CONCACAF 2022 U20/U23 Championships Tournament Thread

While it's obviously a ways off, I noticed that the tournament regulations were published at some point, and the draw is upon us, so why not...

First off, we know some details about the tournament and draw:

• Location and dates: June 18-July 3, 2022, in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, Honduras
• Draw: Tomorrow! (March 3)
  • The U.S., Mexico, Panama, and Honduras are seeded into Groups E, F, G, and H, respectively (I think the rather odd naming thing refers back to groups from the previous stage but, to be honest, I didn't go back and check)
• Format: Bottom line, semifinalists make the FIFA U20s and finalists make the Olympics
  • The U.S. and 15 other teams play the group stage: Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago
  • Top 3 from each of four groups join the following four teams in the round of 16: Curacao, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico

More details on that stuff, including draw/pot details, here:

https://www.concacaf.com/under-20s-...st-for-2022-concacaf-men-s-u-20-championship/

Now, from the regulations:

• Players must be born between Jan. 2003 and Dec. 2007
• Provisional rosters can have between 20 and 60 players and must be submitted no more than 30 days before the first match (so, basically, mid-May)
  • These are "binding" in the sense that players on the final list, as well as replacements for serious injury, must come from the provisional list
• Final rosters must have no more than 20 players (18 field, 2 GK) and must be submitted no more than 10 days before the first match (so, basically, early June)

One possibly interesting note: All 20 players can be on the matchday squad, but it looks like only 3 subs will be allowed.

The regulations:

https://www.concacaf.com/en/under-20s-men/regulations/

Finally for now, we did have a thread along these lines already, but that one has a bunch of posts in it from the qualifying stage, so to avoid that clutter, a new one seemed to make sense. Here's that thread if you'd like to refer to it:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/concacaf-2022-u20-qualifying-thread.2118179/

Puerto Rico was perhaps the big surprise from that stage of the tournament, overcoming a forfeit to qualify. It also cap-tied Azcona to the DR for this U20 cycle; I have no idea whether it would also disqualify him from a theoretical U.S. U23 team if we were to make the Olympics, but I would guess (and I do mean guess) it wouldn't.

U.S.-specific U20 team discussion:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-2023-u20-thread.2113124/

U.S.-specific U23 team discussion:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2024-olympic-thread.2113842/

 

The draw is scheduled for 11 a.m. today, by the way, and will be streamed in various places. I won't be providing live updates! You're welcome!

 

The schedule is also now available:

https://stconcacafwp001.blob.core.windows.net/media/btxbfopm/cu20c-schedulev1.pdf

The U.S. opens with SKN, then Canada, and finishes with Cuba.

If I'm reading things correctly, which I might not be, the upshot from a U.S. perspective is that assuming they finish first or second in the group, their first knockout game is against either Nicaragua or the third-place team from Group G, which could be a reasonably interesting opponent. From there, it would be either (assuming they beat Nicaragua) either the second-place team from Group H or the third-place team from Mexico's group; or (assuming they beat the aforementioned Group G team) either the winner of Group H or Curacao.

At that point, they're in the semis and the U20s. It's too much thinking for me to work out any further scenarios. You do it.

 

CONCACAF seems to like to throw some wild cards into these formats. We'll see if anything interesting happens but there are certainly some possibilities.

 

The Dallas Cup U19 Super Group final, which is streaming on ESPN+ at this moment -- I'm gonna half-watch, if that, while doing other things -- has turned out to be a CONCACAF YNT affair, pitting Panama against El Salvador. They got past Monterrey and Tigres, respectively, in the semis. We might play one of these teams in our first U20 knockout match.

https://www.dallascup.com/post/sund...ational-team-vs-u20-el-salvador-national-team

Jeremy Garay is with El Salvador here (probably others too but I haven't looked into it) and just nearly scored.

 

Panama ended up winning 3-1. Both teams coulda scored more.

 

I haven't looked that closely into it, but there's this UNCAF (Central America) tournament going on right now that seems to be for U19s or at least partly for teams with players eligible for the U20 tournament. The first round of games has already happened and another is happening today:

Puerto Rico – Panamá
Costa Rica – Guatemala
Nicaragua – Honduras
Belice – El Salvador​

https://www.uncafut.com/index.php/o...n-triunfo-el-torneo-sub-19-uncaf-fifa-forward

 

I doubt it.

 

I could be wrong, but my sense is that unless something is connected to an "official" CONCACAF or FIFA tournament, it doesn't cap-tie -- for example, those CONCACAF U15 tournaments don't cap-tie, for whatever reason. There aren't any more CONCACAF play-in games at this level because the field is set. I could however see why UNCAF would care more about international eligibility than the Dallas Cup.

 

Speaking of which -- I guess it's time to start watching for preliminary rosters. They're due no more than 30 days before the first match, I believe, which is June 18. They probably won't all land on the same day. I'm guessing the U.S. will release one but who knows...

 

Recent camp roster for the DR:

#Sub20| ¡A continuar la preparación! 🙌💪🏾

Estos son los convocados por el DT Walter Benítez para el microciclo de trabajo que realizará la Sedofútbol Sub-20 del 30 de abril al 06 de mayo,2022, de cara al Premundial U20 de Concacaf que se celebrará en Honduras. ⚽️🇩🇴💥 pic.twitter.com/cobDZjxrKn

— Selección Dominicana de Futbol (@sedofutbol) April 28, 2022

T&T camp roster:

https://newsday.co.tt/2022/04/30/eve-resumes-tt-u-20-training-four-join-after-us-combines/

Some salt from a Jamaica observer (which notes a semi-recent set of "amateur trials":

1516116354692108290 is not a valid tweet id

Curacao tidbit:

The 17 year old goalkeeper Nino Fancito who plays for dutch second division side FC Eindhoven U18 has been called up to Curacao U20 for the concacaf U20 championship that will be played in Honduras in June pic.twitter.com/2XOl8YcwaY

— Curaçao Football News (@Curacaofootbal1) April 15, 2022

 

I'm probably reading this wrong but it sounds like Mexico has pulled together a small U20 group for a camp that will grow, take some kind of break, and then reconvene, or something.

📄 | NOTA | #Sub20

¡A trabajar! ⚽️
Comenzó nuestra concentración en el CAR con los primeros 9️⃣ jugadores convocados por @LuchoPerez_8. 🇲🇽

Aquí más información. ➡️ https://t.co/rQ6JC8piZs#HechoDeLosMexicanos | #FMFporNuestroFútbol pic.twitter.com/QJgrADlVeA

— Selección Nacional (@miseleccionmx) May 9, 2022

 

I kinda doubt that. The tournament rules say the final roster isn't due until 10 days before the games start. That would be early June. Doesn't make much sense to announce it early given the many factors that might affect the coach's choices. (And May 23 seems a bit late for the preliminary roster, but I'm just guessing there.) Maybe the tweet is referring to a camp?

 

A little sizzle:

#U20 | Almost a month for our debut in the @Concacaf U-20 Championship in 🇭🇳!!

We keep growing towards the tournament. 🎥⚽👊🏼#HechoDeLosMexicanos | #FMFporNuestroFútbol pic.twitter.com/5B781OSyrT

— Mexican National Team (@miseleccionmxEN) May 12, 2022