# 2023 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship

The 2023 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship was the 12th edition of the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship, an international youth football championship organised by CONCACAF for the women's under-20 national teams of the North, Central American and Caribbean region. It took place in Santo Domingo and San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, between 25 May and 4 June 2023.
The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia as the CONCACAF representatives.
The United States were the two-time defending champions, having won the 2020 and 2022 editions.
Mexico won the tournament by defeating the United States in the final on 4 June 2023 with a 2–1 score. Canada qualified to the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup as the third place team by defeating Costa Rica with a 5–3 score in the third place match. Costa Rica eventually also qualified as an additional slot was allocated to CONCACAF.

## Qualification

The qualifying competition was held in April 2023. For six of the available eight slots, a record number of thirty–two teams were drawn into six total groups (two groups of six teams and four groups of five teams each). and will play in a single round-robin format in centralized venues. The six group winners advanced to the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship final tournament. In addition, the United States and Mexico, the two highest-ranked CONCACAF teams in the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Rankings of August 29, 2022, qualified automatically.

### Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship final tournament.
| Team | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | Finals appearance | Previous best performance | Previous World Cup appearances |
| Mexico | Automatic | 17 February 2023 | 12th | Champions (2018) | 9 |
| United States (title holders) | Automatic | 17 February 2023 | 12th | Champions (2006, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2020, 2022) | 10 |
| Panama | Qualification Group B winner | 18 April 2023 | 7th | Fourth place (2012) | 0 |
| Jamaica | Qualification Group E winner | 18 April 2023 | 12th | Fourth place (2006) | 0 |
| Puerto Rico | Qualification Group D winner | 19 April 2023 | 3rd | Fourth place (2022) | 0 |
| Dominican Republic | Qualification Group C winner | 19 April 2023 | 4th | Semi-finalist (2020) | 0 |
| Canada | Qualification Group A winner | 22 April 2023 | 10th | Champions (2004, 2008) | 8 |
| Costa Rica | Qualification Group F winner | 23 April 2023 | 7th | Third place (2004, 2010, 2014) | 3 |

## Venues

| Santo DomingoSan Cristóbal | Santo Domingo | San Cristóbal |
| Santo DomingoSan Cristóbal | Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez | Estadio Panamericano |
| Santo DomingoSan Cristóbal | Capacity: 27,000 | Capacity: 2,800 |

## Draw

The draw of the tournament was held on 4 May 2023 at the CONCACAF Headquarters in Miami, Florida. The 8 teams were drawn into two groups of four teams, based on the CONCACAF Women's Under-20 Ranking at September 2022.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| United States  Mexico | Canada  Costa Rica | Jamaica  Puerto Rico | Dominican Republic  Panama |

## Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2004 are eligible to compete. Each team must register a squad of 21 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers.

## Format

On 13 February 2023, CONCACAF announced the lunch of a new revamped format for the youth competitions, in which Women's Under-17 and Under-20 competitions will now commence with a six-group Qualifying Stage played amongst teams ranked between 3 and 41, according to the respective CONCACAF Rankings. with the qualifying stage to be played in a round robin format and the six group winners advancing to the main tournament. The Group Stage of the main tournament will be composed of two groups of four teams each (eight teams in total). This will include the two top-ranked teams (pre-seeded into this round) and the six group winners of the Qualifying stage. After round-robin play, the top two teams of each group will advance to the semifinals. The knockout stage – semifinals, third place match, and final – will be played in a single match direct elimination format, with the finalists and the third place match winner qualifying for the respective youth FIFA Women's World Cup.
Eight teams will play in the tournament, will be drawn into two groups of four teams, and will play single round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group will advance to the knockout stage, The knockout stage will feature the semi-finals, a third-place match, and the final to determine the champions. the two semi-finalists alongside the third-place match winner will qualify for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Although, on 4 October 2023, FIFA expanded the World Cup to 24 teams, meaning the 4 semi-finalists all qualified.

### Tiebreakers

The ranking of teams in each group is determined as follows (Regulations Article 12.8):
* Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss).
* Goal difference in all group matches.
* Number of goals scored in all group matches.
* Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question.
* Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question.
* Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question.
* Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction can be applied to a player in a single match):
** Yellow card: −1 point
** Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points
** Direct red card: −4 points
** Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points
* Drawing of lots.

## Group stage

All times are local, AST (UTC−4).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | United States | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2 | +13 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Canada | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Jamaica | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 9 | −5 | 3 | |
| 4 | Panama | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 15 | −14 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Mexico | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | +11 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Costa Rica | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Dominican Republic (H) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | −5 | 3 | |
| 4 | Puerto Rico | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 | −9 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of 90 minutes, extra time is played, and if still tied after extra time, the match is decided by a penalty shoot-out (Regulations Article 12.13).

### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 2 June – Santo Domingo | 2 June – Santo Domingo |
| Mexico | 2 |
| Mexico | 2 | 4 June – Santo Domingo | 4 June – Santo Domingo |
| Canada | 1 | 4 June – Santo Domingo | 4 June – Santo Domingo |
| Canada | 1 | Mexico | 2 |
| 2 June – Santo Domingo | 2 June – Santo Domingo | | Mexico | 2 |
| 2 June – Santo Domingo | 2 June – Santo Domingo | United States | 1 |
| United States | 2 | United States | 1 |
| Costa Rica | 1 | | |
| Costa Rica | 1 | Third place match | Third place match |
| | | 4 June – Santo Domingo | 4 June – Santo Domingo |
| | | Canada (a.e.t.) | 5 |
| | | Costa Rica | 3 |

### Semi-finals

Winners qualified for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

### Third place match

Winner qualified for 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Loser eventually also qualified as an additional slot was allocated to CONCACAF.

### Final

* 2023 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship winners
* Mexico Second title

## Goalscorers

There were 76 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 4.75 goals per match.
6 goals
* Sheika Scott
4 goals
* Annabelle Chukwu
* Olivia Smith
* Madeline Dahlien
* Ally Sentnor
3 goals
* Maribel Flores
2 goals
* Amanda Allen
* Florianne Jourde
* Ella Ottey
* Verónica Matarrita
* Hailey Gordon
* Mailin Orozco
* Fátima Servín
* Enasia Colon
* Kennedy Garcia
* Onyeka Gamero
* Lauren Martinho
1 goal
* Kayla Briggs
* Zoe Markesini
* Nyah Rose
* Renee Watson
* Josselyn Briceño
* Monserrat Diaz
* Yoselin Fonseca
* Jimena Jiménez
* Priscilla Rodríguez
* Marian Solano
* Alexa Castro
* Renata Mercedes
* Angelina Vargas
* Natoya Atkinson
* Maya Raghunandanan
* Davia Richards
* Amelia Van Zanten
* Natalia Colin
* Giselle Espinoza
* Tatiana Flores
* Montserrat Saldívar
* Alice Soto
* Valerie Vargas
* Meredith Rosas
* Jasmine Aikey
* Tessa Dellarose
* Jordynn Dudley
* Ally Lemos
* Katherine Rader
* Gisele Thompson
1 own goal
* Alejandra Garay (against Canada)
Source: CONCACAF

## Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

The following four teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup |
| Mexico | 2 June 2023 | 9 (2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022) |
| United States | 2 June 2023 | 10 (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022) |
| Canada | 4 June 2023 | 8 (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2022) |
| Costa Rica | 4 October 2023 | 3 (2010, 2014, 2022) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
* ↑ After the announcement of the expansion of the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup to 24 teams, Costa Rica took the new fourth spot as CONCACAF representative as they ended fourth in this tournament.

## Awards

| Golden Ball | Golden Boot | Golden Glove |
| Alice Soto | Sheika Scott | Itzel Velasco |
| CONCACAF Fair Play Award |||
| United States |||