U-23 USMNT Olympic Qualifiers: games, dates & fixtures

The Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship will finally get going on Thursday 18 March 2021, a year later than planned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The US Men’s U-23 side have three games lined up over the coming week, and hopes are high that they can return to the showpiece event, something they haven’t achieved since 2008.

USMNT U-23 Olympic qualifiers: matches

The USA U-23 team begins its qualifying campaign going up against Costa Rica on Thursday kicking off at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Jason Kreis’ players then meet the Dominican Republic and Mexico as they look to finish in the top two spots in their group and progress to the semi-finals.

These are the games and times, all being played in Mexico:

USA vs Costa Rica, KO 4:30 p.m. in the Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

USA vs Dominican Republic, KO 7:00 p.m. in the Estadio Akron; Zapopan

USA vs Mexico, KO 9:30 p.m. in the Estadio Jalisco; Guadalajara

USMNT U-23 Olympic qualifiers: how it works

The Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship is what decides which nations get to represent the region at the Games, and since 1992 this has been contested as an under-23 competition. It is worth noting that due to the pandemic-driven delay, and on a basis of fairness, the age eligibility rules have been carried over meaning some players are actually 24.

The tournament is made up of eight teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean with Canada, Mexico and the USA qualifying automatically, while Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Haiti coming through sub-regional qualifying tournaments.

Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Groups:

These teams were drawn into two groups and the top two from each will progress to a semi-final match and then the final. Both finalists earn a place at the summer tournament in Tokyo.