Copa Centroamericana

Copa Centroamericana

250px The current Copa Centroamericana official logo, in use since 2011
Founded	February 19, 1991
Region	Central America (UNCAF)
Number of teams	7
Current champions	Costa Rica (8th time)
Most successful team(s)	Costa Rica (8 titles)
Website	Official website
2016 Copa Centroamericana

The Copa Centroamericana ([ˈkopa sentɾoameɾiˈkana], Spanish for "Central American Cup") is the main association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (UNCAF), the sport's Central American governing body. Held every two years since 1991, in the years before and after the FIFA World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UNCAF Nations Cup (Spanish: Copa de Naciones de la UNCAF), changing to the current name in 2011.

The tournament consists of two stages. In the group round of the tournament finals, the seven teams competed in two round-robin groups, one of four teams and the other of three, for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These four teams advanced to the semifinal stage of the final round, where the winners advance into the final while the losers dispute a third-place match. The fifth-place match is disputed between the third-ranked teams of the group stage. Depending on their performance in the Copa Centroamericana, teams then go on to participate in other competitions, such as the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa América.

The 12 Central American Championship tournaments have been won by four different national teams: Costa Rica are the most successful national team of the competition with eight victories. Honduras have won three titles. Guatemala and Panama have won one title each. To date, Costa Rica and Honduras are the only sides in history to have won consecutive titles, with the former winning an unprecedented three titles in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

The most recent championship, hosted by the United States, was won by Costa Rica who beat Guatemala 2–1 at the final in Los Angeles. The next two Copa Centroamericana competitions will be held in 2016 and 2017.

History

Due to the success of the Costa Rica national football team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the approaching 1994 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in the United States, the CONCACAF Congress in Kingston, Jamaica decided to stage a continental championship itself; the CONCACAF Gold Cup was ratified on August 18, 1990. Costa Rica were given a bye into the competition due to its first place placing at the 1989 CONCACAF Championship, which also served as a qualification phase for the World Cup hosted by Italy. However, due to mainly economic reasons, the United States were chosen as the venue for the continental tournament.

During that same conference, the qualification format for the Central American associations were also decided on. The final qualification round of the Central American zone had two bids: the United States and Costa Rica. Costa Rica, now three-time CONCACAF champions and to celebrate their anniversary of the nation's World Cup performance by its team, was named by CONCACAF and UNCAF as the host country of the inaugural UNCAF Nations Cup tournament on February 19, 1991.

Results

Year	Host	Final			Third place match
		Champion	Score	Runner-Up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1991	Costa Rica	Costa Rica		Honduras	Guatemala		El Salvador
1993	Honduras	Honduras		Costa Rica	Panama		El Salvador
1995	El Salvador	Honduras	3 – 0	Guatemala	El Salvador	2 – 1	Costa Rica
1997	Guatemala	Costa Rica		Guatemala	El Salvador		Honduras
1999	Costa Rica	Costa Rica		Guatemala	Honduras		El Salvador
2001	Honduras	Guatemala		Costa Rica	El Salvador		Panama
2003	Panama	Costa Rica		Guatemala	El Salvador		Honduras
2005	Guatemala	Costa Rica	1 – 1 7–6 pen.	Honduras	Guatemala	3 – 0	Panama
2007	El Salvador	Costa Rica	1 – 1 4–1 pen.	Panama	Guatemala	1 – 0	El Salvador
2009	Honduras	Panama	0 – 0 5–3 pen.	Costa Rica	Honduras	1 – 0	El Salvador
2011	Panama	Honduras	2 – 1	Costa Rica	Panama	0 – 0 5–4 pen.	El Salvador
2013	Costa Rica	Costa Rica	1 – 0	Honduras	El Salvador	1 – 0	Belize
2014	United States	Costa Rica	2 – 1	Guatemala	Panama	1 – 0	El Salvador

1. ^ Placings decided on a round-robin basis.

Teams reaching the top four

Team	Titles	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
Costa Rica	8 (1991*, 1997, 1999*, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013*, 2014)	4 (1993, 2001, 2009, 2011)	—	1 (1995)
Honduras	3 (1993*, 1995, 2011)	3 (1991, 2005, 2013)	2 (1999, 2009)	2 (1997, 2003)
Guatemala	1 (2001)	5 (1995, 1997*, 1999, 2003, 2014)	3 (1991, 2005, 2007)	—
Panama	1 (2009)	1 (2007)	3 (1993, 2011*, 2014)	2 (2001, 2005)
El Salvador	—	—	5 (1995*, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2013)	7 (1991, 1993, 1999, 2007*, 2009, 2011, 2014)
Belize	—	—	—	1 (2013)
Nicaragua	—	—	—	—

* Hosts

Records and Statistics

Main article: Copa Centroamericana records

All Time Table Copa Centroamericana

From 1991–2014

Last updated September 16, 2014

Pos.	Team	P	W	T	L	F	A	D	Points
1	Costa Rica	56	35	13	8	105	36	+69	118
2	Honduras	55	30	11	14	101	46	+55	101
3	Guatemala	51	23	14	14	63	48	+15	83
4	El Salvador	58	20	13	25	57	68	–11	73
5	Panama	47	18	12	17	52	50	+2	66
6	Nicaragua	39	4	4	31	24	105	–81	16
7	Belize	28	1	5	22	18	71	–53	8

External links

• UNCAF's official site for the Copa Centroamericana (Spanish)
• CONCACAF's official site for the Copa Centroamericana (English) (Spanish)