Concacaf U-20 Championship to be held Nov. 1-21 at IMG Academy
CHICAGO (Via U.S. Soccer) – The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team will seek to defend its confederation title at the 2018 Concacaf U-20 Championship, which will be held at IMG Academy from Nov. 1-21 in Bradenton, Fla.
“These are the games that make all your sweat, suffering and preparation worth it,” U-20 Men’s National Team head coach and Youth Technical Director Tab Ramos said. “We will also be defending champions for the first time. We have very competitive, technical players in this country, players who are committed to playing hard for the National Team. This particular group is skillful and will represent us well.”
The event will qualify four teams to the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, which will be held in Poland from May 25 to June 16. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) announced that the event will be its largest Under-20 World Cup qualifying tournament ever, with all 34 U-20 member associations participating.
The USA returns to the confederation tournament as defending champions after capturing its first title at the U-20 level in March of 2017, defeating Honduras via penalty kicks in the final following a 0-0 draw.
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The 2018 edition will start with the entire field split into six groups, competing in round robin play. The six group winners will then advance to the qualification stage, comprised of two groups of three teams. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, and the qualification stage group winners will face off in the final to determine the regional champion.
The complete list of participating associations, as well as the first-round match schedule, will be announced at a later date.
