2015 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship

2015 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Honduras
City	San Pedro Sula
Dates	3–13 December
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	United States (5th title)
Runners-up	Canada
Third place	Mexico
Fourth place	Honduras
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	63 (3.94 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mallory Pugh (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Mallory Pugh
Best goalkeeper	Rosemary Chandler
Fair play award	Canada
	← 2014 2018 →

The 2015 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship was the 8th edition of the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by CONCACAF for the women's under-20 national teams of the North, Central American and Caribbean region. The tournament was hosted by Honduras and took place between 3–13 December 2015, as announced by CONCACAF on 7 May 2015.^[1] A total of eight teams played in the tournament.

Same as previous editions, the tournament acted as the CONCACAF qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The top three teams qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea.^[2]

The United States won their fifth title overall and fourth in a row with a 1–0 final victory over Canada. Both finalists and third-placed Mexico qualified for the World Cup.^[3]

Qualification edit

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 United States, who all qualified automatically
Two teams from the Central American Zone (UNCAF), including Honduras who qualified automatically as hosts
Three teams from the Caribbean Zone (CFU)

Regional qualification tournaments were held to determine the four teams joining Canada, Mexico, the United States, and hosts Honduras at the final tournament.

Qualified teams edit

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualification	Appearance	Previous best performances	Previous FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup appearances
North American Zone (NAFU)
Canada	Automatic	6th	Winner (2004, 2008)	6
Mexico	Automatic	8th	Runner-up (2010, 2014)	6
United States	Automatic	8th	Winner (2006, 2010, 2012, 2014)	7
Central American Zone (UNCAF) qualified through Central American qualifying competition^[4]
Honduras	Hosts	2nd	Group stage (2014)	0
Panama	Group winner	5th	Fourth place (2012)	0
Caribbean Zone (CFU) qualified through Caribbean qualifying competition^[5]
Haiti	Final round winner	3rd	Group stage (2002)	0
Jamaica	Final round runner-up	8th	Fourth place (2006)	0
Trinidad and Tobago	Final round 3rd place	7th	Fourth place (2014)	0

Venues edit

The tournament was hosted in San Pedro Sula. In the original schedule, the Estadio Francisco Morazán would host the opening day matches for Group A, as well as the semifinals, third place match and the final, while the Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano would host the remaining Group A matches and all of the Group B matches.^[6] In the final schedule, eight group matches were relocated to the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana due to rain, while all matches initially scheduled for the Estadio Francisco Morazán was played at the Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano.^[7]

Draw edit

The draw for the tournament took place on 4 November 2015 at 10:00 CST (UTC−6) at the Hotel Real Intercontinental in San Pedro Sula.^[6]

The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. Tournament host Honduras were seeded in Group A, while defending CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship champion United States were seeded in Group B.^[8]

Pot 1	Pot 2
Honduras (Position A1) United States (Position B1) Canada Mexico	Panama Haiti Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago

Squads edit

Players born on or after 1 January 1996 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 20 players (two of whom must be goalkeepers).^[9]

Group stage edit

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]

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

All times were local, CST (UTC−6).^[10]

The two matches originally scheduled on 5 December 2015 (Jamaica vs Canada and Trinidad and Tobago vs Honduras) were postponed due to heavy rain.^[11] As a result, all subsequent group matches were delayed by a day and relocated to the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana in San Pedro Sula.^[12]

Group A edit

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Canada	3	3	0	0	11	0	+11	9	Knockout stage
2	Honduras (H)	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4	Knockout stage
3	Jamaica	3	1	1	1	8	10	−2	4
4	Trinidad and Tobago	3	0	0	3	1	10	−9	0

Source: CONCACAF
(H) Hosts

3 December 2015