The CONCACAF Cup (officially the CONCACAF Cup presented by Scotiabank for sponsorship reasons) was an international

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

play-off match to determine

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

's entry into the

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup was the tenth and final edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, a quadrennial international men's Association football, football tournament organised by FIFA. It was held in Russia, from 17 June to 2 July 2017, ...

. The

2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 12th CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 22nd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The United States was the host nation. The competition began on July 7, 2013, at the ...

winner

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

played against the

2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 23rd CONCACAF regional championship overall in the organization's fifty-four years of existence. It was held in the United States, with two matches bei ...

winner

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

on October 10, 2015, at the Rose Bowl in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

, United States. CONCACAF decided that its representative team in the Confederations Cup would be defined in a single match, in which an official title would also be awarded. Mexico won the match 3–2 after

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

, winning the title and also qualifying for the

Background

Even though the

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup () is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament is held every two ...

takes place on a biennial basis, under previous guidelines prior to 2013, only the champions of the Gold Cup that was held two years before the

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

qualified as CONCACAF's representative. The decision to face the champions of the two previous editions was made to give the same importance to each edition of the Gold Cup. CONCACAF announced the introduction of a playoff and super cup match on April 5, 2013, where a trophy would also be awarded. Starting from the

, the CONCACAF representative would be decided by a playoff between the two CONCACAF Gold Cup champions prior to the Confederations Cup. Then CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb stated this "will allow the champion of every single Gold Cup edition to have the same competitive opportunity to represent CONCACAF in the worldwide competition." In the case where the same national team wins both Gold Cup editions, the playoff would not be played and the team qualifies directly to the Confederations Cup. Following CONCACAF's decision to end their affiliation with Traffic Sports USA due to the

2015 FIFA corruption case In 2015, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach so ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

's sister company Soccer United Marketing was chosen as commercial representative for the match.

Qualification

— Qualified as

champions, after beating

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

1–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

on July 28, 2013. *

— Qualified as

champions, after beating

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

3–1 in the

on July 26, 2015.

Format

CONCACAF originally announced on July 23, 2015, that the playoff would be played as a single match on October 9, 2015, in the

. After the conclusion of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup on July 26, CONCACAF announced the Rose Bowl in

as the venue. The date was later amended to October 10 in order "to allow fans in attendance to enjoy a day-long of festivities, including Futbol Fiesta, a free, interactive fan zone outside the Rose Bowl."

Ticketing

On August 27, 2015, CONCACAF announced the ticket allocation process for the match. Both the

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of soccer in the United States. It is a full member of FIFA and governs American soccer ...

and the

Mexican Football Federation The Mexican Football Federation (), abbreviated as FMF is the official governing body of football in Mexico. It administers the men's and women's national teams with all its youth teams, the national teams of futsal and beach soccer, Liga MX wit ...

received 30% of the tickets each, which was distributed through supporter groups. Another 30% was sold through a lottery where the general public could apply. The final 10% was given to local teams and sponsors. This system was to prevent the crowd being dominated by either team's supporters despite being on U.S. soil similar to previous Gold Cup finals.

Squads

Each team could select up to 23 players for their squads. On September 15, 2015, CONCACAF announced the provisional team lists. The final 23-player squads were announced by CONCACAF on October 5, 2015.

Mexico

On October 1, the final squad was announced. Head coach: Ricardo Ferretti

United States

On October 3, the final squad was announced. On October 9, it was announced that Bobby Wood would replace Alejandro Bedoya due to illness. Head coach:

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (; born 30 July 1964) is a German professional Association football, football manager and former player. He played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco FC, Monaco, Tottenham Hot ...

Match summary

Abolition of the Confederations Cup

A 2019 edition was initially planned, featuring the winners of the

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Gold Cups. In November 2016, CONCACAF announced that the television rights for the 2019 edition have been sold to

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

. On July 26, 2017, with their victory in the

of the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the

ensured they would participate at a minimum in the 2019 CONCACAF Cup should they fail to win the

2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 15th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's association football, soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was p ...

. However, on March 15, 2019, FIFA announced that the Confederations Cup would be abolished, with an expanded

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

taking place instead. This therefore also meant there would be no future editions of the CONCACAF Cup.

References

External links

2015 CONCACAF Cup

CONCACAF website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Concacaf Cup 2015 CONCACAF competitions for national teams 2015–16 in CONCACAF football United States men's national soccer team matches United States at the FIFA Confederations Cup Soccer in California Mexico national football team matches 2015 in American soccer 2015–16 in Mexican football October 2015 sports events in the United States 2015 in sports in Los Angeles County, California Sports competitions in Pasadena, California Soccer competitions in Los Angeles County, California Mexico–United States soccer rivalry International association football competitions hosted by the United States 21st century in Pasadena, California Defunct international association football competitions in North America Recurring sporting events established in 2015 Recurring events disestablished in 2015 2015 establishments in North America 2015 disestablishments in North America