2023 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship

2023 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Dominican Republic
City	Santo Domingo
Dates	25 May – 4 June
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Mexico (2nd title)
Runners-up	United States
Third place	Canada
Fourth place	Costa Rica
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	76 (4.75 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sheika Scott; (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Alice Soto
Best goalkeeper	Itzel Velasco
Fair play award	United States

The 2023 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship was the 12th edition of the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship, an international youth football championship organised by CONCACAF for the women's under-20 national teams of the North, Central American and Caribbean region. It took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, between 25 May and 4 June 2023.[1]

The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia as the CONCACAF representatives.

The United States were the two-time defending champions, having won the 2020 and 2022 editions.

Mexico won the tournament by defeating the United States in the final on 4 June 2023 with a 2–1 score. Canada qualified to the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup as the third place team by defeating Costa Rica with a 5–3 score in the third place match. Costa Rica eventually also qualified as an additional slot was allocated to CONCACAF.

Qualification

The qualifying competition was held in April 2023.[2] For six of the available eight slots, a record number of thirty–two teams were drawn into six total groups (two groups of six teams and four groups of five teams each). and will play in a single round-robin format in centralized venues. The six group winners advanced to the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship final tournament. In addition, the United States and Mexico, the two highest-ranked CONCACAF teams in the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Rankings of August 29, 2022, qualified automatically.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship final tournament.

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Previous best performance	Previous World Cup appearances
Mexico	Automatic	17 February 2023	12th	Champions (2018)	9
United States (title holders)	Automatic	17 February 2023	12th	Champions (2006, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2020, 2022)	10
Panama	Qualification Group B winner	18 April 2023	7th	Fourth place (2012)	0
Jamaica	Qualification Group E winner	18 April 2023	12th	Fourth place (2006)	0
Puerto Rico	Qualification Group D winner	19 April 2023	3rd	Fourth place (2022)	0
Dominican Republic	Qualification Group C winner	19 April 2023	4th	Semi-finalist (2020)	0
Canada	Qualification Group A winner	22 April 2023	10th	Champions (2004, 2008)	8
Costa Rica	Qualification Group F winner	23 April 2023	7th	Third place (2004, 2010, 2014)	3

Venues

Santo Domingo San Cristóbal	Santo Domingo	San Cristóbal
	Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez	Estadio Panamericano
	Capacity: 27,000	Capacity: 2,800

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2004 are eligible to compete. Each team must register a squad of 21 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers.[3]

Format

On 13 February 2023, CONCACAF announced the lunch of a new revamped format for the youth competitions, in which Women's Under-17 and Under-20 competitions will now commence with a six-group Qualifying Stage played amongst teams ranked between 3 and 41, according to the respective CONCACAF Rankings. with the qualifying stage to be played in a round robin format and the six group winners advancing to the main tournament. The Group Stage of the main tournament will be composed of two groups of four teams each (eight teams in total). This will include the two top-ranked teams (pre-seeded into this round) and the six group winners of the Qualifying stage. After round-robin play, the top two teams of each group will advance to the semifinals. The knockout stage – semifinals, third place match, and final – will be played in a single match direct elimination format, with the finalists and the third place match winner qualifying for the respective youth FIFA Women's World Cup.[4]

Eight teams will play in the tournament, will be drawn into two groups of four teams, and will play single round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group will advance to the knockout stage, The knockout stage will feature the semi-finals, a third-place match, and the final to determine the champions. the two semi-finalists alongside the third-place match winner will qualify for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Although, on 4 October 2023, FIFA expanded the World Cup to 24 teams, meaning the 4 semi-finalists all qualified.[5]

Tiebreakers

The ranking of teams in each group is determined as follows (Regulations Article 12.8):

Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss).
Goal difference in all group matches.
Number of goals scored in all group matches.
Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question.
Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question.
Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question.
Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction can be applied to a player in a single match):
- Yellow card: −1 point
- Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points
- Direct red card: −4 points
- Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points
Drawing of lots.

Group stage

All times are local, AST (UTC−4).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	3	3	0	15	2	+13	9	Knockout stage
2	Canada	3	2	1	11	5	+6	6	Knockout stage
3	Jamaica	3	1	2	4	9	−5	3
4	Panama	3	0	3	1	15	−14	0

Source: CONCACAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

26 May 2023