2017 CONCACAF U-20 Championship

2017 CONCACAF U-20 Championship
Premundial CONCACAF Sub-20 2017 (in Spanish)
Tournament details
Host country	Costa Rica
Dates	17 February – 5 March
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	United States (1st title)
Runners-up	Honduras
Tournament statistics
Matches played	25
Goals scored	74 (2.96 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ronaldo Cisneros (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Erik Palmer-Brown
Best goalkeeper	Jonathan Klinsmann
Fair play award	Mexico

The 2017 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was the 5th edition of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship (26th edition if all eras included), the men's under-20 international football tournament organized by CONCACAF. It was hosted in Costa Rica between 17 February and 5 March 2017.^[1]

The competition determined the four CONCACAF representatives at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea. The United States, Mexico, Honduras, and Costa Rica qualified.

The tournament also determined which two Caribbean nations participate in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games.^[2]

Qualification

Team	Qualification	Appearances	Previous best performances	FIFA U-20 World Cup Participations
North American zone
Canada	Automatic	22nd	Champions (1986, 1996)	8
Mexico (TH)	Automatic	25th	Champions (1962, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1990, 1992, 2011, 2013, 2015)	14
United States	Automatic	23rd	Runners-up (1980, 1982, 1986, 1992, 2009, 2013)	14
Central American zone qualified through the Central America qualifying
Costa Rica	Host nation	19th	Champions (1988, 2009)	8
Honduras	First place	18th	Champions (1982, 1994)	6
El Salvador	Second place	16th	Champions (1964)	1
Panama^{[lower-alpha 1]}	Fourth place	10th	Runner-up (2015)	5
Caribbean zone qualified through the Caribbean qualifying
Antigua and Barbuda	Group A winner	3rd	First Round (1980, 1986)	0
Bermuda	Group A runner-up	12th	Second Round (1974, 1980)	0
Haiti	Group B winner	8th	Second Round (1978)	0
Trinidad and Tobago	Group B runner-up	19th	Runners-up (1990)	2
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Best Third Place	2nd	First Round (2007)	0

Notes

↑ On 28 October 2016, FIFA suspended the National Football Federation of Guatemala for political interference by the Government of Guatemala. Until the suspension is lifted, Guatemalan teams are not permitted to participate in international competitions.^[3] CONCACAF had set the deadline of 20 November 2016 for the suspension to be lifted, otherwise by rule, Guatemala would be disqualified from the 2017 CONCACAF U-20 Championship, and any replacement team or revision to the tournament format would be discussed once the deadline had passed.^[4] On 22 November, CONCACAF announced that Panama, fourth place in Central America qualifying, would take the place of Guatemala, third place in Central America qualifying.^[5]

Venues

San José	San José
	Estadio Nacional	Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá
	Capacity: 35,175	Capacity: 23,112

Draw

The draw took place on November 29, 2016 at 18:00 CST (UTC−6) at El Cubo, Estadio Nacional, San José, Costa Rica, and was streamed live via CONCACAF.com.^[5]^[6]

Different from previous tournaments, the 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams in the group stage. Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States were seeded into each of the three groups.

Mexico, as champions of the 2015 CONCACAF U-20 Championship, were seeded in position A1.
United States, as the best-ranked CONCACAF team in the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, were seeded in position B1.
Costa Rica, as hosts, were seeded in position C1.

The remaining nine teams were allocated to pots 2–4 designed to ensure balanced and competitive groups weighted equally by region. They were drawn in order and placed in the group position drawn from Pots A, B and C.^[5]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Mexico United States Costa Rica	Panama Honduras El Salvador	Canada Trinidad and Tobago Haiti	Antigua and Barbuda Bermuda Saint Kitts and Nevis

The top two teams from each group in the group stage advance to the classification stage, where the six teams are drawn into two groups of three teams. The positions of each group winner and runner-up from the group stage were then drawn in group pairs, randomly into the two groups (D and E) for the classification stage.

The top two teams from each group in the classification stage qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, with the group winners also advancing to the final to decide the champions of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.

Squads

Each squad can contain 20 players (including two goalkeepers).

Group stage

The top two teams from each group in the group stage advance to the classification stage.

Tiebreakers (for both group stage and classification stage)

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

Greater number of points in matches between the tied teams;
Greater goal difference in matches between the tied teams (if more than two teams finish equal on points);
Greater number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams (if more than two teams finish equal in points);
Greater goal difference in all group matches;
Greater number of goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CST (UTC−6).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	3	3	0	9	0	+9	9	Classification stage
2	Honduras	3	2	1	5	2	+3	6	Classification stage
3	Canada	3	1	2	2	6	−4	3
4	Antigua and Barbuda	3	0	3	1	9	−8	0

Source: CONCACAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

17 February 2017