The 2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying was the twelfth edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament organized by

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

region qualify for the Olympic football tournament. It was held in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, from 11 and 23 March 2008.

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

won the title after with a 1–0 win over the

in the final. As the top two teams, Honduras and the United States both qualified for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

as the CONCACAF representatives.

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament. :

¹ Only final tournament.

Venues

Three cities served as the venues for the tournament.

Squads

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Bracket

Semi-finals

The semi-final winners qualified for the

. ----

Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

;4 goals * Freddy Adu ;3 goals * Will Johnson ;2 goals * Edwin Aguilar * Tosaint Ricketts * Leonel Saint-Preux * Hendry Thomas * Luis Ángel Landín

Awards

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

Final ranking

Qualified teams for 2008 Summer Olympics

The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics Men's football tournament. :

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

Cuban defections

Following the Cuban draw against the

, seven Cuban players

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

, leaving the team with only 11 players which was reduced to 10 against

. Cuba played its final game against

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

with no players available as substitutes because Roberto Linares was sent off from Cuba's match against the United States causing him to be automatically suspended for the team's next match.

References

External links

CONCACAF.com - 2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualification
{{Qualification for the 2008 Summer Olympics Football tournament Football qualification for the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament Oly CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament 2000s in Carson, California Sports competitions in Carson, California Soccer competitions in Los Angeles County, California