2014 Copa Centroamericana


The 2014 Copa Centroamericana was the 13th Copa Centroamericana, the regional championship for men's national association football teams in Central America. It was organized by the Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol or UNCAF, and took place in the United States.

Overview

In January 2013, UNCAF tentatively announced that the competition would be hosted in the United States, specifically California and Texas. Eduardo Li, the President of the Costa Rican FA and Vice-President of UNCAF said that the competition is to celebrate 25 years of UNCAF. The announcement became official in January 2014, and it was announced that the competition would take place in September 2014.
Following the announcement, UNCAF President Rafael Tinocco said that September 2014 was chosen because "September is the month of independence" and that there are nine days in September on the FIFA International Match Calendar which would allow national associations to choose their first choice players. Tinocco also stated that the competition would be hosted outside of the Central American region, and hosted in United States due to the "money factor".
The top four teams would qualify for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The fifth place team would advance to a play-off against the fifth place team from the 2014 Caribbean Cup tournament to determine which other nation will qualify for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup. This is the first time that the two overall fifth-placed teams compete to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, previously five teams from Central America and four from the Caribbean have qualified for the Confederation's competition.
The winner of the tournament would qualify for the Copa América Centenario, a 16-team tournament of CONMEBOL and CONCACAF national teams to be held in the United States in 2016.

FIFA calendar issue

Two of the four competition dates fall outside of the FIFA International Match Calendar's "international window" for September 2014. Any two dates between 1 and 9 September at least three days apart were allocated as possible fixture dates in the window, meaning that the fixtures that took place on 3 and 7 September would be able to have a first choice selection available as clubs would be unable to reject call-ups, while the fixtures that took place on 10 and 13 September would require the players' clubs to agree that players could participate.

Teams

All seven UNCAF member national teams participated in the tournament.
TeamUNCAF Nations Cup /
Copa Centroamericana
appearances		Previous best performanceFIFA Ranking
at start of event
10thFourth Place 162
13thChampion 15
13thThird Place 127
12thChampion 134
13thChampion 43
13thFifth Place 175
12thChampion 63

Bold indicates that the corresponding team was hosting the event.

Venues

In May and June 2014, UNCAF announced that the following venues would host the tournament:
WashingtonDallasHoustonLos Angeles
RFK Memorial StadiumCotton BowlBBVA Compass StadiumLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Capacity: 19,467†Capacity: 92,100Capacity: 22,000Capacity: 93,607

Squads

Officials

The following officials were selected for the tournament:
;Referees
;Assistant referees
The draw for the group stage was made on 29 January 2014. The schedule was announced on 17 July 2014. Changes to the schedule were made on 18 August.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points. If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  1. Greater number of points in matches between the tied teams.
  2. Greater goal difference in matches between the tied teams.
  3. Greater number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams.
  4. Greater goal difference in all group matches.
  5. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches.
  6. Drawing of lots.
Legend
Group winners advance to the final and qualify for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup
Group runners-up advance to the [|third place match] and qualify for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup
Group third-placed teams advance to the [|fifth place match]

Group A

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Group B

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Final stage

In the final stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, the match is determined by a penalty shoot-out.

Fifth place match

advanced to represent the Central American Football Union at the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification play-off, where they will play against French Guiana, the 2014 Caribbean Cup fifth-placed team. The winner of the play-off will qualify for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Third place match

Final

qualified for the Copa América Centenario.

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
AwardWinner
Golden Ball Marco Pappa
Golden Boot Marco Pappa
Golden Glove Jaime Penedo
Fair Play
Man of the Match – Final Bryan Ruiz

Goalscorers

;4 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;Own goals