CONCACAF announces schedule for 2021 Olympic qualifying tournament

Concacaf has announced the schedule for the 2021 (men’s) Olympic qualifying tournament which will take place in Guadalajara. The tournament will start on March 18, and the final will be held on March 30th. The matches will take place in Estadio Jalisco and Estadio Akron, with the final to be held in the latter. There are two spots for the Olympic games which will be given to the semifinals winners, with the Final only giving the U23 Concacaf Champions title.

Mexico will be hosting the tournament and is in Group A. They will start their tournament with a match on March 18th against the Dominican Republic in Estadio Jalisco. Mexico will then play against Costa Rica on March 21st in Estadio Akron, and they will close out against the United States on March 24th in Estadio Jalisco. Should they finish in the top two spots of the Group, they would play in the Semifinals on March 28th in Estadio Jalisco, where both semifinals will take place on the same day. The final will be held in Estadio Akron on March 30th.

Group A will consist of Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic while Group B will consist of Honduras, Canada, El Salvador and Haiti. Like in Group A, the matches will take places in the same order of the stadium but a day before (Estadio Jalisco for Game 1, Estadio Akron for Game 2 and Game 3 to be played back in Estadio Jalisco). Mexico has won the last two U23 Concacaf Championships (2012 and 2016) after failing to qualify in 2008. Mexico last hosted a Olympic Qualifying tournament in 2004 when they won the title after beating Costa Rica 1-0, shown here:

There is no official word yet but it’s likely that there will be no fans for the games, although rumors and the fact Mexico had crowds for the baseball Caribbean series being held in Mazatlan, Sinaloa this week might mean that the organizers might try to have fans for the matches.