Football at the 2011 Pan American Games – Men's tournament explained

Event:	Men's football tournament
Games:	2011
Venue:	Estadio Omnilife
Dates:	19 – 28 October
Competitors:	144
Nations:	8
Win Label:	Winning score
Prev:	2007
Next:	2015

The men's association football tournament at the 2011 Pan American Games was held in Guadalajara, Mexico at the Estadio Omnilife from 19 to 28 October 2011. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to send their men's U-22 national teams, with 3 no-age-limit players per team allowed.^[1] Ecuador were the defending champions from the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, defeating Jamaica 2–1, but they were eliminated during the group stage.

For these Games, the men competed in an eight-team tournament, which is a drop from 12 at the 2007 games. Preliminary matches commenced on 19 October. The teams were grouped into two pools of four teams each for a round-robin preliminary round. The top two teams in each pool advanced to a four-team single-elimination bracket.

Mexico won the gold medal for the fourth time in this competition, defeating six-time gold-medalists Argentina in the tournament's final. Uruguay took the bronze medal.

Teams

Qualification

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Qualified
Host Nation	–	–	1
CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament	28 March – 10 April 2011	Guatemala	3*	*
CONMEBOL Qualifying Tournament	12 March – 9 April 2011	Ecuador	4
TOTAL			8

The highest finisher from each the Caribbean and Central American regions will qualify, along with the best qualifying team from either region.^[2]
Guatemala later withdrew due to issues of discipline within the team. They were replaced by Trinidad and Tobago, after Honduras and Panama who finished ahead of Trinidad and Tobago declined to participate.^[3]

Squads

See main article: Football at the 2011 Pan American Games – Men's team squads. The men's tournament is a full international tournament with a U-22 age limit. Each nation must submit a squad of 18 players September 2011. A minimum of two goalkeepers (plus one optional alternate goalkeeper) must be included in the squad.

Format

Eight teams are split into 2 preliminary round groups of 4 teams each. The top 2 teams from each group qualify for the knockout stage.
The third and fourth placed teams are eliminated from the competition.
In the semifinals, the matchups are as follows: A1 vs. B2 and B1 vs. A2
The winning teams from the semifinals play for the gold medal. The losing teams compete for the bronze medal.

Preliminary round

All times are local Central Daylight Time (UTC-5)^[4]

width=10px bgcolor="#ccffcc"		Qualified for the Semifinals

Group A

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Match was moved to 25 October, because of a volcanic eruption spewed ash clouds in Chile which prevented the team from Uruguay to travel to Guadalajara in time.^[5]