The qualifying phase of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League was a one-off tournament that took place from 6 September 2018 to 24 March 2019. The qualifying determined the seeding for the group phase of the inaugural tournament, as well as determining the remaining ten teams that qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Format Apart from the six teams which participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying hexagonal, the other 34 teams (Guatemala could not enter due to FIFA suspension after missing the deadline of 1 March 2018) entered qualifying. The format for the qualifying stage was based on the Pots System, developed by Chilean Leandro Shara. Under that format, the teams are divided into pots for scheduling purposes only, and all teams face rivals from each pot, and all teams are placed under one general standing (without groups). Subsequently, the 34 teams were divided into four pots, and each team played four matches, two home and two away. Based on their results in the general standing, the teams were divided into tiers for the group phase of the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Nations League: The top six teams qualified for League A to join the six hexagonal participants. The next sixteen teams qualified for League B. The last twelve teams qualified for League C to join Guatemala.
Moreover, the top ten teams qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup to join the six hexagonal participants.
Tiebreakers The ranking of teams in qualifying was determined as follows:
Points obtained in all qualifying matches; Goal difference in all qualifying matches; Number of goals scored in all qualifying matches; Number of away goals scored in all qualifying matches; Fair play points in all qualifying matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match): Drawing of lots.
Seeding The 34 teams were seeded into four pots based on their position in the March 2018 CONCACAF Ranking Index (shown in parentheses). Pots A and D contained 8 teams, while pots B and C contained 9 teams. Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
+Pot A Team 6 7 9 10 12 13 14 15+Pot B Team 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24+Pot C Team 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33+Pot D Team 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Schedule and match pairings The order of the match pairings per each FIFA match window was as follows:
Matchday Dates Pot pairings Matches Matchday 1 6–11 September 2018 Pot A v Pot D, Pot B v Pot C B2 v C7, A6 v D5, D3 v A8, D8 v A1, C9 v B6, C1 v B8, B3 v C6, A3 v D4, A4 v D6,B9 v C2, D7 v A2, C5 v B4, D2 v A5, A7 v D1, B7 v C8, B1 v C3, C4 v B5 Matchday 2 11–16 October 2018 Pot A v Pot C, Pot B v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C D6 v B7, A2 v C8, B6 v D1, B4 v D4, C6 v A7, B5 v D8, B8 v D5, C3 v B3, D7 v B1,A5 v C9, C7 v A6, C2 v A4, A8 v C1, D2 v B2, D3 v B9, A1 v C4, C5 v A3 Matchday 3 16–20 November 2018 Pot A v Pot B, Pot C v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C C2 v D2, D6 v C4, A1 v B7, D5 v C5, B2 v A8, A4 v B4, B5 v A7, C3 v D8, C8 v D3,D1 v C1, B9 v A5, A3 v B8, C9 v D7, D4 v C6, A6 v B3, B6 v A2, B1 v C7 Matchday 4 21–24 March 2019 Pot A v Pot A, Pot B v Pot B, Pot C v Pot C, Pot D v Pot D, 1 team from Pot B v 1 team from Pot C A8 v A1, B3 v B9, B4 v B6, A7 v A4, C8 v B5, D1 v D2, D4 v D7, B8 v B2, C6 v C9,C7 v C2, A5 v A6, C1 v C3, D5 v D6, B7 v B1, A2 v A3, C4 v C5, D8 v D3
The draw of the qualifying fixtures was held on 7 March 2018, 10:00 EST (UTC−5), at The Temple House in Miami Beach, Florida, United States, directly after the launch event of the CONCACAF Nations League. A computerized pre-draw produced a "master schedule", creating 17 fixtures for each matchday. The teams in each pot were then drawn to the corresponding positions in the schedule (A1–A8, B1–B9, C1–C9, D1–D8). The computer model assured that no teams face each other more than once, and that each team plays two home and two away matches.
The result of the draw was as follows:
+ Pot A Team A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 + Pot B Team B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 + Pot C Team C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 + Pot D Team D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8
Standings
Summary
!colspan=3|Matchday 1
!colspan=3|Matchday 2
!colspan=3|Matchday 3
!colspan=3|Matchday 4
Matches The match dates were announced on 29 May 2018, with the venues announced in August and September 2018. The March 2019 match schedule was revised by CONCACAF in January 2019.
Times in September, October and March are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4), while times in November are Eastern Standard Time (UTC−5), as listed by CONCACAF. If the venue was located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.
Matchday 1
Matchday 2
Matchday 3
Matchday 4
Goalscorers
Qualified teams for CONCACAF Gold Cup
At the end of the CONCACAF Nations League qualifying, the top ten teams qualified for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup together with the six participants of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying Hexagonal (with their Gold Cup qualification confirmed at the draw of CONCACAF Nations League qualifying on 7 March 2018).
Team Qualified as Qualified onPrevious appearances in CONCACAF Gold Cup1only Gold Cup era (since 1991) 14 (1991, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 13 (1991, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 8 (1993, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 13 (1991, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 14 (1991, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 9 (1991, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2015) 6 (2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015) 13 (1991, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 5 (1993, 2002, 2003, 2013, 2017) 1 (2017) 0 (debut) 8 (1998, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015) 0 (debut) 10 (1991, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017) 2 (2009, 2017) 10 (1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Notes
References
External links