| Tourney Name: | CONCACAF Women's Championship |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Country: | United States |
| Dates: | 4 – 17 October |
| Num Teams: | 8 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 3 |
| Cities: | 3 |
| Count: | 8 |
| Matches: | 16 |
| Goals: | 83 |
| Player: | Julie Ertz |
| Young Player: | Jody Brown |
| Goalkeeper: | Yenith Bailey |
| Prevseason: | 2014 |
| Nextseason: | 2022 |
The 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship was the 10th edition of the CONCACAF Women's Championship (also known as the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup or the CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament), the quadrennial international football championship organized by CONCACAF for the women's national teams of the North, Central American and Caribbean region. Eight teams played in the tournament, which took place from 4 to 17 October 2018 in the United States.[1] [2]
The tournament served as the CONCACAF qualifiers to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France. The top three teams qualified for the World Cup, while the fourth-placed team advanced to a play-off against the third-placed team from the South American confederation, CONMEBOL.[3] It also determined the CONCACAF teams playing at the 2019 Pan American Games women's football tournament in Lima, Peru.[4]
The United States were the defending champions of the competition. They successfully defended their title as hosts, winning the final 2–0 against Canada for their 8th CONCACAF Women's Championship title.[5]
This was the last CONCACAF tournament branded as the "Women's Championship". In August 2019, CONCACAF announced a rebranding of the competition as the CONCACAF W Championship.[6]
Regional qualification tournaments were held to determine the teams playing in the final tournament.
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. Canada, Mexico, and the United States, as members of the North American Football Union (NAFU), qualified automatically. Two teams from the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) and three teams from the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) qualified from their regional qualifying competitions.
| width=20% | Team | width=15% | Qualification | width=15% data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | width=20% | Previous best performance | width=15% | Previous FIFA Women's World Cup appearances | width=15% | FIFA ranking at start of event[7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North American Zone (NAFU) | |||||||||||
| Automatic | 9th | (1998, 2010) | 6 | 5 | |||||||
| Automatic | 9th | (1998, 2010) | 3 | 24 | |||||||
| (title holders & hosts) | Automatic | 9th | (1991, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014) | 7 | 1 | ||||||
| Central American winners | 7th | (2014) | 1 | 34 | |||||||
| Central American runners-up | 3rd | (2002, 2006) | 0 | 66 | |||||||
| Caribbean winners | 6th | (2006) | 0 | 64 | |||||||
| Caribbean runners-up | 10th | (1991) | 0 | 52 | |||||||
| Caribbean third place | 1st | 0 | 88 | ||||||||
The venues were announced by CONCACAF on 8 April 2018. Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, North Carolina and H-E-B Park in Edinburg, Texas hosted the group stage matches, while Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas hosted the four matches in the knockout stage.[8]
| Cary, North Carolina | Edinburg, Texas | Frisco, Texas | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sahlen's Stadium | H-E-B Park | Toyota Stadium | |
| Capacity: 10,000 | Capacity: 9,735 | Capacity: 20,500 | |
The draw for the final tournament was held on 4 September 2018, 10:00 EDT (UTC−4), at the Univision Studios in Miami, Florida, United States.[9] [10] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. They were seeded into four pots. Pot 1 contained the United States, seeded in Group A, and Canada, seeded in Group B. The remaining six teams were allocated to Pots 2–4 based on the CONCACAF Women's Rankings. The two teams from UNCAF could not be drawn into the same group.
See main article: 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship squads.
The provisional 35-player roster (4 must be goalkeepers) for each team was announced by CONCACAF on 10 September 2018.[11] The final 20-player roster (2 must be goalkeepers) for each team was announced by CONCACAF on 26 September 2018.[12] After the final 20-player roster was submitted, only injury-related changes would be submitted until 24 hours before each team's first match.[13]
The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.
All times are local, EDT (UTC−4).[14]
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All times are local, CDT (UTC−5).[14]
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In the semi-finals, if the match was level at the end of 90 minutes, no extra time would be played and the match would be decided by a penalty shoot-out. In the third place match and final, if the match was level at the end of 90 minutes, extra time would be played, and if still tied after extra time, the match would be decided by a penalty shoot-out (Regulations Article 12.14).[13]
All times are local, CDT (UTC−5).[14]
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Canada and United States qualified for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Panama and Jamaica entered into the third place play-off.
Jamaica qualified for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Panama entered CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off vs. Argentina.
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.[15]
| Award | Player | |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Ball | Julie Ertz | |
| Golden Boot | Alex Morgan (7 goals) | |
| Golden Glove | Yenith Bailey | |
| Young Player | Jody Brown | |
| Fair Play |
| +Best XI | ||||||||
| Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| valign=top | Yenith Bailey | valign=top | valign=top | valign=top |
The following three teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Panama failed to qualify losing out the play-off to 2018 Copa América Femenina third-placed team, Argentina.
| Team | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in FIFA Women's World Cup1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| [16] | 6 (1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015) | ||
| 7 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015) | |||
| [17] | 0 (debut) |
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
The tournament was used to determine the four teams from CONCACAF which would qualify for the 2019 Pan American Games women's football tournament. The top team from each of the three zones, i.e., Caribbean (CFU), Central American (UNCAF), and North American (NAFU), would qualify, with the fourth team to be determined by CONCACAF at a later date.[4] However, both United States and Canada declined to participate to focus on the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, so Mexico qualified for the North American berth.[18]
| Team | Zone | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in Pan American Games2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (2007) | ||||
| 1 (2007) | ||||
| (confirmed by CONCACAF) | 5 (1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015) | |||
| (confirmed by CONCACAF) | 4 (1999, 2003, 2011, 2015) |
2 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
In the 89th minute of the final match, Alex Morgan was offside when she scored the second goal for the USA, but the referee did not invalidate the goal.[19] Video assistant referee was not used in this tournament.