Summer of Tournaments

Usually the first year of the World Cup cycle is the most quiet. Usually there's a Gold Cup, maybe a Copa America. Other than that the first year of the cycle is usually the least hectic of the four on the international football calender. The summer of 2011 gave us more than our fair share of the beautiful game though. First we had the Concacaf Gold Cup which Mexico won in exciting fashion coming back from 2 goals down to win 4-2. That result was important because mentally the US had felt like they had overtaken Mexico as the region's best, and psychologically the Mexicans had been feeling the pressure as well (with World Cup Qualifying around the corner we'll see how that result affects the top teams in the region). Then came the U-17 World Cup in Mexico in which the hosts won, making it 2 for 2 in tournaments this summer for Mexico. The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2011 Copa America followed, both delivering exciting tournaments in their own right. This weekend will have the Women's World Cup final with the USA taking on Japan, and the Copa America Quarter Finals which features 8 South American teams. There are a couple of things to note about this summer. The first being that if USA win the Women's World Cup, Concacaf would have won 3 out of the 4 Cups this summer. The second thing of note is that Mexico is the only team to have competed in all 4 of the tournaments, winning 2 of them. Could this mean an improvement in the quality of football in Concacaf? That remains to be seen. What is for certain is that regardless of gender or age group, Concacaf has set the bar high for the remainder of this cycle.