The United States national team has participated in all eighteen editions of the CONCACAF Gold Cup since its foundation in 1991 to replace the CONCACAF Championship. The United States is also the second-most successful team in the tournament, having won seven titles since the beginning of the Gold Cup era, behind only Mexico by three titles. Before the Gold Cup however, the United States only qualified for two of the previous ten CONCACAF Championships (1985 and 1989).
Since its inception in 1991, the CONCACAF Gold Cup is continually hosted or co-hosted by the United States (due to the United States being the only country that can host a profitable tournament), therefore the United States have frequently participated in the tournament and are considered to be one of the two major teams alongside Mexico. They have reached the final thirteen times, losing six out of eight times when facing Mexico, but winning the other five finals against various opponents.
With three titles, Bruce Arena is the most successful coach in tournament history. Bora Milutinovic went on to win the 1996 tournament as head coach of Mexico.
The Championship also served as 1990 World Cup qualification, which helped the U.S. to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1950.
Landon Donovan is both the CONCACAF Gold Cup's record player and scorer with 18 goals in 34 matches. In addition, he and DaMarcus Beasley are the only players to win the Gold Cup four times.
Landon Donovan is not only the CONCACAF Gold Cup's record scorer, but is also the only player to score at six separate tournaments, and the only player to be (shared) top scorer at three tournaments.
In 2007, he scored all his four goals from the penalty spot.