The 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup was the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup, an international women's soccer competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF. The tournament was contested by twelve teams from February 20 to March 10, 2024 in the United States.[1] Eight CONCACAF national teams qualified for the tournament, joined by four guest teams from CONMEBOL.[2][3]
The hosts United States won the inaugural W Gold Cup title by defeating Brazil in the final. The match was played at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California on March 10.[4]
On December 10, 2020, the CONCACAF Council approved the structure and calendar of the competition. The qualification competition, known as the "Road to Concacaf W Gold Cup", began with the group stage, featuring 33 women's national teams of CONCACAF split into three leagues (A, B and C). Each league featured three groups, containing three teams each in League A, and four teams each in Leagues B and C. The teams in each group played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The top three teams in League A qualified directly for the W Gold Cup. The group runners-up of League A and the League B group winners participated in a play-in in April 2024 to compete for the final three spots at the W Gold Cup. The two CONCACAF women's national teams that qualified for the Summer Olympics in 2024 (the United States and Canada) received a bye directly to the W Gold Cup, skipping qualification.[3]
The final tournament was held from February 20 to March 10, 2024. Originally, CONCACAF announced the tournament would be played in June 2024, the month prior to the start of the 2024 Olympic women's soccer tournament,[2] but on March 8, 2023, announced it would be moved up to February and March.[1] The W Gold Cup featured twelve teams, including the two teams that qualified for the Summer Olympics, the six teams that qualified from the group stage and play-in, and four guest national teams. The twelve teams were split into three groups of four that competed in a single round-robin. Eight teams, the top two teams of each group and the two-best third-placed teams, advanced to the knockout stage. The knockout stage consisted of quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final to determine the champion.[2]
On January 27, 2023, the United States were confirmed as the tournament hosts. In addition, the top four teams from CONMEBOL's 2022 Copa América Femenina were confirmed as guests for the tournament.[5]
The host cities and stadiums were announced on November 29, 2023.
The league stage of qualification took place in September through December 2023, while the play-in took place in February 2024.[2]
Notes
The final draw for the tournament took place on December 11, 2023 in Miami, Florida, United States at 7:00 p.m. EST.[7]
Notes
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, the following criteria were used to determine the ranking:[8]: 24
Starting from the quarter-finals, the teams played a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:[8]: 25
The top two teams from each group and the two best third-place teams advanced to the quarter-finals. The bracket was decided by means of a ranking based on the standings of the eight teams in the group stage, as follows: 1−8, 2−7, 3−6, 4−5.
The following players and team earned top distinctions:[11]
There were 84 goals scored in 25 matches, for an average of 3.36 goals per match.
6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Dalila Ippólito Maricel Pereyra
Adriana Antônia Beatriz Debinha Duda Santos Rafaelle Vitória Yaya.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Canada_(Pantone).svg.png){kind=small}
Kadeisha Buchanan Cloé Lacasse Evelyne Viens
Manuela Vanegas
Samantha Fisher Danielle Fuentes
Rebeca Bernal Jasmine Casarez Nicolette Hernández Diana Ordóñez
Natalia Mills
Camila Barbosa Lice Chamorro Rebeca Fernández
Madison Cox Danielle Marcano
Sophia Smith Lynn Williams1 own goal
Carina Baltrip-Reyes (against Colombia)Source: CONCACAF
In the United States, games were broadcast in English by CBS Sports through the Paramount+ streaming service.[13] In Spanish, games were broadcast by ESPN Deportes and ESPN+.[14] In Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America (including Brazil), the broadcast rights were held by ESPN.[13] In India, games were streamed live by Fancode. In Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), games were broadcast by Viaplay.
The following were announced as founding partners of the tournament:
Vantaggio by Molten was used as the tournament’s official match ball.
"Woke Up This Morning" by British band A3 served as the main official song of the tournament, using a edited version of the Chosen One Mix, which censored the “got yourself a gun” lyrics.
"Vamos" by Latin American singers Sofía Castro, Fiamma, Alexis Gomez and Pitizion served as the official Spanish-language song of the tournament. They also performed the song live at the final match.
"Natural Born Winners" by American musician Ziggy Sullivin, "Run" by Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace and "One in a Million" by Swedish singer-songwriter Bosson served as secondary theme songs of the tournament, the latter being used for the final match.
On March 6, before the semi-final match between Canada and the United States, heavy torrential rain[15] rendered the pitch at the Snapdragon Stadium extremely muddy and waterclogged, but the referee Katia García neither suspended nor abandoned the match.[16] ESPN reached out to the CONCACAF federation, which responded that the referee alone would decide if the pitch was unplayable.[17] However, during an interview with CBS, Christina Unkel, a retired USSF referee, implied that the referee would need to consult with the match commissioner.[18] Unkel further stated that García has attempted to show the match commissioner, Monique André of Haïti,[19] that the pitch was indeed unplayable.[18][17] In the 48th minute of the match, Jessie Fleming of Canada was tripped by Tierna Davidson of the United States inside the United States' penalty area, but the referee neither gave Canada a penalty nor consulted the VAR.[20][21]
after torrential rain fell in the build up
Canada captain Jessie Fleming appealed unsuccessfully for a penalty after going down in the 48th minute, seemingly after U.S. defender Tierna Davidson made contact in the penalty box.
Canada probably should have received a penalty kick shortly after halftime, when U.S. defender Tierna Davidson appeared to step on Jessie Fleming's foot as the Canadian midfielder pursued the ball just inside the box. There was no call and no stoppage for video review.
