2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship

2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship

Tournament details
Host country	United States
Dates	1–13 October 2015
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Mexico (7th title)
Runners-up	Honduras
Third place	United States
Fourth place	Canada
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	46 (2.88 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alberth Elis Jerome Kiesewetter (4 goals each)
Best player	Hirving Lozano
Best goalkeeper	Gibran Lajud
Fair play award	Mexico

The 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship^[1] was the 14th edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international age-restricted football tournament organised by CONCACAF to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the North, Central American and Caribbean region qualify for the Olympic football tournament. CONCACAF announced on 12 February 2015 that the United States would host the tournament between 1–13 October 2015.^[1] A total of eight teams played in the tournament.

The top two teams of the tournament qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Brazil as the CONCACAF representatives. The third-placed team advanced to the CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off where they played against the 2015 South American Youth Football Championship runner-up for the final berth in the Olympics.^[2]

Mexico won the tournament with a 2–0 final win over Honduras. This sealed Olympic qualification both finalists, with Mexico aiming to defend their gold medal in 2012, and Honduras qualifying for their third straight Olympics.^[3] Third-placed United States later lost to Colombia in the CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off and failed to qualify for the Olympics for the second consecutive time.^[4]

Qualification

The eight berths were allocated to the three regional zones as follows:^[1]

• Three teams from the North American Zone (NAFU), i.e., Canada, Mexico and the hosts United States, who all qualified automatically
• 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 eight teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualification	Appearance	Previous best performances	Previous men's Olympic appearances
North American Zone (NAFU)
Canada	Automatic	8th	Runner-up (1984, 1996)	3
Mexico	Automatic	11th	Winner (1964, 1972, 1976, 1996, 2004, 2012)	10
United States	Automatic	10th	Winner (1988, 1992)	14
Central American Zone (UNCAF) qualified through Central American qualifying competition[5]
Panama	Group A winner	6th	Fourth place (1964)	0
Honduras	Group B winner	6th	Winner (2000, 2008)	3
Costa Rica	Repechage playoff winner	6th	Winner (1980, 1984)	3
Caribbean Zone (CFU) qualified through Caribbean qualifying competition[6]
Haiti	Final round winner	2nd	Group stage (2008)	0
Cuba	Final round runner-up	5th	Third place (1976, 1984)	2

Venues

The four venues were announced by CONCACAF on 15 May 2015.^[7]

Kansas City, Kansas	Carson, California	Sporting Park StubHub Center Dick's Sporting Goods Park Rio Tinto Stadium	Commerce City, Colorado	Sandy, Utah
Sporting Park	StubHub Center		Dick's Sporting Goods Park	Rio Tinto Stadium
39°07′18″N 94°49′25″W / 39.1218°N 94.8237°W / 39.1218; -94.8237 (Sporting Park)	33°51′52″N 118°15′40″W / 33.8644°N 118.2611°W / 33.8644; -118.2611 (StubHub Center)		39°48′20″N 104°53′31″W / 39.8055°N 104.8919°W / 39.8055; -104.8919 (Dick's Sporting Goods Park)	40°34′58″N 111°53′35″W / 40.5829°N 111.8931°W / 40.5829; -111.8931 (Rio Tinto Stadium)
Capacity: 21,000	Capacity: 27,000		Capacity: 18,061	Capacity: 20,213

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.^[8] The draw was conducted by Eddie Lewis and Brad Friedel.^[9]

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.^[7][10]

The draw took place before the final UNCAF qualifier (Costa Rica) had been confirmed.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
United States (Group A)  Mexico (Group B)	Honduras  Panama	Cuba  Haiti	Canada  Costa Rica

Match officials

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).^[11]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals. The teams were ranked according to points (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:^[11]

1. Goal difference in all group matches;
2. Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches;
3. Greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
5. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
6. Drawing of lots.

The final round of fixtures in the group stage and the knockout stage fell within the FIFA International Match Calendar 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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States (H)	3	3	0	0	13	2	+11	9	Knockout stage
2	Canada	3	1	1	1	6	6	0	4
3	Cuba	3	0	2	1	4	9	−5	2
4	Panama	3	0	1	2	2	8	−6	1

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9	Knockout stage
2	Honduras	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6
3	Haiti	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1
4	Costa Rica	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out would be used to decide the winner if necessary.^[11]

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	10 October – Sandy
	United States	0
					13 October – Sandy
	Honduras	2
					Honduras	0
	10 October – Sandy
					Mexico	2
	Mexico	2
	Canada	0
					Third Place
					13 October – Sandy
					United States	2
					Canada	0

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for 2016 Summer Olympics.

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Third place playoff

Winner advanced to CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off.

Final

Winners

2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship
Mexico Seventh title

Final ranking

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
01 !	Mexico	5	5	0	0	11	1	+10	15	Champions
02 !	Honduras	5	3	0	2	6	4	+2	9	Runners-up
03 !	United States (H)	5	4	0	1	15	4	+11	12	Third place
4	Canada	5	1	1	3	6	10	−4	4	Fourth place
5	Cuba	3	0	2	1	4	9	−5	2	Eliminated in Group stage
6	Haiti	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1
7	Panama	3	0	1	2	2	8	−6	1
8	Costa Rica	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1

Qualified teams for Olympics

The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the Olympic football tournament.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1
Mexico	02 !10 October 2015	10 !10 (1928, 1948, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2012)
Honduras	01 !10 October 2015	03 !3 (2000, 2008, 2012)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year. Statistics include all Olympic format (current Olympic under-23 format started in 1992).

Goalscorers

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.^[12]

Best XI

• Goalkeeper: Gibran Lajud
• Right Defender: Érick Aguirre
• Central Defender: Jhonatan Paz
• Central Defender: Jordan Silva
• Left Defender: Rodolfo Pizarro
• Right Midfielder: Alberth Elis
• Central Midfielder: Víctor Guzmán
• Central Midfielder: Óscar Salas
• Left Midfielder: Hirving Lozano
• Forward: Erick Torres
• Forward: Jerome Kiesewetter

Golden Ball

• Hirving Lozano

Golden Boot

• Jerome Kiesewetter (4 goals & 2 assists)

Golden Glove

• Gibran Lajud

Fair Play Award

•  Mexico

Broadcasters

•  United States: NBC UNIVERSO and Telemundo^[13]

Cuban defections

Four Cuban players are confirmed to have defected to the United States during the tournament, they are; Emmanuel Labrada (CF Granma), Frank López García (FC Cienfuegos), Dairon Pérez (FC La Habana), and Yendry Torres (FC Cienfuegos).^[14]

References

External links

• Olympic Qualifying – Men, CONCACAF.com