 25, 2011, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, with Mexico beating the United States 4–2.
This competition was the fifth tournament without guests from other confederations. Mexico won their sixth Gold Cup, and ninth CONCACAF Championship overall. It was the third consecutive Gold Cup final and second consecutive win also.
As winner of the tournament, Mexico qualified for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil as the representative from CONCACAF.
Venues The set of thirteen venues – the same number as the 2009 Gold Cup – was announced on December 16, 2010. Each stadium hosted a doubleheader, except the Rose Bowl which hosted the final.
Group stage Arlington Carson Detroit Charlotte Miami Cowboys Stadium The Home Depot Center Ford Field Bank of America Stadium FIU Stadium Capacity: 80,000 Capacity: 27,000 Capacity: 65,000 Capacity: 73,778 Capacity: 18,000 June 5 June 6 June 7 June 9 June 10 Tampa Chicago Harrison Kansas City Raymond James Stadium Soldier Field Red Bull Arena Livestrong Sporting Park Capacity: 68,857 Capacity: 61,500 Capacity: 25,189 Capacity: 18,500 June 11 June 12 June 13 June 14 Knockout stage Quarterfinals Semifinals Final East Rutherford Washington, D.C. Houston Pasadena New Meadowlands Stadium RFK Stadium Reliant Stadium Rose Bowl Capacity: 82,566 Capacity: 45,596 Capacity: 71,500 Capacity: 91,136 June 18 June 19 June 22 June 25
Teams
Qualification
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.
TeamQualificationAppearancesLast appearance 2022 Previous best performanceFIFA RankingNorth American zone Automatic 11th 2009 Champion (1991, 2002, 2005, 2007) 22 (TH) Automatic 11th 2009 Champions (1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009) 28 Automatic 10th 2009 Champions (2000) 77Caribbean zone qualified through the 2010 Caribbean Cup Winners 8th 2009 Third Place (1993) 55 Runners-up 3rd 2009 Semifinals (2007) N/A Third Place 6th 2007 Quarterfinals (2003) 81 Fourth Place 2nd 2009 Group stage (2009) N/ACentral American zone qualified through the 2011 Copa Centroamericana Winners 10th 2009 Runners-up (1991) 43 Runners-up 10th 2009 Runners-up (2002) 56 Third Place 5th 2009 Runners-up (2005) 67 Fourth Place 7th 2009 Quarterfinals (2002, 2003) 87 Fifth Place 9th 2007 Fourth Place (1996) 124
Squads
The 12 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 23 players; only players in these squads were eligible to take part in the tournament.
Suspension of Mexican players On June 9, 2011, the names of five Mexican players were released announcing Christian Bermúdez, Édgar Dueñas, Guillermo Ochoa, Francisco Javier Rodríguez and Sinha, all tested positive for clenbuterol prior to the start of the 2011 Gold Cup. They were withdrawn from the squad a few days after their June 5 Gold Cup starting match and 5-0 win against El Salvador. Mexican officials said they believed the positive tests were caused by eating meat tainted with the drug. CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer said a meeting of the confederation's national teams committee, which also serves as the organizing committee of the Gold Cup, was to be convened on June 10 to consider the situation, including possibly allowing Mexico to replace the five players. However, the meeting was postponed to allow for more information to be gathered. The Mexican Football Federation said on June 14 that the "B" samples of those five involving players were negative. The CONCACAF Gold Cup Organizing Committee announced on June 19 that Mexico would be allowed to replace the suspended players. The replacement players were, Luis Ernesto Michel, Héctor Reynoso, Paul Aguilar, Marco Fabián, and Hiram Mier. All players were later acquitted by the Mexican Football Federation and the results were blamed on contamination of meat, with the ingestion of clenbuterol considered non-intentional. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to request a ban. On October 12, 2011, WADA withdrew the request after the full file was available for them.
El Salvador match fixing On September 20, 2013, the Salvadoran Football Federation banned 14 Salvadoran players for life due to their involvement with match fixing while playing with the El Salvador national team over the previous two years, including 8 players (Dennis Alas, Luis Anaya, Marvin González, Reynaldo Hernández, Miguel Montes, Dagoberto Portillo, Osael Romero, and Ramón Sánchez), from El Salvador's 5–0 loss to Mexico on June 5, 2011 Gold Cup match.
Group stage All times are U.S. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4) (local times in parentheses)
Group A
Group B
Group C
Ranking of third-placed teams
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Final
Statistics Goalscorers
Awards The following Gold Cup awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: the Golden Boot (top scorer), Golden Ball (best overall player) and Golden Glove (best goalkeeper).
Golden Ball Javier Hernández Golden Boot Javier Hernández7 goalsGolden Glove Noel ValladaresFair Play Trophy
All-Tournament Team The All-Tournament Team was selected by the CONCACAF Technical Study Group.
Goalkeeper Defenders Midfielders Forwards Noel Valladares Carlos Salcido Rafael Márquez Héctor Moreno Steve Cherundolo Pablo Barrera Andrés Guardado Giovani dos Santos Michael Bradley Javier Hernández Clint Dempsey
Best Saves RankPlayerOpponent1 Tim Howard2 Alfredo Talavera3 Noel Valladares4 Noel Valladares5 Keylor Navas6 Jaime Penedo7 Miguel Montes8 Dennis Marshall9 Ricardo Jérez10 Franck Grandel
Best Goals RankPlayerOpponent1 Giovani dos Santos2 Landon Donovan3 Andrés Guardado4 Javier Hernández5 Jozy Altidore6 Rodolfo Zelaya7 Joel Campbell8 Omar Daley9 Carlos Ruiz10 Pablo Barrera
References
External links