Tournament details | |
---|---|
Host country | Honduras |
Dates | January 22 - February 1 |
Teams | 7 (from 1 sub-confederation) |
Venue(s) | 1 (in 1 host city) |
Final positions | |
Champions | Panama (1st title) |
Runners-up | Costa Rica |
Third place | Honduras |
Fourth place | El Salvador |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 14 |
Goals scored | 32 (2.29 per match) |
Attendance | 114,000 (8,143 per match) |
Top scorer(s) |
Andy Furtado (3 goals) |
Best player | Keylor Navas |
The UNCAF Nations Cup 2009 was the tenth edition of the UNCAF Nations Cup, the biennial football (soccer) tournament for the CONCACAF-affiliated national teams of Central America. The first five places qualified for the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The event was going to take place in Panama City, Panama between January 22 and February 1, 2009, but the Panamanian FA announced that they would not host the event due to not having an adequate stadium available for the time period of the tournament. The alternative hosts were Honduras and Guatemala. Honduras submitted an official replacement bid on November 12, and after some consideration it was moved to Honduras. All games were played in Estadio Tiburcio Carías Andino in Tegucigalpa. The tournament was sponsored by Digicel. On 1 February 2009 Panama won the tournament, the first UNCAF Nations Cup win in the country's history.
All seven UNCAF members participated in the tournament:
The group stage draw took place on December 9, 2008 in Guatemala City. The reigning champions, Costa Rica, and the hosts, Honduras, were automatically drawn as top seed in their respective groups. Costa Rica was paired with Panama and Guatemala, the first two runners-up from the UNCAF Nations Cup 2007. The remaining teams – El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Belize – were drawn into the same group as Honduras.