Cuba at the CONCACAF Gold Cup

Defender Jorge Luis Clavelo represented Cuba at four CONCACAF Gold Cups, here as captain before the quarter-final against the United States in 2015.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is North America's major tournament in senior men's football and determines the continental champion. Until 1989, the tournament was known as CONCACAF Championship. It is currently held every two years. From 1996 to 2005, nations from other confederations have regularly joined the tournament as invitees. In earlier editions, the continental championship was held in different countries, but since the inception of the Gold Cup in 1991, the United States are constant hosts or co-hosts.

From 1973 to 1989, the tournament doubled as the confederation's World Cup qualification. CONCACAF's representative team at the FIFA Confederations Cup was decided by a play-off between the winners of the last two tournament editions in 2015 via the CONCACAF Cup, but was then discontinued along with the Confederations Cup.

Since the inaugural tournament in 1963, the Gold Cup was held 27 times and has been won by seven different nations, most often by Mexico (12 titles).

Cuba have participated in the continental championship twelve times, but only won five out of their 40 matches, never more than one at a single tournament. Their best position was a fourth place in 1971. They rank 14th in the tournament's all-time table, but have the worst goal difference out of all 31 teams (−91).

Record at the CONCACAF Championship/Gold Cup

CONCACAF Championship
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1963	Did not enter
1965	Withdrew
1967	Did not qualify
1969	Did not enter
1971	Fourth place	4th	5	1	2	2	5	7
1973	Did not enter
1977	Did not qualify
1981	Final Round	5th	5	1	2	2	4	8
1985	Did not enter
1989	Did not qualify
CONCACAF Gold Cup
1991	Withdrew
1993	Did not enter
1996	Did not qualify
1998	Group stage	10th	2	0	0	2	2	10
2000	Did not qualify
2002	Group stage	11th	2	0	1	1	0	1
2003	Quarter-finals	8th	3	1	0	2	2	8
2005	Group stage	12th	3	0	0	3	3	9
2007	Group stage	12th	3	0	1	2	3	9
2009	Withdrew
2011	Group stage	12th	3	0	0	3	1	16
2013	Quarter-finals	8th	4	1	0	3	6	13
2015	Quarter-finals	8th	4	1	0	3	1	14
2017	Did not qualify
2019	Group stage	16th	3	0	0	3	0	17
2021	Withdrew
2023	Group stage	15th	3	0	0	3	3	9
2025	Did not qualify
Total	12/28	14/31	40	5	6	29	30	121

Match overview

Tournament	Round	Opponent	Score	Venue
1971	Final round	Costa Rica	0–3	Port of Spain
		Honduras	3–1
		Mexico	0–1
		Trinidad and Tobago	2–2
		Haiti	0–0
1981	Final round	Mexico	0–4	Tegucigalpa
		Honduras	0–2
		El Salvador	0–0
		Haiti	2–0
		Canada	2–2
1998	Group stage	United States	0–3	Oakland
		Costa Rica	2–7
2002	Group stage	United States	0–1	Pasadena
		South Korea	0–0
2003	Group stage	Canada	2–0	Foxboro
		Costa Rica	0–3
	Quarter-finals	United States	0–5
2005	Group stage	United States	1–4	Seattle
		Costa Rica	1–3
		Canada	1–2	Foxboro
2007	Group stage	Mexico	1–2	East Rutherford
		Panama	2–2
		Honduras	0–5	Houston
2011	Group stage	Costa Rica	0–5	Arlington
		Mexico	0–5	Charlotte
		El Salvador	1–6	Chicago
2013	Group stage	Costa Rica	0–3	Portland
		United States	1–4	Sandy
		Belize	4–0	East Hartford
	Quarter-finals	Panama	1–6	Atlanta
2015	Group stage	Mexico	0–6	Chicago
		Trinidad and Tobago	0–2	Glendale
		Guatemala	1–0	Charlotte
	Quarter-finals	United States	0–6	Baltimore
2019	Group stage	Mexico	0–7	Pasadena
		Martinique	0–3	Denver
		Canada	0–7	Charlotte
2023	Group stage	Guatemala	0–1	Fort Lauderdale
		Guadeloupe	1–4	Houston
		Canada	2–4

Record by opponent

CONCACAF Championship/Gold Cup matches (by team)
Opponent	W	D	L	Pld	GF	GA
Belize	1	0	0	1	4	0
Canada	1	1	3	5	7	15
Costa Rica	0	0	6	6	3	24
El Salvador	0	1	1	2	1	6
Guadeloupe	0	0	1	1	1	4
Guatemala	1	0	1	2	1	1
Haiti	1	1	0	2	2	0
Honduras	1	0	2	3	3	8
Martinique	0	0	1	1	0	3
Mexico	0	0	6	6	1	25
Panama	0	1	1	2	3	8
South Korea	0	1	0	1	0	0
Trinidad and Tobago	0	1	1	2	2	4
United States	0	0	6	6	2	23

Defections to the United States

The Gold Cups on US-American soil allowed the Cuban players to get visas for the duration of the tournament. The wet feet, dry feet policy established in 1995 essentially allowed Cuban refugees in the United States to qualify for permanent resident status. The policy and the dream of making a career as a professional footballer, at a much higher level than the Cuban top division made a defection to the United States an attractive option, which some of them took. Until the policy's cessation in 2017, the following Cuban internationals defected during the tournament:

• Rey Ángel Martínez and Alberto Delgado ^[1] in 2002.
• Maykel Galindo ^[2] in 2005.
• Osvaldo Alonso ^[3] and Lester Moré ^[4] in 2007.
• Yosniel Mesa in 2011.
• Keyler García, ^[5] Arael Argüellez, ^[6] Darío Suárez ^[7] and Ariel Martínez ^[8] in 2015.

See also

• Cuba at the FIFA World Cup

References

1. "Cuban defectors a first for MLS". Miami Herald. 14 June 2004. Archived from the original on 14 June 2006. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
2. "Cuban soccer stars Pedro Faife and Reynier Alcantara defect to America". nydailynews.com. 11 October 2008. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
3. "'Special edge' for Cuban defector Alonso". USAToday.com. 30 June 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
4. "Charleston Battery signs Cuban striker Lester Moré". oursportscentral.com. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
5. "Keilen García desertó de la selección de Cuba". futbol.univision.com. 8 July 2015. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
6. "Deserta otro jugador cubano en Chicago" (in Spanish). Univision (Miami). 10 July 2015. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
7. "2 Cuban players believed to have defected before match at BofA stadium Dario Suarez and Arichel Hernandez were both no-shows before match". Charlotte Observer. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
8. "Gold Cup: Striker Ariel Martinez becomes the fourth player to defect from Cuba". 18 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.