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 7 July 2013 at the Rose Bowl, and ended with the final on 28 July 2013 at Soldier Field, with the United States defeating Panama 1–0. In this edition of the Gold Cup, Mexico participated with an alternative squad due to the main players competing at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup prior to the Gold Cup. Despite not playing  with their full squad, they successfully reached the semi-finals where they lost to eventual runners-up Panama with a score of 1–2. United States won the tournament, which qualified them for a play-off match against the champions of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup, to decide which team would represent CONCACAF in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. The playoff was played in a single match held on 10 October 2015, which Mexico won 3–2. Qualified teams. A total of 12 teams qualified for the tournament. Three berths were allocated to North America, five to Central America, and  four to the Caribbean. Venues. Thirty venues across the United States participated in the start of the stadium selection process with Soccer United Marketing, the event partner for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. CONCACAF announced the 13 host cities and venues for the tournament on 23 January 2013. Each venue will host two matches, with the final being held at Chicago's Soldier Field: Squads. Each team can register a squad of 23 players; 3 of them must be goalkeepers. Any team that qualifies for the knockout stage may replace up to four players in the squad after completion of the  group stage, where the new players must come from a provisional list of 35 players chosen before the tournament. Match officials. Each CONCACAF federation submitted a list of match officials to the CONCACAF Referee's Commission for the 2013 Gold Cup Tournament. Group stage. CONCACAF announced the groups, where the twelve teams were divided into three groups of four teams, and the match schedule for the 2013 Gold Cup on 13 March 2013. In the group stage, if two or more teams are equal on points (including among third-placed teams in different groups), the ranking of teams will be  determined as follows: This was changed from previous tournaments, where head-to-head record was used as the primary tiebreaker. All times given are US Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4) Knockout stage. In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time shall be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by penalty shoot-out to determine the winners. Official song. "Cups" by actress Anna Kendrick (from the film "Pitch Perfect") is the official song of the tournament. Marketing. In December 2012, Traffic Sports USA were awarded the rights  to manage the marketing of the tournament, which continued a relationship between CONCACAF and the parent company Traffic Sports Marketing. In 2015, this business deal led to charges in the 2015 FIFA corruption case, which identified bribes given from top Traffic officials to CONCACAF chairman, Jeffrey Webb.