The 2022 edition of North America's CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, which decides the qualifiers for the FIFA men's Under-20 World Cup, carries even greater importance this time around.
Hosted by Honduras, the tournament not only handed out four berths for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia (to the four semifinalists), but it will also determined the two teams that will participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (the two finalists).
The USA, defending champions of this competition after winning the most recent edition held in 2018, became the first team to clinch a semifinal berth and a ticket to the 2023 World Cup. Honduras joined them, but the Americans came away with the spot in the 2024 Olympics after a 3-0 win over Los Catrachos in the semifinals.
The other two semifinalists were surprise packages: the Dominican Republic will be heading to their first FIFA World Cup, while Guatemala qualified to their second. The Dominican Republic also claimed the other ticket to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, making their first Olympic tournament appearance in the program's history.
The Olympic qualification was an added feature to the CONCACAF tournament, removing the need for a separate Under-23 qualifying tournament in the lead-up to the 2024 Olympics, for which it is even more difficult for players to be released by their clubs to participate.
The complete bracket follows below with TV, streaming, standings, results, and highlights.
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The CONCACAF U20 tournament group stage officially wrapped up on June 23 with three qualifiers from each of Groups E-H. Those 12 nations joined the four qualifiers from Groups A-D (group winners only) in the Round of 16. (Group stage results and standings follow below.)
The 16 teams were slotted into predetermined Round of 16 matchups based on group finish.
In the Round of 16, the winners of Groups E-H faced the teams that qualified from Groups A-D. The other Round of 16 matchups saw second-place and third-place teams face off from Groups E-H.
The Dominican Republic pulled off the shocker of the round, beating El Salvador 5-4, while Guatemala also won in dramatic fashion via a penalty-kick shootout against Canada.
The quarterfinal winners (bold) claimed the four berths to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup. All matches from the quarterfinal stage onward took place at the Estadio Olimpico in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
The USA and Dominican Republic clinched the two berths available to the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris. The Dominican Republic came back from 2-0 down to Guatemala and won in a penalty-kick shootout.
Both finalists qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The winner of their showdown will be crowned CONCACAF Under-20 champion.
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The best Under-20 teams in the region played in Groups E-H with the top three teams advancing to the Round of 16. Groups A-D, featuring lower-ranked nations, were played in 2021 and only the top team advanced from that stage.
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
X = Qualified for CONCACAF U-20 Championship Round of 16
USA: Select matches from the competition will be televised in the USA on TUDN. Those matches will also be streamed on fuboTV.
The rest of the matches not televised by TUDN will be streamed by Univision streaming platform ViX.
Canada: Fans can watch the Canada Under-20 men's team matches on OneSoccer's YouTube channel, which is available on fuboTV.
This tournament doubles as the CONCACAF qualification event for both the 2023 FIFA men's Under-20 World Cup and the 2024 Summer Olympics.
CONCACAF will send two participants to the 2024 Summer Olympics and four participants to the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The total number of qualifiers for each event makes things straightforward: The four semifinalists of the 2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championship will head to the World Cup in 2023 and the two finalists will be the only two nations to play in the Olympics the following year in Paris.
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Previously, CONCACAF held a separate U-23 tournament dedicated to determine Olympic qualification, and it took place in March prior to the start of the Summer Olympics. That competition involved Under-23 players because Olympic soccer is an Under-23 tournament (so as not to compete with the popular FIFA World Cup).
Often, since that tournament did not fall within an official FIFA international match window, players were not released by their clubs, resulting in weakened teams and surprise results. For players who were not necessarily prevented from traveling by their club, it still forced them to choose between club or country, resulting in difficult decisions.
The event couldn't simply be moved to the summer after the European season, because there were players who featured in leagues that played through the summer like MLS, which is on a February to November schedule.
To alleviate the scheduling conflict, CONCACAF scrapped its Olympic qualifying event for Under-23 players, and instead folded it into the Under-20 Championship tournament. The fact that the Under-20 competition involves younger players than the Under-23 tournament makes it more likely that players are permitted to participate by their clubs, since the younger age group is less likely to have prominent playing roles with their clubs.