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Tough draw for Cayman at CONCACAF U20 Championship
- Updated: 17 September 2018
The Cayman Islands have been given a tough draw at the upcoming CONCACAF U20 Championship. Ranked 27th of the confederation’s 41 members, the local boys are pooled with El Salvador, Guatemala, Curacao, and Guyana, all of which have a higher ranking.
The 2018 edition of the Under-20 Championship, scheduled to take place November 1-21, 2018, at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, will be contested between a record number of 34 CONCACF Member Associations.
Unlike the previous format, which included regional qualifiers in the Caribbean and Central America and one final championship, this year’s redesigned competition will ensure that all the participating teams have access to play more top-level football matches.
The event, which sorted the participating teams into four groups of six teams and two groups of five teams, was conducted by CONCACAF Head of National Team Competitions Carlos Fernandez.
The top six ranked teams in the newly announced CONCACAF Men’s U20 Ranking – United States, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador – were seeded into position 1 of Groups A, B, C, D, E and F respectively. The remaining 28 teams were placed into five pots and drawn using a single blind system. The top team in each group advances from pool play.
The Cayman Islands plays their first Group G game against 6th ranked El Salvador on Sunday, 4 November. They return to action on Tuesday, 6 November vs 24th ranked Guyana. Two days later, Cayman faces 8th ranked Guatemala and then 16th ranked Curacao on Saturday 10 November.
Despite the tough challenge, the Cayman squad is expected to feature players who competed in the CFU U17 World Cup qualifiers in 2016 when they nearly upset Caribbean powerhouse Haiti at Truman Bodden Sports Complex. That showing would give them confidence that they can compete with the best teams in the region.
View full schedule: 18_U20_Schedule_V3.01
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