The 2018 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was the 6th edition of the

CONCACAF Under-20 Championship The CONCACAF Under-20 Championship is the second longest running international association football event in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean region, CONCACAF, and is the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Th ...

(27th edition if all eras included), the men's under-20 international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament organized by

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

. It was hosted at

Bradenton Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries A settlement established by Maroons or escaped sl ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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. The competition would determine the four CONCACAF representatives at the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, The

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

qualified. It would also determine the CONCACAF teams playing at the 2019 Pan American Games men's football tournament in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

, Peru. The

were the defending champions of the competition. They successfully defended their title as hosts, winning the final 2–0 against

for their 2nd CONCACAF U-20 Championship title.

Teams

Unlike previous tournament, there was no qualification for this edition, and a total of 34 teams (out of 41

members) directly entered the final tournament. Among them are all three members of the

North American Football Union The North American Football Union (NAFU; french: Union Nord-Américaine de Football; es, Unión Norteamericana de Fútbol) is a regional grouping under CONCACAF of national football organizations in the ''North American Zone''. The NAFU has no o ...

(NAFU), all seven members of the

Central American Football Union The Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (Central American Football Union), more commonly known by the acronym UNCAF, represents the national football teams of Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Pa ...

(UNCAF), and 24 (out of 31) members of the

Caribbean Football Union The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) is the representative organization for football associations in the Caribbean. It represents 25 FIFA member nations, as well as 6 territories that are not affiliated to FIFA. The Union was established in Januar ...

(CFU). ;Notes ;Did not enter * * * * * * (withdrew) *

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

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 13 September 2018, 10:00 EDT ( UTC−4), at the CONCACAF Headquarters in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. 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: 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

, 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.

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). ;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): If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows: All times are local, EDT ( UTC−4) up to 3 November, EST ( UTC−5) starting 4 November.

Group A

---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

---- ---- ---- ----

Group C

---- ---- ---- ----

Group D

---- ---- ---- ----

Group E

---- ---- ---- ----

Group F

---- ---- ---- ----

Qualification stage

The top two teams of each group in the qualification stage qualify for the

, with the winners of each group also advancing to the final to decide the champions of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.

Group G

---- ----

Group H

---- ----

Final

In the final, if the match is level at the end of 90 minutes,

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport 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 onl ...

is played, and if still tied after extra time, the match is decided by 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 pen ...

(Regulations Article 12.10).

Awards

Winners

Individual awards

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

Goalscorers

Qualification for international tournaments

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following four teams from CONCACAF qualify for the

. :

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

Qualified teams for Pan American Games

The tournament was used to determine the four teams from CONCACAF which would qualify for the 2019 Pan American Games men's football tournament. The top team from each of the three zones, i.e., Caribbean (CFU), Central American (UNCAF), and North American (NAFU), would qualify, with the fourth team to be determined by CONCACAF at a later date. However,

declined to participate, so Mexico qualified for the North American berth. :

² Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

Controversy

Cuban defectors

Twelve of the Cuban players (Arturo Hector Godoy, Bruno Manuel Rendon Cardoso, Christopher Yoel Llorente Fernandez, Danny Echeverria Diaz Frank Leidam Nodarse Chavez, Geobel Perez Oquendo, Josue Vega Alvarez, Juan Manuel Andreus Milanes, Omar Perez Ramirez Omar Proenza Calderon, Rivaldo Ibarra Thompson, Rolando Aldahir Oviendo Valdez and Yandri Romero Clark.) opted to stay in United States following the team's exit from the competition.

Visa issues

Octavio Rodríguez, the assistant coach of the Guatemalan staff team and four players; Carlos Orellana (Guastatoya), Carlos Monterroso (Municipal), Nelso Iván García (Communications) and Luis Francisco Estrada (Siquinalá) were denied visas to participate in the tournament. A further seven players from Honduras were also denied visas.

Notes

References

External links

Under 20s – Men
CONCACAF.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Concacaf U-20 Championship 2018

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

U-20 Championship 2018 Concacaf U-20 Championship 2018 in youth association football November 2018 sports events in the United States Qualification tournaments for the 2019 Pan American Games

CONCACAF U-20 Championship The CONCACAF Under-20 Championship is the second longest running international association football event in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean region, CONCACAF, and is the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. ...

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup qualification