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 tournament organized by CONCACAF to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the North, Central America and Caribbean region qualify for the Olympic football tournament. It was held in the United States, from 1 and 13 October 2015[1]
Mexico successfully defended their title after a 2–0 win over Honduras in the final. It was their seventh Pre-Olympic title and second in a row, after previous wins in 1964, 1972, 1976, 1996, 2004 and 2012.[2] As the top two teams, Mexico and Honduras both qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil as the CONCACAF representatives, just as the same sides had in the previous Olympics. 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.[3]
The eight berths were allocated to the three regional zones as follows:[4]
Regional qualification tournaments were held to determine the five teams joining Canada, Mexico, and the United States at the final tournament.
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Four cities served as the venues for tournament.
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, United States.[5] The draw was conducted by Eddie Lewis and Brad Friedel.[6]
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][8]
The draw took place before the UNCAF final qualifier (Costa Rica) had been confirmed.
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).[9]
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:[9]
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.
In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.[9]
The semi-final winners qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The winners advanced to the CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off.
William Fernández (playing against Mexico).svg/1280px-Flag_of_Honduras_(1949%E2%80%932022).svg.png){kind=small}
Bryan Acosta (playing against Mexico)
Fidel Escobar (playing against USA)The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.[10]
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time were counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by a penalty shoot-out were counted as draws.
The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics Men's football tournament.
Four Cuban players were confirmed to have defected to the United States during the tournament: they were Emmanuel Labrada (CF Granma), Frank López García (FC Cienfuegos), Dairon Pérez (FC La Habana), and Yendry Torres (FC Cienfuegos).[12]
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