By Canadian Press

Canada learns draw at this summer’s CONCACAF Under-20 Championship in Mexico

Apr 11, 2024 | 10:04 AM

Canada has been drawn with Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic at this summer’s CONCACAF U-20 Championship.

The draw for the 12-country tournament, which runs July 18 to Aug. 4 in Celaya and Irapuato, Mexico, was held Thursday at CONCACAF headquarters in Miami.

“We’re looking forward to heading into Mexico for the 2024 U-20 Championship off the back of some positive performances in the qualifying run,” Canada coach Andrew Olivieri said in a statement. “With this new format to the competition, we knew there would be no easy groups and now we have the clarity we needed of the road ahead.”

The CONCACAF championship will send four teams to the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.

The young Canadians booked their ticket to the CONCACAF Championship in Port-of-Spain in February by winning their qualifying group with victories over Dominica (8-0), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (4-0) and host Trinidad and Tobago (3-0). 

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Honduras and the Dominican Republic received byes to the CONCACAF tournament while El Salvador won its qualifying group with a 3-0-1 record.

Group A is made up of the United States, Costa Rica, Cuba and Jamaica while Group C features host Mexico, Panama, Guatemala and Haiti.

The U.S., Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica also received byes into the tournament.

After round-robin play, the two best teams from each group and two best third-place finishers will advance to the knockout rounds.

Canada won the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in 1986 and 1996, was runner-up in 1978 and 1984 and reached the round of 16 in 2022. But it has not taken part in the FIFA U-20 soccer showcase since it hosted the event in 2007.

Mexico has won the CONCACAF title 13 times and finished runner-up three times. The U.S. won last time out, adding the 2022 title to 2017 and 2018 wins.

Honduras has won the title twice (1983 and 1994) and El Salvador once (1964).

CONCACAF U-20 qualifying ran across five venues in Central America and the Caribbean. Twenty-seven teams were split into three groups of five and three groups of four with the six group winners advancing to the CONCACAF championship.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2024.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press