2018 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship

2018 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship
Tournament details
Host countries	Nicaragua; United States
City	Managua; Bradenton, Florida
Dates	19–21 April, 6–12 June
Teams	8
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	United States (4th title)
Runners-up	Mexico
Third place	Canada
Fourth place	Haiti
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	69 (4.6 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Melchie Dumonay; Sunshine Fontes; (5 goals each)
Best player(s)	Melchie Dumonay
Best goalkeeper	Angelina Anderson
Fair play award	United States

The 2018 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship was the 6th edition of the CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by CONCACAF for the women's under-17 national teams of the North, Central American and Caribbean region. The tournament was initially to be hosted by Nicaragua, and was planned to take place between 19–29 April 2018, as announced by CONCACAF on 5 December 2017.[1] A total of eight teams participated in the tournament.

On 22 April 2018, four days into the tournament, CONCACAF announced the remainder of the championship was cancelled immediately due to security concerns caused by civil unrest in Nicaragua.[2][3] On 11 May 2018, CONCACAF announced the tournament would resume play on 6 June and conclude on 12 June 2018, with the remainder of the tournament hosted at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, United States. Six teams played in the remainder of the tournament, as Nicaragua and Puerto Rico were already eliminated and were set to face each other in their last match.[4]

The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay as the CONCACAF representatives.[5]

Defending champions United States defeated Mexico in the final to win their fourth title.

Qualification

Regional qualification tournaments were held to determine the teams playing in the final tournament.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualification	Appearance	Previous best performances	Previous FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup appearances
North American Zone (NAFU)
Canada	Automatic	6th	Champions (2010)	5
Mexico	Automatic	6th	Champions (2013)	4
United States	Automatic	6th	Champions (2008, 2012, 2016)	3
Central American Zone (UNCAF) qualified through Central American qualifying competition[6]
Nicaragua	Hosts	1st	Debut	0
Costa Rica	Group stage winners	4th	Runners-up (2008)	2
Caribbean Zone (CFU) qualified through Caribbean qualifying competition[7]
Haiti	Final round winners	4th	Fourth place (2016)	0
Bermuda	Final round runners-up	1st	Debut	0
Puerto Rico	Final round third place	2nd	Group stage (2008)	0

Venues

All matches of the original tournament in Nicaragua were played at Nicaragua National Football Stadium in Managua. All matches of the rescheduled tournament were played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Draw

The draw of the tournament was held on 31 January 2018, 15:00 EST (UTC−5), at the CONCACAF Headquarters in Miami.[8][9]

The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. Tournament hosts Nicaragua were seeded in position A1, while defending champions United States were seeded in position B1. The remaining six teams were allocated to pots 2–3, and drawn to the remaining six positions.[10]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Nicaragua (Position A1) United States (Position B1)	Canada Mexico	Bermuda Costa Rica Haiti Puerto Rico

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2001 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team must register a squad of 20 players, two of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 15.C.2).[11]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 18.A.5):[11]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CST (UTC−6) for Nicaragua and EDT (UTC−4) for the United States.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	3	2	1	0	16	1	+15	7	Knockout stage
2	Haiti	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	7	Knockout stage
3	Puerto Rico	2	0	0	2	1	11	−10	0
4	Nicaragua (H)	2	0	0	2	0	10	−10	0

Source: CONCACAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Host.

19 April 2018