Haiti at the CONCACAF Gold Cup

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).

Haiti have won the tournament once, as hosts in 1973. That the success was not due to the home advantage alone, but had shown good results at the previous and following editions (1971 and 1977), where they each ended up as runners-up on both occasions. They are currently ranked tenth in the tournament's all-time table.

Overall record

CONCACAF Championship & Gold Cup record Qualification record
Year Result Position Pld W D* L GF GA Squad Pld W D L GF GA
El Salvador 1963 Did not qualify 2 0 0 2 1 4
Guatemala 1965 Sixth place 6th 5 0 1 4 3 13 Squad Qualified automatically
Honduras 1967 Fifth place 5th 5 1 0 4 5 9 Squad 4 3 1 0 7 3
Costa Rica 1969 Disqualified 2 2 0 0 3 0
Trinidad and Tobago 1971 Runners-up 2nd 5 2 3 0 9 1 Squad Qualified automatically
Haiti 1973 Champions 1st 5 4 0 1 8 3 Squad 2 2 0 0 12 0
Mexico 1977 Runners-up 2nd 5 3 1 1 6 6 Squad 7 5 2 0 19 3
Honduras 1981 Sixth place 6th 5 0 2 3 2 9 Squad 4 2 1 1 4 2
1985 Group stage 9th 4 0 0 4 0 9 Squad 2 1 0 1 5 2
1989 Did not enter Did not enter
United States 1991 Did not qualify 2 1 1 0 4 3
Mexico United States 1993 Did not enter Did not enter
United States 1996
United States 1998 Withdrew Withdrew
United States 2000 Group stage 11th 2 0 1 1 1 4 Squad 10 6 1 3 22 11
United States 2002 Quarter-finals 7th 3 1 0 2 3 4 Squad 8 5 2 1 30 9
Mexico United States 2003 Did not qualify 5 3 0 2 7 6
United States 2005 5 3 0 2 7 6
United States 2007 Group stage 10th 3 0 2 1 2 4 Squad 13 8 1 4 27 12
United States 2009 Quarter-finals 8th 4 1 1 2 4 7 Squad 3 1 1 1 4 4
United States 2011 Did not qualify 3 1 1 1 3 5
United States 2013 Group stage 9th 3 1 0 2 2 3 Squad 11 8 1 2 19 5
Canada United States 2015 Quarter-finals 6th 4 1 1 2 2 3 Squad 7 3 3 1 13 9
United States 2017 Did not qualify 6 4 0 2 15 14
Costa Rica Jamaica United States 2019 Semi-finals 3rd 5 4 0 1 9 5 Squad 4 4 0 0 19 2
United States 2021 Group stage 11th 3 1 0 2 3 6 Squad 6 2 3 2 13 6
Canada United States 2023 Group stage 12th 3 1 0 2 4 6 Squad 6 5 1 0 22 5
Total 1 Title 16/27 64 20 12 32 63 92 112 69 19 25 256 111

Match overview

1973 CONCACAF Championship

1973 was the first of five times where the tournament was played as the final round of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers. It was also the first time this round was played as a "Hexagonal" – six times playing each other in a round-robin. This format has established itself in CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers since then.

The Haitian home tournament was held from November 29th to December 18th, 1973. The title holders and favorites from Mexico started off with two draws, against Guatemala and Honduras, and only won their third match against the Netherlands Antilles. Haiti on the other hand kept winning and after their fourth consecutive victory, a 2–1 over Guatemala with two goals by Emmanuel Sanon, the tournament standings were as follows:

Ranking as of 13 December 1973
Rank Team Pld GF GA Pts
1  Haiti 4 8 2 8
2  Mexico 3 9 1 4
3  Honduras 4 5 5 4
4  Trinidad and Tobago 3 3 4 2
5  Guatemala 4 3 5 2
6  Netherlands Antilles 4 3 14 2

With Mexico being a match and four points down, they would have had to win their next match, and then defeat Haiti in an all-or-nothing final on the last day. However, Mexico surprisingly lost 0–4 to Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico's highest defeat ever at a continental championship as of 2017, and Haiti was certain to win the tournament and qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup.

Haiti lost their final match 0–1 to Mexico, with the end table as follows:

Final Ranking
Rank Team Pld GF GA Pts
1  Haiti 5 8 3 8
2  Trinidad and Tobago 5 11 4 6
3  Mexico 5 10 5 6
4  Honduras 5 6 6 5
5  Guatemala 5 4 6 3
6  Netherlands Antilles 5 3 18 2

See also

References