1988 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament explained

Tourney Name:	CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament
Year:	1988
Num Teams:	6
Confederations:	1
Matches:	11
Prevseason:	1984
Nextseason:	1992

The 1988 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament was the seventh edition of the CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament, the quadrennial, international football tournament organised by the CONCACAF to determine which national teams from the North, Central America and Caribbean region qualify for the Olympic football tournament.^[1]

United States and Guatemala qualified for the 1988 Summer Olympics: Mexico had originally qualified, but were disqualified after receiving a two-year suspension by FIFA arising from the Cachirules scandal.

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Zone	Country	Method of qualification	Appearance¹	Last appearance	Previous best performance	width=10%	Previous Olympic appearances (last)
North America		First round winners	4th	1976	Winners (1964, 1972, 1976)
North America		First round winners	4th	1980	Runners-up (1972, 1980)
Central America		First round winners	2nd	1968	Final round winner without outright champions (1968)
Central America		First round winners	4th	1976	Runners-up (1976)
Caribbean		Second round winners	1st	0 (debut)	Debutant
Caribbean		Second round winners	2nd	1968	Final round (1968)

¹ Only final tournament.

Final round

Group A

Note: The match between Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador scheduled for 29 May 1988 was scratched by mutual agreement between the two countries.

Group B

Notes

The match between Mexico and Guyana, scheduled for 9 December 1987, was abandoned after fifteen members of the Guyanese squad defected and asked for political asylum while on a training camp in California, leaving them unable to field a team for the match. Mexico were awarded a 2–0 victory by CONCACAF.
As Mexico were disqualified after their federation received a two-year suspension by FIFA, Guatemala took their place in the final tournament.

Notes and References

News: About . CONCACAF . https://web.archive.org/web/20210628210028/https://www.concacaf.com/en/olympics-qualifying-men/about/ . 10 August 2021. 2021-06-28 .