2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying explained

Tourney Name:CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying
Year:2008
Other Titles:CONCACAF MEN'S OLYMPIC QUALIFYING BEIJING 2008
Country:United States
Dates:11 – 23 March
Num Teams:8
Confederations:1
Venues:3
Cities:3
Count:2
Matches:16
Goals:36
Top Scorer: Freddy Adu
Prevseason:2004
Nextseason:2012
Updated:27 April 2009

The 2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying was the twelfth edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted football tournament organized by CONCACAF to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the North, Central America and Caribbean region qualify for the Olympic football tournament. It was held in the United States, from 11 and 23 March 2008.[1]

Honduras won the title after with a 1–0 win over the United States in the final. As the top two teams, Honduras and the United States both qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in China as the CONCACAF representatives.[2]

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

ZoneCountryMethod of qualificationAppearance1Last appearancePrevious best performancewidth=10%Previous Olympic appearances
(last)
North America
(title holders)
Automatic 9th2004Winners (1964, 1972, 1976, 1996, 2004)9 (2004)
Automatic6th2004Runners-up (1984, 1996)3 (1984)
(hosts)Automatic8th2004Winners (1988, 1992)13 (2000)
Central AmericaTriangular 1 winners4th2004Winners (2000)1 (2000)
Triangular 2 winners6th2000Final round winner without outright champions (1968)3 (1988)
Play-off winners4th2004Fourth place (1964)0
CaribbeanSecond round winners3rd1984Third place (1976, 1984)2 (1980)
Second round winners1st0 (debut)Debutant0

1 Only final tournament.

Venues

Three cities served as the venues for the tournament.

Tampa, Florida
(Tampa Bay Area)
Carson, California
(Los Angeles Area)
Nashville, Tennessee
Raymond James StadiumHome Depot CenterLP Field
Capacity: 65,856Capacity: 27,000Capacity: 69,143

Squads

See main article: article and 2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying squads.

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Bracket

Semi-finals

The semi-final winners qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

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Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

4 goals [3]
3 goals
2 goals

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.

+ Best XI[4]
GoalkeeperDefendersMidfieldersForwards
valign=top Kevin Hernándezvalign=top Carlos Castrillo
Oscar Morales
Michael Orozco
valign=top Nelson Barahona
José Manuel Contreras
Maurice Edu
Dax McCarty
valign=top Freddy Adu
Leonel Duarte
Will Johnson

Final ranking

Qualified teams for 2008 Summer Olympics

The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics Men's football tournament.

TeamQualified ondata-sort-type="number"Previous appearances in Summer Olympics1
(2000)
(1904, 1924, 1928, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1972, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)

1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Cuban defections

Following the Cuban draw against the United States, seven Cuban players defected, leaving the team with only 11 players which was reduced to 10 against Honduras. Cuba played its final game against Panama with no players available as substitutes because Roberto Linares was sent off from Cuba's match against the United States causing him to be automatically suspended for the team's next match.[5]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Campeonato Sub-23 CONCACAF se jugará en los USA. CONCACAF. 6 November 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071223152454/http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/u23champship/viewArticle.asp?id=4005. 2007-12-23.
  2. News: Honduras claim first-place in CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualification; Canada finish third. CONCACAF. 23 March 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080327150938/http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=4129. 2008-03-27.
  3. http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=4128 2008 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualification All-Tournament Team unveiled
  4. News: 2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualification All-Tournament Team unveiled . CONCACAF. 22 March 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080326153733/http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=4128 . 2008-03-26 .
  5. News: Cuba calls soccer desertions in US a "low blow". March 14, 2008. Associated Press.