2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League qualifying explained

Tourney Name:	CONCACAF Nations League qualifying
Year:	2019–20
Num Teams:	34
Matches:	68
Goals:	264

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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)^[3] entered qualifying. The format for the qualifying stage was based on the Pots System, developed by Chilean Leandro Shara.^[4] 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:^[2] ^[5]

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:^[6]

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.^[1] ^[7]

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:^[1]

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:^[8]

+ Pot A
	width=190	Team
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
A8

+ Pot B
	width=190	Team
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
B8
B9

+ Pot C
	width=190	Team
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6
C7
C8
C9

+ Pot D
	width=190	Team
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
D8

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,^[9] ^[10] ^[11] with the venues announced in August and September 2018.^[12] ^[13] ^[14] The March 2019 match schedule was revised by CONCACAF in January 2019.^[15]

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

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Matchday 2

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Matchday 3

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Matchday 4

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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).^[8]

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	data-sort-type="number"	Previous appearances in CONCACAF Gold Cup¹ only 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 and References

News: CONCACAF Nations League to Kickoff this September with Qualifiers . CONCACAF.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 5 March 2018 . 5 March 2018 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180306082549/http://www.concacaf.com/article/concacaf-nations-league-to-kickoff-this-september-with-qualifiers-featuring-34-national-teams . 6 March 2018.
News: CONCACAF Nations League Officially Launched . CONCACAFNationsLeague.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 7 March 2018 . 7 March 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180902011929/https://www.concacafnationsleague.com/en/article/concacaf-nations-league-officially-launched . 2 September 2018.
News: Suspensión de la Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala . Suspension of the National Football Federation of Guatemala . CONCACAF.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 12 December 2017 . 13 July 2018 . es . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180713074115/http://www.concacaf.com/es/article/suspension-de-la-federacion-nacional-de-futbol-de-guatemala-133689 . 13 July 2018.
Web site: CONCACAF takes up revolutionary new system for Nations League | KeirRadnedge.com. 11 March 2023.
Web site: CONCACAF Nations League Draw Procedure . CONCACAFNationsLeague.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 7 March 2018 . 7 March 2018 . 8 March 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180308042742/https://concacafnationsleague.com/en/video/concacaf-nations-league-draw-procedure . dead .
News: CONCACAF Nations League FAQ . canadasoccer.com . . 6 September 2018 . 8 September 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180908171419/https://www.canadasoccer.com/concacaf-nations-league-faq-p161791-preview-1 . 8 September 2018.
News: CONCACAF Launches New Ranking Index . CONCACAFNationsLeague.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 2 March 2018 . 2 March 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180902011913/https://www.concacafnationsleague.com/en/article/concacaf-launches-new-ranking-index . 2 September 2018.
Web site: 2018 CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying Draw . CONCACAFNationsLeague.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 7 March 2018 . 7 March 2018 . 8 March 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180308042209/https://concacafnationsleague.com/en/video/2018-concacaf-nations-league-qualifying-draw . dead .
News: Schedule Confirmed for Qualifying Phase of the Concacaf Nations League . CONCACAFNationsLeague.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 29 May 2018 . 29 May 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180814200948/https://www.concacafnationsleague.com/en/article/schedule-confirmed-for-qualifying-phase-of-the-concacaf-nations-league . 14 August 2018.
Web site: Concacaf Nations League Qualifying Schedule 2018/19 . CONCACAFNationsLeague.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 29 May 2018 . 29 May 2018.
Web site: CONCACAF Nations League – Qualifying Schedule 2018/2019 . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . PDF . 29 May 2018 . 29 May 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180718115041/https://res.cloudinary.com/concacaf-production/image/upload/v1527266952/nationsleague-prod/assets/18_CNL_Q_Schedule.pdf . 18 July 2018.
News: Schedule and Kick Off Times Confirmed for the Inaugural Matches of the Concacaf Nations League Qualifying . CONCACAFNationsLeague.com . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . 9 August 2018 . 10 August 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180902011901/https://www.concacafnationsleague.com/en/article/schedule-and-kick-off-times-confirmed-for-the-inaugural-matches-of-the-concacaf-nations-league-qualifying . 2 September 2018.
Web site: CONCACAF Nations League – Qualifying Schedule 2018/2019: September 2018 . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . PDF . 9 August 2018 . 10 August 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180910173127/https://gallery.mailchimp.com/78d3589fb61466b549ff752e5/files/1250dd10-1489-4a5b-8b0a-6b8a4ff990aa/18_CNL_Q_Schedule_v5_Part2.pdf . 10 September 2018.
Web site: CONCACAF Nations League – Qualifying Schedule 2018/2019 . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . PDF . 10 September 2018 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180910173218/https://res.cloudinary.com/concacaf-production/image/upload/v1536352690/nationsleague-prod/assets/18_CNL_Q_Schedule_v12.pdf . 10 September 2018.
Web site: CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying Schedule 2018/2019: March 2019 . The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football . PDF . 28 January 2019 . 1 February 2019 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190201093112/https://res.cloudinary.com/concacaf-production/image/upload/v1548716152/nationsleague-prod/assets/18_CNL_Q_Schedule_v24.pdf . 1 February 2019.