Though teams like the United States and Mexico qualify automatically for CONCACAF's Gold Cup, other countries have to enter through qualifying tournaments. For the seven nations that make up the Central American Football Union (UNCAF), that means participating in the Copa Centroamericana. That's the old UNCAF Nations Cup, getting a name change for 2011.
The UNCAF countries are: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
Though any team in the World could slip up in a qualifying format, the Copa Centroamericana has a wide safety net. Five of the seven UNCAF countries will qualify for the Gold Cup. The 2011 tournament takes place from January 14th through the 23rd with all games played at Panama City's 32,000-capacity Estadio Rommel Fernandez.
The seven countries will be divided into Group A (Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama), and Group B (Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras). One country in Group A won't advance, with the rest seeded according to how they finished in their groups for the knockout stage. The loser of the fifth-place match between the third-place finishers in Groups A and B will join the fourth-place finisher in Group A in not qualifying for the Gold Cup. Even though only that fifth-place game will determine the team that doesn't qualify, the tournament continues through the semifinal, third-place, and final stages.
As you might expect, the weaker nations are the ones not qualifying for the Gold Cup. In 2007, Belize couldn't get out of Group A and Honduras beat Nicaragua 9-1 to take the 5th qualifying slot. In 2009, Belize once again finished fourth in Group A and Guatemala lost the 5th-place game. Panama are the defending champions, with Costa Rica winning the tournament a record six times.
All of the Copa Centroamericana games will be available on GolTV.
