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CONCACAF Gold Cup 2005

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup
CONCACAF Championship
2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup logo.svg
2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup official logo
Tournament details
Host country United States
Dates July 6 – July 24
Teams 12 (from 3 confederations)
Venue(s) 7 (in 7 host cities)
Final positions
Champions  United States (3rd title)
Runners-up  Panama
Tournament statistics
Matches played 25
Goals scored 73 (2.92 per match)
Attendance 340,018 (13,601 per match)
Top scorer(s) United States DaMarcus Beasley
United States Landon Donovan
Guatemala Carlos Ruiz
Panama Luis Tejada
Honduras Wilmer Velasquez
(3 goals each)
Best player Panama Luis Tejada
Best goalkeeper Panama Jaime Penedo
Fair play award  Honduras
2003
2007

The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the eighth edition of the Gold Cup, the football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was contested in the United States in July 2005. The United States emerged victorious in the final against an upstart Panama team led by tournament MVP Luis Tejada. After regulation and 30 minutes of extra time ended scoreless, the USA won 3-1 on penalties.

For this edition, the format was switched from four groups of three teams each to the three groups of four teams. As a result, there was one more group stage game for each team, and the likelihood of teams advancing on a coin toss was much less. The top two teams from each group and the two best third-place teams would advance to the quarterfinals.

As usual for the Gold Cup, several of the top teams fielded less than their top squads, including guest teams Colombia and South Africa. Mexico and the United States were missing at least half their usual starters, and a few top name players on smaller nations (Paulo Wanchope and Amado Guevara, among others) also declined to participate. During the tournament, matches in Miami's Group A had to be postponed because of Hurricane Dennis.

Caribbean zone qualified from the 2005 Caribbean Cup:

Central American zone qualified from the UNCAF Nations Cup 2005:

North American zone qualified automatically:

Guests:

Group A (Colombia, Honduras, Panama, and Trinidad & Tobago) started with an upset 1-0 win for Panama over Colombia and a 1-1 draw between Honduras and Trinidad. The second matchday saw Honduras defeat Colombia 2-1 and Panama and Trinidad draw with two goals apiece. This left guest nation Colombia at the bottom of the table heading into the final matchday, but with the format of the tournament all the teams were still alive. Colombia beat Trinidad in the first half of a doubleheader, meaning that Panama and Honduras would be guaranteed qualification. Honduras won to finish on top of the group, leaving Panama second; Colombia finished with three points and a goal differential of 0; they would have to wait for other games to determine whether they would advance.


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