UNCAF U-20: El Salvador, Guatemala claim CONCACAF spots
PANAMA CITY, Panama – The Central American qualifying tournament for the 2017 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship came to an exciting conclusion Saturday as the region’s final pair of berths were decided.
After Guatemala (5 points, GD 0) fell 1-0 to Nicaragua in the opener of a doubleheader at the Estadio Maracana, a draw between host Panama and El Salvador – both on four points and possessing positive goal differentials -- would have been enough to see both progress.
The Salvadorans, however, had different ideas, scoring a goal in each half through Denilson Rosales (16’) and Roberto Dominguez (59’ pen) to finish in second place with a 2-0 win. That result eliminated Panama, which ended the encounter with 10 players following the ejections of Cesar Blackman (51’) and Adalberto Carrasquilla (87’), and saw Guatemala grab the third spot.
Idle and unbeaten Honduras topped the five-team table with eight points.
The next CONCACAF Under-20 Championship will be held in Costa Rica February 17-March 5, 2017, at the Estadio Nacional and the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Ayma. The field will consist of twelve teams – host Costa Rica; Central American qualifiers El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras; automatic North American entrants Canada, Mexico and the United States; and five teams yet to be determined from the Caribbean.
2016 UNCAF UNDER-20 QUALIFYING
Estadio Maracana – El Chorrillo, Panama City, Panama
July 8–16, 2016
Team GP W D L GF GA P
xHonduras 4 2 2 0 7 4 8
xEl Salvador 4 2 1 1 9 4 7
xGuatemala 4 1 2 1 5 5 5
Panama 4 1 1 2 7 4 4
Nicaragua 4 1 0 3 1 12 3