2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship

2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	United States
City	Bradenton, Florida
Dates	November 1–21, 2018
Teams	34 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	United States (2nd title)
Runners-up	Mexico
Tournament statistics
Matches played	87
Goals scored	397 (4.56 per match)
Top scorer(s)	José Juan Macías; (10 goals)
Best player(s)	Alex Méndez
Best goalkeeper	Brady Scott
Fair play award	Mexico

The 2018 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was the 6th edition of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship (27th edition if all eras included), the men's under-20 international football tournament organized by CONCACAF. It was hosted at Bradenton, Florida, United States between 1–21 November 2018.

A new format was announced, removing the regional Central American and Caribbean qualifiers and guaranteeing each entrant a minimum of four competitive games.^[1]

The competition would determine the four CONCACAF representatives at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland,^[1] The United States, Mexico, Panama and Honduras qualified. It would also determine the CONCACAF teams playing at the 2019 Pan American Games men's football tournament in Lima, Peru.^[2]

The United States were the defending champions of the competition. They successfully defended their title as hosts, winning the final 2–0 against Mexico for their 2nd CONCACAF U-20 Championship title.^[3]

Teams

Unlike previous tournament, there was no qualification for this edition, and a total of 34 teams (out of 41 CONCACAF members) directly entered the final tournament.^[1]^[4] Among them are all three members of the North American Football Union (NAFU), all seven members of the Central American Football Union (UNCAF), and 24 (out of 31) members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Zone	Team	Appearance	Previous best performance	Previous FIFA U-20 World Cup appearances
NAFU	Canada	23rd	Champions (1986, 1996)	8
	Mexico	26th	Champions (1962, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1990, 1992, 2011, 2013, 2015)	15
	United States (title holders & hosts)	24th	Champions (2017)	15
UNCAF	Belize	2nd	First round (1994)	0
	Costa Rica	20th	Champions (1988, 2009)	9
	El Salvador	17th	Champions (1964)	1
	Guatemala	19th	Runners-up (1962, 1973)	1
	Honduras	19th	Champions (1982, 1994)	7
	Nicaragua	9th	Second round (1976)	0
	Panama	11th	Runners-up (2015)	5
CFU	Antigua and Barbuda	4th	First round (1980, 1986, 2017)	0
	Aruba	2nd	First round (2015)	0
	Barbados	6th	First round (1976, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1990)	0
	Bermuda	13th	Second round (1974, 1980)	0
	Cayman Islands	1st	Debut	0
	Cuba	13th	Runners-up (1970, 1974)	1
	Curaçao^{[lower-alpha 1]}	13th	Third place (1962)	0
	Dominica	1st	Debut	0
	Dominican Republic	5th	Second round (1976)	0
	Grenada	4th	First round (1978, 1980, 1990)	0
	Guadeloupe^{[lower-alpha 2]}	3rd	First round (1992, 2011)	0
	Guyana	3rd	Second round (1984)	0
	Haiti	9th	Second round (1978)	0
	Jamaica	20th	Third place (1970)	1
	Martinique^{[lower-alpha 2]}	3rd	First round (1994, 1996)	0
	Puerto Rico	8th	First round (1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 2013)	0
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	3rd	First round (2007, 2017)	0
	Saint Lucia	1st	Debut	0
	Saint Martin^{[lower-alpha 2]}	1st	Debut	0
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1st	Debut	0
	Sint Maarten^{[lower-alpha 2]}	1st	Debut	0
	Suriname	6th	First round (1976, 1980, 1986, 1990, 2011)	0
	Trinidad and Tobago	20th	Runners-up (1990)	2
	U.S. Virgin Islands	1st	Debut	0

Notes

↑ Includes appearances as the Netherlands Antilles.
1 2 3 4 Non-FIFA members and thus ineligible to play in the qualification stage.

Did not enter

Anguilla
Bahamas
Bonaire
British Virgin Islands
French Guiana
Montserrat (withdrew)
Turks and Caicos Islands

Venues

Matches were at played at four stadiums in the IMG Academy:

IMG Academy Stadium
IMG Soccer Stadium
IMG Soccer Complex Field #2
IMG Soccer Complex Field #11

Bradenton, Florida
IMG Academy
27°26′27″N 82°36′29″W / 27.4409°N 82.6081°W / 27.4409; -82.6081 (IMG Academy)
Capacity: 5,000

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 13 September 2018, 10:00 EDT (UTC−4), at the CONCACAF Headquarters in Miami.^[5] Based on the CONCACAF Men's Under-20 Ranking, the top six ranked teams were seeded into position one of each group, while the remaining 28 teams were distributed in five pots as follows:^[4]

Seeded teams	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5
United States (A1) Mexico (B1) Honduras (C1) Panama (D1) Costa Rica (E1) El Salvador (F1)	Cuba Guatemala Trinidad and Tobago Haiti Canada Jamaica	Antigua and Barbuda Bermuda Saint Kitts and Nevis Curaçao Aruba Suriname	Nicaragua Dominican Republic Puerto Rico Guadeloupe Saint Lucia Guyana	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Grenada Cayman Islands Barbados Belize Dominica	U.S. Virgin Islands Martinique Sint Maarten Saint Martin

The 34 teams were drawn into six groups: four groups of six teams and two groups of five teams. The winners from each group in the group stage advance to the qualification stage, where the six teams are divided into two groups of three teams (winners of Groups A, C and E in one group, winners of Groups B, D and F in another group). The top two teams from each group in the qualification stage qualify for the 2019 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

Players born on or after 1 January 1999 are eligible to compete. Each team must submit a provisional 35-player roster (4 must be goalkeepers) and a final 20-player roster (2 must be goalkeepers). After the completion of the group stage, a team advancing to the qualification stage may replace up to six players with those from the provisional roster.^[6]

Group stage

The winners of each group in the group stage advance to the qualification stage. If the winners of a group is a non-FIFA member, the highest-ranked FIFA member in the group advances to the qualification stage (Regulations Article 12.9).^[6]

Tiebreakers (both group stage and qualification stage)

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows (regulations Articles 12.5 and 12.8):^[6]

points obtained in all group matches;
goal difference in all group matches;
number of goals scored in all group matches;

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:

points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned;
number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
fair play points in all group matches:
- first yellow card: minus 1 point;
- indirect red card (second yellow card): minus 3 points;
- direct red card: minus 4 points;
- yellow card and direct red card: minus 5 points;
drawing of lots by CONCACAF.

All times are local, EDT (UTC−4) up to 3 November, EST (UTC−5) starting 4 November.^[7]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States (H)	5	5	0	39	2	+37	15	Qualification stage
2	Suriname	5	3	2	18	12	+6	9
3	Puerto Rico	5	3	2	16	15	+1	9
4	Trinidad and Tobago	5	3	2	12	11	+1	9
5	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	5	1	4	8	15	−7	3
6	U.S. Virgin Islands	5	0	5	2	40	−38	0

Source: CONCACAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

1 November 2018