The 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship was the fourteenth 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 1 and 13 October 2015

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

successfully defended their title after a 2–0 win over

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, ...

in the final. It was their seventh Pre-Olympic title and second in a row, after previous wins in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. As the top two teams, Mexico and Honduras both qualified for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

as the CONCACAF representatives, just as the same sides had in the previous Olympics. Third-placed

later lost to

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

in the CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off and failed to qualify for the Olympics for the second consecutive time.

Qualification

The eight berths were allocated to the three regional zones as follows: *Three teams from the North American Zone (NAFU), i.e.,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and the hosts

, 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 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.

Venues

Four cities served as the venues for tournament.

Draw

The draw for the tournament took place on 18 August 2015 at 09:00 PDT ( UTC−7) at the Torrance Marriot Redondo Beach hotel in Torrance,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The draw was conducted by Eddie Lewis and Brad Friedel. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. Tournament host United States were seeded in Group A, while defending CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Mexico were seeded in Group B. The draw took place before the UNCAF final qualifier (Costa Rica) had been confirmed.

Match officials

;Referees * Adrian Skeete * Christopher Reid * Mathieu Bourdeau * Drew Fischer * Hugo Cruz * Juan Guerra * Armando Castro * Karl Tyrell * Luis Enrique Santander * Jafeth Perea * Javier Santos * Armando Villarreal ;Assistant referees * Ricardo Ake * Joe Fletcher * Carlos Fernandez * Ronaldo De La Cruz * Oscar Velazquez * Israel Valenciano * Ronald Bruna * Jairo Morales * Graeme Brown * Ainsley Rochard * Frank Anderson * Corey Rockwell

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1993 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 20 players (two of whom must be goalkeepers).

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals. The teams were ranked according to

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

(3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order: #Goal difference in all group matches; #Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches; #Greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned; #Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned; #Greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned; #Drawing of lots. The final round of fixtures in the group stage and the knockout stage fell within the

FIFA International Match Calendar The FIFA International Match Calendar (sometimes abbreviated as the FIFA Calendar) is an outline agreement between FIFA, the six continental football confederations, the European Club Association, and FIFPro, which sets out which dates can be us ...

period of 5–13 October 2015. As a result, teams were able to call on their first choice under-23 players worldwide. All times were local.

Group A

---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage,

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

were used to decide the winner if necessary.

Bracket

Semi-finals

The semi-final winners qualified for the

. ----

Third place play-off

The winners advanced to the CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off.

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

;4 goals * Alberth Elis *

Jerome Kiesewetter Jerome Julien Kiesewetter (born February 9, 1993) is a former professional soccer player who played as a forward. Born in Germany, he represented the United States national team. Club career In May 2012, Kiesewetter signed a four-year contract ...

;3 goals *

Michael Petrasso Michael Alexander Petrasso (born 9 July 1995) is a Canadian professional soccer player as a winger and is currently a free agent having last played for York United. Early life Petrasso was born in Toronto, and grew up in Woodbridge, just north ...

* Erick Torres * Jordan Morris ;2 goals *

Anthony Lozano Anthony Rubén Lozano Colón (born 25 April 1993), nicknamed Choco, is a Honduran professional footballer who plays as a forward for Liga MX club Santos Laguna and captains the Honduras national team. Club career Early career Born in Yoro, L ...

* Marco Bueno * Raúl López * Arichel Hernández * Luis Gil ;1 goal *

Molham Babouli Molham "Mo" Babouli (; born January 2, 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Forge FC. Born in the United Arab Emirates, he represented Canada at youth international level and currently plays for the Syria national team. ...

Ben Fisk Benjamin Anthony Fisk-Routledge (born February 4, 1993) is a Canadian retired professional soccer player who played as a left winger. Club career Vancouver Whitecaps Fisk played for a host of local clubs before joining Vancouver Whitecaps FC's ...

* Skylar Thomas * Dylan Flores * Maikel Reyes * Daniel Luis Sáez * Paulson Pierre * Víctor Guzmán *

Hirving Lozano Hirving Rodrigo Lozano Bahena (born 30 July 1995), commonly known as Chucky, is a Mexican professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for Major League Soccer club San Diego FC and the Mexico national fo ...

* Édgar Joel Bárcenas *

Josiel Núñez Josiel Alberto Núñez Rivera (born 29 January 1993) is a Panamanian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Primera Federación club Alcorcón. Club career In December 2018, Núñez was loaned out to USL League One side Forw ...

Cameron Carter-Vickers Cameron Robert Carter-Vickers (born December 31, 1997) is a professional soccer player who plays as a center-back for club Celtic. Born in England, he plays for the United States national team. Carter-Vickers began his career at the Totte ...

Alonso Hernández Joaquín Alonso Hernández García (born March 1, 1994) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Guanacasteca. Club career Hernandez began his youth career in the city of El Paso, Texas. His rising talent increased ...

* Emerson Hyndman * Matt Miazga * Marc Pelosi ;1 own goal * William Fernández (playing against Mexico) * Bryan Acosta (playing against Mexico) * Fidel Escobar (playing against USA)

Awards

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

Final ranking

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in

were counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by a

were counted as draws.

Qualified teams for 2016 Summer Olympics

The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics Men's football tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. ''Italic'' indicates host for that year.

Broadcasters

Television

Cuban defections

Four Cuban players were confirmed to have

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 ...

to the

during the tournament: they were Emmanuel Labrada (

CF Granma CF Granma is a Cuban football team playing in the Cuban National Football League and representing Granma Province. They play their home games at the Estadio Mártires de Barbados in Bayamo or at the Conrado Benítez in Jiguaní Jiguaní () ...

), Frank López García ( FC Cienfuegos), Dairon Pérez ( FC La Habana), and Yendry Torres ( FC Cienfuegos).

References

External links

Olympic Qualifying – Men
CONCACAF.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Concacaf Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship 2015

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Olympic Qualifying Championship, Men's Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification Olympic Qualifying Championship, Men's

2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship The 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship was the fourteenth edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship, CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted association football, foot ...