2026 CONCACAF U20 Championship, July 2026: All Teams & Tournament Thread [R]

Apologies everyone, I screwed this up.

It's not just the finalists who qualify for the 2027 Pan Am games, it is the semifinalists. So, everyone that qualifies for the U-20 WC also qualifies for the Pan Am Games.

From US Soccer's release

"The top two teams in each group, as well as the two best third-place teams, will advance to the all-important quarterfinals from August 4-5 in Puebla. The winners of those matches will qualify for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan as well as the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru."

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...gares-names-roster-concacaf-u-20-championship

As someone who has covered the youth game in great detail for 20 years, I have to admit that the Pan Am games are completely off my radar. I know the tournament exists but it is nothing more than a footnote for me.

 

Do we even send a team when we qualify for the Pan Am games? I think we have not in the past.

 

The other kid who was competing with Campagnolo for minutes with Rapids 2 declined a contract and just left for college.

 

We did last cycle. It was actually a pretty fun team and most people’s introduction to Alex Freeman in a US shirt!

 

For some reason, I remember that is when Omar Gonzalez made some real inroads within the U.S. system in 2007 at the Pan Am games too.

If I recall correctly, Omar had been a forward before then but was in the process of converting to central defense. He didn't make the 2007 U-20 WC team but made the Pan Am roster that year as a defender and stood out. But that was his positional switch, IIRC (which I might be wronng)

 

There were a number of times over the years when we qualified but declined the invitation. Glad we are now inclined to participate.

 

It used to be a fun tournament! This was the US's first team for their first match in 1999:

USA: Tim Howard, Evan Whitfield, Carlos Bocanegra (Ryan Futagaki 34’), Danny Califf, Steve Shak, Cory Gibbs, DaMarcus Beasley, Brian Winters, Peter Vagenas ©, Landon Donovan, Taylor Twellman (Conor Casey 74’).

And that team was only good enough to win a bronze medal.

 

Hard to believe that out of the entire line-up only Vagenas got copyrighted.

 

I would say you didn't screw up... either Concacaf did or US Soccer did.

From Concacaf's own 2026 U20 Championship rulebook 5.2.2 (p.20-21)
"The Competition will serve as the qualifying tournament for the 2027 Pan American Games. The representative PMAs in the Pan American Games will be determined as follows: The Champion, the Top Caribbean team, the Top Central American team, and the Top North American team."

 

Full rosters:

https://mcusercontent.com/78d3589fb...e1d-f264-2fc230d46aca/U20_OFFICIAL_ROSTER.pdf

 

Looks like Ervin Torres replaced Alex Shaw.

 

How strong is the US roster?

 

Not that strong but should be more than enough to take care of business.

 

Didn't Mexico bow out early in one of these? I forget to whom; maybe Guatemala? The same year the DR made the semis?

 

Yup. In 2022. There was a 16-team knockout round. Guatemala knocked out Canada and Mexico (both via penalties) and then lost to Dominican Republic via penalties after DR received a bye to the round-of-16 (along with three other sides) and were relatively well-rested.

 

That was a bizarre format, which probably caused people to overrate the progress of DR's program. In 2024 they failed to get a point, and then this time they were eliminated in qualifying by losing to Antigua & Barbuda on the final day.

 

They probably had between 10-15 players not released for the tournament, which is a lot.

I still think they will be OK, but it could be a little dicey

 

In total, four of Honduras' U20s are based in northern Spain ... a new and interesting development.

Meanwhile, it's always fun to see that three of A&B's players are with Aston Villa. That's the local island team not to be confused with the one in England.

 

Good. If we expect to win the group, we want Mexico to win or not to be the worst 2nd place finisher.

 

Was it? I thought it was a tremendous case of a disappearing defense.