2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship

The 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship was the fifteenth and final edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted football tournament organised by CONCACAF to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the North, Central America and Caribbean region qualify for the Olympic football tournament.

2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying

Tournament details
Host country	Mexico
Dates	18–30 March 2021
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Mexico (8th title)
Runners-up	Honduras
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	38 (2.53 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sebastián Córdova (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Alexis Vega
Best goalkeeper	Alex Güity
Fair play award	Mexico
← 2015

In August 2019, it was announced that the tournament would be hosted in Guadalajara and Zapopan, both cities in the state of Jalisco, Mexico,^[1] with the tournament originally scheduled to take place between 20 March and 1 April 2020.^[2][3]

On 13 March 2020, CONCACAF suspended all upcoming competitions scheduled to take place over the next thirty days due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North America.^[4] On 14 January 2021, CONCACAF announced that the Men's Olympic Qualifiers would now take place between 18 and 30 March 2021, as the Olympics had been postponed to July 2021.^[5]

Host nation, Mexico successfully defended their title after defeating Honduras on penalties in the final. It was their eight Pre-Olympic title and third in a row, after previous wins in 1964, 1972, 1976, 1996, 2004, 2012 and 2015.^[6] As the top two teams, Mexico and Honduras both qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan as the CONCACAF representatives, just as the same sides had in the previous two Summer Olympics.^[7]

On 16 September 2021, CONCACAF announced that the representatives at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France will qualify through the 2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championship.^[8]

Qualification

Further information: 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship qualification

The eight berths were allocated to the three regional zones as follows:^[9]

• Three teams from the North American Zone (NAFU), i.e., Canada, Mexico and United States, who all qualified automatically due to them being the only teams in the region
• Three teams from the Central American Zone (UNCAF)
• Two teams from the Caribbean Zone (CFU)

Regional qualification tournaments were held in Central America and Caribbean to determine the five teams joining Canada, Mexico, and the United States at the final tournament.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Zone	Country	Method of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance	Previous Olympic appearances (last)
North America	Mexico (hosts & title holders)	Automatic	12th	2015	Winners (1964, 1972, 1976, 1996, 2004, 2012, 2015)	11 (2016)
	Canada	Automatic	9th	2015	Runners-up (1984, 1996)	3 (1984)
	United States	Automatic	11th	2015	Winners (1988, 1992)	14 (2008)
Central America	Costa Rica	Central America play-off winners	7th	2004	Winners (1980, 1984)	3 (2004)
	El Salvador	Central America play-off winners	5th	2012	Final round winner without outright champions (1968)	1 (1968)
	Honduras	Central America play-off winners	7th	2015	Winners (2000, 2008)	4 (2016)
Caribbean	Dominican Republic	Caribbean play-in round winners	1st	0 (debut)	Debutant	0
	Haiti	Caribbean play-in round winners	3rd	2015	Group stage (2008, 2015)	0

Venues

The matches were played in two stadiums in the following cities:

Guadalajara	Zapopan (Guadalajara Area)	Guadalajara Zapopan Location of the 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship.
Estadio Jalisco	Estadio Akron
Capacity: 55,110	Capacity: 49,850

Draw

The draw for the tournament took place on 9 January 2020, 19:00 CST (UTC−6) at the Estadio Akron, in Zapopan, Mexico.^[10][11]

The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The teams were seeded into four pots for the draw. Pot 1 contained Mexico, seeded in Group A as the host nation, and Honduras, seeded in Group B as the best performing team in the last editions among the other teams. Pot 2 contained the two remaining teams from North America, Canada and United States, Pot 3 contained the two remaining teams from Central America, Costa Rica and El Salvador, while Pot 4 contained the two teams from the Caribbean, Dominican Republic and Haiti.^[12]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Mexico (position A1)  Honduras (position B1)	Canada  United States	Costa Rica  El Salvador	Dominican Republic  Haiti

Squads

Main article: 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1997 were eligible to compete in the tournament.

Match officials

The match officials appointed for the 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship were announced by CONCACAF on 23 February 2021.^[13]

Referees

• Juan Gabriel Calderón
• Iván Barton
• Reon Radix
• Mario Escobar
• Said Martínez
• Daneon Parchment
• Fernando Guerrero
• César Ramos
• Jair Marrufo

Assistants referees

• Iroots Appleton
• Juan Carlos Mora
• David Morán
• Gerson López
• Humberto Panjoj
• Walter López
• Nicholas Anderson
• Ojay Duhaney
• Christian Kiabek Espinoza
• Alberto Morin
• Henri Pupiro
• Ronald Bruna
• Frank Anderson

Group stage

The top two teams from each group advanced to the semi-finals.

All times are local, CST (UTC−6).^[14]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico (H)	3	3	0	0	8	1	+7	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	United States	3	2	0	1	5	1	+4	6
3	Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	5	4	+1	3
4	Dominican Republic	3	0	0	3	1	13	−12	0

Source: CONCACAF
(H) Hosts

18 March 2021 (2021-03-18)

15:30

United States	1–0	Costa Rica
Ferreira 35'	Report

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Said Martínez (Honduras)

18 March 2021 (2021-03-18)

18:00

Mexico	4–1	Dominican Republic
Rodríguez 22' Córdova 51', 69', 90+4'	Report	Azcona 73' (pen.)

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Reon Radix (Grenada)

---

21 March 2021 (2021-03-21)

17:00

Dominican Republic	0–4	United States
	Report	Yueill 60' Dotson 73', 78' Mihailovic 90'

Estadio Akron, Zapopan

Referee: Daneon Parchment (Jamaica)

21 March 2021 (2021-03-21)

19:30

Costa Rica	0–3	Mexico
	Report	Antuna 6' Vega 52' Córdova 69'

Estadio Akron, Zapopan

Referee: Iván Barton (El Salvador)

---

24 March 2021 (2021-03-24)

17:00

Costa Rica	5–0	Dominican Republic
Ugalde 30' Alfaro 43' Leal 60', 70' Salazar 72'	Report

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Fernando Guerrero (Mexico)

24 March 2021 (2021-03-24)

19:30

Mexico	1–0	United States
Antuna 45'	Report

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Daneon Parchment (Jamaica)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Honduras	3	1	2	0	5	2	+3	5	Advance to knockout stage
2	Canada	3	1	2	0	3	1	+2	5
3	El Salvador	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
4	Haiti	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1

Source: CONCACAF

19 March 2021 (2021-03-19)

13:30

Honduras	3–0	Haiti
Vuelto 14' (pen.), 38' Rodríguez 18'	Report

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Jair Marrufo (United States)

19 March 2021 (2021-03-19)

16:00

Canada	2–0	El Salvador
Buchanan 17', 21'	Report

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Fernando Guerrero (Mexico)

---

22 March 2021 (2021-03-22)

16:00

Haiti	0–0	Canada
	Report

Estadio Akron, Zapopan

Referee: Juan Gabriel Calderón (Costa Rica)

22 March 2021 (2021-03-22)

18:30

El Salvador	1–1	Honduras
Márquez 64'	Report	Martinez 46'

Estadio Akron, Zapopan

Referee: César Ramos (Mexico)

---

25 March 2021 (2021-03-25)

17:30

El Salvador	2–1	Haiti
Pérez 19', 45+3'	Report	Louima 21'

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Jair Marrufo (United States)

25 March 2021 (2021-03-25)

20:00

Honduras	1–1	Canada
Maldonado 30'	Report	Cornelius 28'

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: César Ramos (Mexico)

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time is played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	28 March – Guadalajara
	Honduras	2
					30 April – Zapopan
	United States	1
					Honduras	1 (4)
	28 March – Guadalajara
					Mexico (p)	1 (5)
	Mexico	2
	Canada	0

Semi-finals

The semi-final winners qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

28 March 2021 (2021-03-28)

16:00

Honduras	2–1	United States
Obregón 45+4' Palma 47'	Report	Yueill 52'

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Iván Barton (El Salvador)

---

28 March 2021 (2021-03-28)

19:00

Mexico	2–0	Canada
Antuna 58' Vásquez 65'	Report

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

Referee: Juan Gabriel Calderón (Costa Rica)

Final

30 March 2021 (2021-03-30)

19:00

Honduras	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Mexico
Rodríguez 71'	Report	Macías 80' (pen.)
Penalties
Obregón Rodríguez Rivas Meléndez Reyes	4–5	Vásquez Mozo Antuna Angulo Vega

Estadio Akron, Zapopan

Referee: Daneon Parchment (Jamaica)

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 38 goals scored in 15 matches, for an average of 2.53 goals per match.

4 goals

• Sebastián Córdova

3 goals

• Uriel Antuna

2 goals

• Randall Leal
• Tajon Buchanan
• Joshua Pérez
• Edwin Rodríguez
• Darixon Vuelto
• Hassani Dotson
• Jackson Yueill

1 goal

• Derek Cornelius
• Manfred Ugalde
• Bernald Alfaro
• Aarón Salazar
• Edison Azcona
• Marvin Márquez
• Roberto Louima
• Denil Maldonado
• Douglas Martínez
• Juan Carlos Obregón
• Luis Palma
• José Juan Macías
• Carlos Rodríguez
• Johan Vásquez
• Alexis Vega
• Jesús Ferreira
• Djordje Mihailovic

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.

Best Player[15]	Best Goalkeeper[16]	Top Goal Scorer[17]
Alexis Vega	Alex Güity	Sebastián Córdova (4 goals, 2 assists)
Fair Play Award[18]
Mexico

Best XI^[19]

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Alex Güity	Derek Cornelius Johan Vásquez Denil Maldonado Justen Glad	Sebastián Córdova Jackson Yueill Edwin Rodríguez	Luis Palma Alexis Vega Uriel Antuna

Final ranking

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time were counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by a penalty shoot-out were counted as draws.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
	Mexico (H)	5	4	1	0	11	2	+9	13	Winners
	Honduras	5	2	3	0	8	4	+4	9	Runner-ups
3	United States	4	2	0	2	6	3	+3	6	Eliminated in semi-finals
4	Canada	4	1	2	1	3	3	0	5
5	El Salvador	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4	Eliminated in group stage
6	Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	5	4	+1	3
7	Haiti	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1
8	Dominican Republic	3	0	0	3	1	13	−12	0

Source: CONCACAF
(H) Hosts

Qualified teams for 2020 Summer Olympics

The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympic Men's football tournament.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in Summer Olympics1
Honduras	28 March 2021	4 (2000, 2008, 2012, 2016)
Mexico	28 March 2021	11 (1928, 1948, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2012, 2016)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Broadcasting

Television

Country	Broadcaster		Ref.
	Free	Pay
Mexico (Host)	Canal 5 ∙ Las Estrellas	TUDN
Canada		OneSoccer	[20]
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Haiti
Honduras	Televicentro		[21]
United States		FS1 ∙ FS2	[22]
	UniMás	TUDN	[23]

Radio

Country	Broadcaster	Ref.
United States	TUDN Radio	[24]