2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship

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.

2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship
Tournament details
Host country United States
Dates1–13 October 2015
Teams8 (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 played16
Goals scored46 (2.88 per match)
Top scorer(s) Alberth Elis
Jerome Kiesewetter
(4 goals each)
Best player(s) Hirving Lozano
Best goalkeeper Gibran Lajud
Fair play award Mexico

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
Further information: 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship qualification

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

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 Commerce City, Colorado Sandy, Utah
Sporting Park StubHub Center Dick's Sporting Goods Park Rio Tinto Stadium
Capacity: 21,000 Capacity: 27,000 Capacity: 18,061 Capacity: 20,213
Sporting Park
StubHub Center
Dick's Sporting Goods Park
Rio Tinto Stadium

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

Match officials

Squads
Main article: 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship 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
Source: CONCACAF
(H) Host.
Panama 1–1 Cuba
Nuñez  76' Report Reyes  6'
Attendance: 3,827
Referee: Luis Santander (Mexico)
United States 3–1 Canada
Morris  1', 73'
Gil  90+2' (pen.)		 Report Petrasso  81'
Attendance: 3,827
Referee: Armando Castro (Honduras)
Canada 3–1 Panama
Petrasso  30'
Thomas  34'
Fisk  74'		 Report Bárcenas  61'
Attendance: 3,755
Referee: Javier Santos (Puerto Rico)
Cuba 1–6 United States
Sáez  90+3' Report Carter-Vickers  16'
Miazga  35'
Kiesewetter  37', 49'
Hyndman  68'
Hernández  75'
Attendance: 3,755
Referee: Juan Guerra (Guatemala)
Canada 2–2 Cuba
Petrasso  25'
Babouli  52'		 Report Hernández  32', 87'
Attendance: 3,313
Referee: Adrián Skeete (Barbados)
United States 4–0 Panama
Escobar  50' (o.g.)
Kiesewetter  52'
Morris  56'
Gil  71' (pen.)		 Report
Attendance: 3,313
Referee: Hugo Cruz (Costa Rica)

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
Source: CONCACAF
Honduras 1–0 Haiti
Lozano  6' Report
Referee: Drew Fischer (Canada)
Mexico 4–0 Costa Rica
Bueno  19', 77'
Fernández  45+2' (o.g.)
Torres  88'		 Report
Referee: Jafeth Perea (Panama)
Costa Rica 0–2 Honduras
Report Lozano  41'
Elis  82'
Referee: Christopher Reid (Belize)
Haiti 0–1 Mexico
Report R. López  74' (pen.)
Referee: Mathieu Bourdeau (Canada)
Costa Rica 1−1 Haiti
Flores  82' Report Pierre  51'
Referee: Karl Tyrell (Jamaica)
Mexico 2–1 Honduras
R. López  4'
Torres  65'		 Report Elis  59'
Referee: Armando Villarreal (United States)

Knockout stage

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

Bracket
 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
10 October – Sandy
 
 
 United States0
 
13 October – Sandy
 
 Honduras2
 
 Honduras0
 
10 October – Sandy
 
 Mexico2
 
 Mexico2
 
 
 Canada0
 
Third place
 
 
13 October – Sandy
 
 
 United States2
 
 
 Canada0

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for 2016 Summer Olympics.

United States 0–2 Honduras
Report Elis  23', 77'
Referee: Jafeth Perea (Panama)
Mexico 2–0 Canada
Torres  6'
Lozano  57'		 Report
Referee: Hugo Cruz (Costa Rica)

Third place playoff

Winner advanced to CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off.

United States 2–0 Canada
Pelosi  69'
Kiesewetter  84' (pen.)		 Report
Referee: Luis Santander (Mexico)

Final
Honduras 0–2 Mexico
Report Acosta  42' (o.g.)
Guzmán  68'
Referee: Drew Fischer (Canada)

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
 Mexico 5 5 0 0 11 1 +10 15 Champions
 Honduras 5 3 0 2 6 4 +2 9 Runners-up
 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
Source: CONCACAF
(H) Host.

Qualified teams for Olympics

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

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament1
 Mexico10 October 201510 (1928, 1948, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2012)
 Honduras10 October 20153 (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
Golden Ball
Golden Boot
Golden Glove
Fair Play Award

Broadcasters

Cuban defections
See also: List of Cuban soccer players who have defected to the United States

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
  1. "United States Named Host for CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship 2015". CONCACAF.com. 12 February 2015. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  2. "QUALIFICATION SYSTEM – GAMES OF THE XXXI OLYMPIAD – RIO 2016 – Football" (PDF). Rio 2016 Official Website. 23 April 2014. Archived from the original (pdf) on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  3. "Honduras, Mexico book Rio 2016 tickets". FIFA.com. 10 October 2015.
  4. "Colombia edge USA to end drought". FIFA.com. 30 March 2016.
  5. "Se definieron las Eliminatorias Pre-Olimpicas de UNCAF Masculinas y Femenina" (in Spanish). UNCAF. 28 February 2015. Archived from the original on 12 July 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  6. "CFU Men's Olympic Qualifying Groups". Caribbean Football Union. 27 April 2015.
  7. "Olympic Qualifying Championship host cities named". CONCACAF.com. 15 May 2015. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  8. "CONCACAF to Hold Olympic Qualifying Championship Draw in Los Angeles on August 18". CONCACAF.com. 10 August 2015. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  9. "Draw Determines Groups and Schedule for the 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship". CONCACAF.com. 18 August 2015. Archived from the original on 24 August 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  10. "Official Draw: CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying United States 2015". CONCACAF.com. 18 August 2015. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  11. "Regulations for the Olympic Football Tournaments" (PDF). CONCACAF.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  12. "TSG announces CMOQ Best XI, Awards". CONCACAF. 14 October 2015. Archived from the original on 21 June 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  13. "TELEMUNDO, NBC UNIVERSO AND NBC DEPORTES ANNOUNCE THE TELECAST SCHEDULE FOR THE UPCOMING CONCACAF MEN'S OLYMPIC QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT | NBCUniversal Media Village". www.nbcumv.com. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  14. Associated Press (1 October 2015). "United States beat Canada in CONCACAF Olympic qualifying". ESPN FC. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
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