🌎 Concacaf at the Copa

The highs & lows of our confederation at the South American championship PLUS: The Conca-catch-up!

Say you’re from “America” in the United States and everyone will assume you’re from the United States. Say you’re from “America” just about anywhere else and you may be asked to specify.

America - or, more specifically, América - is the continent stretching from the Arctic Ocean to where the Pacific and Atlantic meet in the South, from Canada to Chile. But when it comes to the Copa América, teams from the northern half of that landmass always have been invited guests.

The Copa América dates back to 1916 when four teams got together in Buenos Aires.

In 2016, the 100th anniversary for the tournament was the pretext to have a special edition in the United States, one that produced plenty of greenbacks for organizers. They dispensed with the pretense this time around, putting the 2024 tournament in the United States. But the two tournaments taking place on American soil … errr on U.S. soil … hardly have been the only time that

For one, again, the greenbacks are a factor. For another, while the 10 teams of CONMEBOL make for a tidy World Cup qualification tournament, it leads to a clunky knockout competition.

Here’s a non-comprehensive history of Concacaf teams taking part in the Copa América with a high point and a low point for each nation:

Mé-xi-co! Mé-xi-co!

With Mexico’s close relationship with its Latin American pals - including a long stint sending clubs the club championship the Copa Libertadores - it’s logical that Mexico has been to Copa América as an invited team 11 times, far more often than any other Concacaf nation.

Twice, it made it to the final. Neither time did it win.