2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League

2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying:; 6 September 2018 –; 24 March 2019; League phase:; 5 September –; 19 November 2019; Nations League Finals:; 3–6 June 2021
Teams	41
Final positions
Champions	United States (1st title)
Runners-up	Mexico
Third place	Honduras
Fourth place	Costa Rica
Tournament statistics
Matches played	106
Goals scored	337 (3.18 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Gleofilo Vlijter (10 goals)
Best player(s)	Weston McKennie
Best goalkeeper	Luis López
Fair play award	Barbados

The 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League was the inaugural season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The Nations League qualifying tournament also served as part of the qualifying process for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which was expanded from twelve to sixteen teams. The group stage of the tournament also served as qualification for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The final tournament, which decided the inaugural champions, was originally scheduled to be played in June 2020. On 3 April 2020, the final tournament was postponed until March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]^[3] On 22 September 2020, CONCACAF announced that the final tournament was again rescheduled until June 2021.^[4] On 24 February 2021, CONCACAF confirmed the dates for the rescheduled Nations League Finals, 3 and 6 June 2021 with the venue later confirmed as Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado.^[5]

Format

The format proposals were first formally investigated at the XXXII CONCACAF Ordinary Congress in Oranjestad, Aruba on 8 April 2017.^[6] The tournament was officially confirmed by CONCACAF in November 2017.^[7] The format and schedule of the Nations Leagues was announced on 7 March 2018, 10:00 EST (UTC−5), at The Temple House in Miami Beach, Florida, United States.^[8]^[9]

The Nations League began with a one-off qualifying phase, played across four matchdays from September 2018 to March 2019. The results determined the composition of the leagues for the group phase of the tournament. Apart from the six teams which participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying hexagonal, the other 34 teams (Guatemala could not enter due to FIFA suspension) entered qualifying. Each team played four matches, two home and two away, with the results compiled into an aggregate table. Based on the standings, the teams were divided into tiers for the group phase of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. Moreover, the top ten teams in the qualifying phase qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, joining the six hexagonal participants.^[10]^[11]

The group phase of the Nations League, consisting of three tiered leagues, was played in the official FIFA match windows in September, October, and November 2019. All eligible teams were assigned by sporting performance into Leagues A, B, and C. Each league was sub-divided into four groups, featuring promotion and relegation, in which the teams competed in a home-and-away, round-robin format over the course of the group phase.^[12]

League A contained twelve teams, split into four groups of three teams. The six hexagonal participants were joined by the top six teams from qualifying. The four group winners qualified for the Nations League final championship, played in June 2021, which determined the champions of the new competition. The four teams which finished last in their group were relegated to League B for the next edition of the tournament.

League B consisted of sixteen teams, split into four groups of four teams. The league contained teams which finished from 7th to 22nd in qualifying. The four group winners were promoted to League A, while the four teams which finished last in their group were relegated to League C for the next edition.

League C consisted of the remaining thirteen member associations, the teams which finished 23rd to 34th in qualifying, along with Guatemala, who did not enter qualifying. The league contained four groups, with three groups of three teams and one group of four teams. The four group winners were promoted to League B for the next edition of the competition.

In September 2019, it was announced that the Nations League would also provide qualification for all sixteen teams participating in the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup (no teams would qualify automatically).^[13]

The following teams qualified for the Gold Cup after group play concluded in November 2019:

The top two teams from each of the four League A groups
The winners of each of the four League B groups

Initially, the final four spots at the Gold Cup were to be determined by two-legged matches between the second-place finishers of League B and the first-place finishers of League C, to be played in March 2020. The four winners of this round would then advance to the second round, to face the third-place finishers of League A, in matches to be played in June 2020. The four matchup winners of the second round would qualify for the 2021 Gold Cup. However, following the COVID-19 pandemic, this format was changed. In July 2020, CONCACAF announced that the qualifiers would be played by the twelve aforementioned teams as a centralized preliminary round in the United States, in the week prior to the 2021 Gold Cup group stage.^[14] In September 2020, CONCACAF announced that Qatar were invited to the Gold Cup as guests, and that the qualification tournament would determine the last three teams to participate in the group stage of the Gold Cup. The qualification tournament will feature two rounds, with the twelve participating teams divided into six one-off ties in the first round. The six winners will advance to the second round, with the winners of the three one-off matches qualifying for the Gold Cup.^[15]

Tiebreakers

The ranking of teams in each group was determined as follows (Regulations Article 12.7):^[16]

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;
Number of away goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question (if the tie was only between two teams);
Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match):
- Yellow card: −1 points;
- Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points;
- Direct red card: −4 points;
- Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points;
Drawing of lots.

Entrants

All of CONCACAF's 41 member associations participated in the competition.^[17] The six teams which participated in the fifth round (hexagonal) of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification received automatic entry into League A. Of the remaining 35 teams, 34 entered into qualifying to determine which league they entered. The National Football Federation of Guatemala was suspended by FIFA in October 2016,^[18] and therefore Guatemala was ineligible to enter qualifying after missing the deadline of 1 March 2018.^[19] However, as the suspension was lifted by FIFA in May 2018,^[20] they automatically entered into League C of the group phase.

Key to colours
2018 WCQ Hexagonal participants automatically in League A
Remaining CONCACAF members compete in qualifying
Association suspended at deadline to enter qualifying automatically in League C

Rank	Team	Pts^[17]
1	Mexico	2,047
2	United States	1,853
3	Costa Rica	1,845
4	Panama	1,700
5	Honduras	1,669
6	Jamaica	1,516
7	Canada	1,448
8	Guatemala^{[lower-alpha 1]}	1,417
9	Haiti	1,348
10	El Salvador	1,347
11	Trinidad and Tobago	1,339
12	Martinique^{[lower-alpha 2]}	1,271
13	Cuba	1,146
14	French Guiana^{[lower-alpha 2]}	1,108
15	Guadeloupe^{[lower-alpha 2]}	1,089
16	Nicaragua	1,032
17	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1,023
18	Curaçao	1,018
19	Suriname	991
20	Antigua and Barbuda	946
21	Dominican Republic	925

Rank	Team	Pts^[17]
22	Bermuda	924
23	Guyana	914
24	Belize	853
25	Bonaire^{[lower-alpha 2]}	799
26	Grenada	795
27	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	793
28	Saint Lucia	773
29	Barbados	731
30	Puerto Rico	693
31	Bahamas	627
32	Dominica	563
33	Aruba	559
34	Cayman Islands	543
35	Turks and Caicos Islands	483
36	Montserrat	435
37	U.S. Virgin Islands	401
38	Saint Martin^{[lower-alpha 2]}	352
39	Sint Maarten^{[lower-alpha 2]}	336
40	Anguilla	261
41	British Virgin Islands	261

Notes

↑ Guatemala was suspended by FIFA in October 2016, and therefore was ineligible to enter qualifying after missing the entry deadline of 1 March 2018.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Full CONCACAF member, but not a FIFA member.

Schedule

Below was the schedule of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League.

The Nations League Finals were originally scheduled for the international window from 23 to 31 March 2020. However, on 5 August 2019 CONCACAF announced that the tournament would instead be played in June 2020.^[21] The schedule for the tournament was announced on 9 March 2020, with the semi-finals on 4 June, and the third place play-off and final on 7 June 2020.^[22] On 3 April 2020, the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] On 27 July 2020, CONCACAF announced that the tournament would be held in the international window from 22 to 30 March 2021.^[3] However, due to the postponement of the first round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, on 22 September 2020 CONCACAF announced that the final tournament would be held in June 2021.^[4]

Stage	Round	Dates
Qualifying	Matchday 1	6–11 September 2018
	Matchday 2	11–16 October 2018
	Matchday 3	16–20 November 2018
	Matchday 4	21–24 March 2019
League phase	Matchday 1	5–7 September 2019
	Matchday 2	8–10 September 2019
	Matchday 3	10–12 October 2019
	Matchday 4	13–15 October 2019
	Matchday 5	14–16 November 2019
	Matchday 6	17–19 November 2019
Finals	Semi-finals	3 June 2021
	Third place play-off	6 June 2021
	Final	6 June 2021

The fixture list for the group phase was confirmed by CONCACAF on 21 May 2019.^[23]^[24]^[25]

Qualifying

The draw for the qualifying fixtures was held on 7 March 2018 directly after the launch event of the CONCACAF Nations League.^[8] The 34 teams were seeded into four pots based on their position in the March 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index. A computerized pre-draw produced a "master schedule", creating 17 fixtures for each matchday. The teams in each pot were then drawn to the corresponding positions in the schedule. The computer model assured that no teams would face each other more than once, and that each team would play two home and two away matches.^[26]^[27] Based on their results, the teams were divided into tiers for the main round of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. Moreover, the top ten teams qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup to join the six hexagonal participants.^[9]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Haiti	4	4	0	0	19	2	+17	12	Qualification for League A and 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup
2	Canada	4	4	0	0	18	1	+17	12
3	Martinique	4	4	0	0	10	2	+8	12
4	Curaçao	4	3	0	1	22	2	+20	9
5	Bermuda	4	3	0	1	17	4	+13	9
6	Cuba	4	3	0	1	15	2	+13	9
7	Guyana	4	3	0	1	14	3	+11	9	Qualification for League B and 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup
8	Jamaica	4	3	0	1	12	3	+9	9
9	Nicaragua	4	3	0	1	9	2	+7	9
10	El Salvador	4	3	0	1	7	2	+5	9
11	Montserrat	4	3	0	1	6	3	+3	9	Qualification for League B
12	Suriname	4	2	1	1	8	2	+6	7
13	Saint Lucia	4	2	1	1	7	4	+3	7
14	Dominica	4	2	1	1	6	5	+1	7
15	Saint Kitts and Nevis	4	2	0	2	11	3	+8	6
16	Dominican Republic	4	2	0	2	9	4	+5	6
17	Belize	4	2	0	2	6	3	+3	6
18	Antigua and Barbuda	4	2	0	2	10	8	+2	6
19	French Guiana	4	2	0	2	8	6	+2	6
20	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	4	2	0	2	5	6	−1	6
21	Grenada	4	2	0	2	7	14	−7	6
22	Aruba	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1	4
23	Guadeloupe	4	1	1	2	3	7	−4	4	Qualification for League C
24	Turks and Caicos Islands	4	1	1	2	5	23	−18	4
25	Barbados	4	1	0	3	3	7	−4	3
26	Bonaire	4	1	0	3	3	14	−11	3
27	U.S. Virgin Islands	4	1	0	3	3	16	−13	3
28	Sint Maarten	4	1	0	3	4	30	−26	3
29	Cayman Islands	4	0	1	3	1	9	−8	1
30	British Virgin Islands	4	0	1	3	3	13	−10	1
31	Anguilla	4	0	1	3	1	15	−14	1^{[lower-alpha 1]}
32	Bahamas	4	0	1	3	1	15	−14	1^{[lower-alpha 1]}
33	Puerto Rico	4	0	0	4	0	5	−5	0
34	Saint Martin	4	0	0	4	5	22	−17	0

Source: CONCACAF
Rules for classification: Qualifying tiebreakers
Notes:

1 2 Away goals: Anguilla 1, Bahamas 0.

Seeding

The 41 CONCACAF members were allocated into pots of the league for which they qualified. Teams were seeded into pots based on their position in the November 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index.^[28] League A had three pots of four teams, while League B had four pots of four teams. League C had three pots, with pots 1 and 2 featuring four teams each, and pot 3 featuring five teams.^[29]^[30]

Map showing the leagues each national team participated in.

League A

League B

League C

League A
Pot	Team	Pts	Rank
1	Mexico	1,998	1
	United States	1,863	2
	Costa Rica	1,752	3
	Honduras	1,630	4
2	Panama	1,579	5
	Canada	1,471	7
	Haiti	1,359	10
	Trinidad and Tobago	1,342	11
3	Martinique	1,286	12
	Cuba	1,152	13
	Curaçao	1,079	15
	Bermuda	865	23

League B
Pot	Team	Pts	Rank
1	Jamaica	1,507	6
	El Salvador	1,380	9
	Nicaragua	1,083	14
	French Guiana	1,057	16
2	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1,018	18
	Dominican Republic	983	19
	Suriname	975	20
	Guyana	953	21
3	Antigua and Barbuda	930	22
	Belize	831	24
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	821	25
	Saint Lucia	813	26
4	Grenada	749	28
	Aruba	638	31
	Dominica	593	32
	Montserrat	478	35

League C
Pot	Team	Pts	Rank
1	Guatemala	1,419	8
	Guadeloupe	1,054	17
	Bonaire	766	27
	Barbados	707	29
2	Puerto Rico	665	30
	Bahamas	582	33
	Cayman Islands	532	34
	Turks and Caicos Islands	453	36
3	U.S. Virgin Islands	392	37
	Saint Martin	338	38
	Sint Maarten	328	39
	British Virgin Islands	257	40
	Anguilla	250	41

The draw for the group phase took place at The Chelsea Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on 27 March 2019, 22:00 EDT (19:00 local time, PDT).^[31]^[32]

League A

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	United States	4	3	1	15	3	+12	9	Qualification for Finals and Gold Cup	—	4–1	7–0
2	Canada	4	3	1	10	4	+6	9	Qualification for Gold Cup	2–0	—	6–0
3	Cuba (R)	4	0	4	0	18	−18	0	Gold Cup prelims and League B	0–4	0–1	—

Source: CONCACAF
(R) Relegated

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Mexico	4	4	0	13	3	+10	12	Qualification for Finals and Gold Cup	—	3–1	2–1
2	Panama	4	1	3	5	9	−4	3	Qualification for Gold Cup	0–3	—	0–2
3	Bermuda (R)	4	1	3	5	11	−6	3	Gold Cup prelims and League B	1–5	1–4	—

Source: CONCACAF
(R) Relegated

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Honduras	4	3	1	0	8	1	+7	10	Qualification for Finals and Gold Cup	—	1–0	4–0
2	Martinique	4	0	3	1	4	5	−1	3	Qualification for Gold Cup	1–1	—	1–1
3	Trinidad and Tobago (R)	4	0	2	2	3	9	−6	2	Gold Cup prelims and League B	0–2	2–2	—

Source: CONCACAF
(R) Relegated

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Costa Rica	4	1	3	0	4	3	+1	6	Qualification for Finals and Gold Cup	—	0–0	1–1
2	Curaçao	4	1	2	1	3	3	0	5	Qualification for Gold Cup, later withdrew^{[lower-alpha 1]}	1–2	—	1–0
3	Haiti (R)	4	0	3	1	3	4	−1	3	Gold Cup prelims and League B	1–1	1–1	—

Source: CONCACAF
(R) Relegated
Notes:

↑ Curaçao, who had originally qualified for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup through the Nations League, eventually had to withdraw just before the start of the tournament due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in the team.

Nations League Finals

Seeding

The four teams were ranked based on their results in the group stage to determine the semi-final matchups.

Seed	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	B	Mexico	4	4	0	0	13	3	+10	12
2	C	Honduras	4	3	1	0	8	1	+7	10
3	A	United States (H)	4	3	0	1	15	3	+12	9
4	D	Costa Rica	4	1	3	0	4	3	+1	6

Source: CONCACAF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) away goals scored; 5) disciplinary points; 6) drawing of lots (Regulations Article 12.9).^[33]
(H) Hosts

Bracket

Semi-finals		Final

3 June 2021 – Denver

Honduras	0
		6 June 2021 – Denver
United States	1
		United States (a.e.t.)	3
3 June 2021 – Denver
		Mexico	2
Mexico (p)	0 (5)

Costa Rica	0 (4)
		Third place play-off

		6 June 2021 – Denver

		Honduras (p)	2 (5)

		Costa Rica	2 (4)

All times are local, MDT (UTC−6).

Semi-finals

3 June 2021

17:30^{[note 1]}

Honduras	0–1	United States
	Report	Siebatcheu 89'

Empower Field at Mile High, Denver

Attendance: 34,451^[36]

Referee: Oshane Nation (Jamaica)

3 June 2021

20:00^{[note 2]}

Mexico	0–0	Costa Rica
	Report
Penalties
Antuna Lozano Pineda Pulido Romo Gallardo	5–4	Venegas Duarte Alfaro Lassiter Calvo Cruz

Empower Field at Mile High, Denver

Attendance: 34,451^[36]

Referee: Bryan López (Guatemala)

Third place play-off

6 June 2021

16:30^{[note 3]}

Honduras	2–2	Costa Rica
E. Rodríguez 48' Elis 80'	Report	Campbell 8' Calvo 85'
Penalties
A. López Elis Benguché Toro Acosta Alvarado	5–4	Venegas Calvo Lassiter Torres Mora Tejeda

Empower Field at Mile High, Denver

Attendance: 37,648^[40]

Referee: Reon Radix (Grenada)

Final

June 6, 2021

19:00^{[note 4]}

United States	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Mexico
Reyna 27' McKennie 82' Pulisic 114' (pen.)	Report	Corona 2' Lainez 79'

Empower Field at Mile High, Denver

Attendance: 37,648^[40]

Referee: John Pitti (Panama)