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The 2023–24 CONCACAF Nations League A was the top division of the 2023–24 edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the third season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The initial group stage was held from 7 September 2023 to 17 October 2023.[1][2]
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Group phase: 7 September – 17 October 2023 Quarter-finals: 16–21 November 2023 Nations League Finals: 21–24 March 2024 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  United States (3rd title) |
| Runners-up |  Mexico |
| Third place |  Jamaica |
| Fourth place |  Panama |
| Relegated |  Curaçao El Salvador Grenada Haiti |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 36 |
| Goals scored | 101 (2.81 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Shamar Nicholson (5 goals) |
← 2022–23 2024–25 → | |
League A culminated with the 2024 CONCACAF Nations League Finals in March 2024 to crown the champions of the CONCACAF Nations League.[3]
This edition of the CONCACAF Nations League A served to determine the six CONCACAF representatives that qualified as guests for the 2024 Copa América in the United States. The four quarter-finals winners and two play-in winners between the four quarter-finals losers qualified to the CONMEBOL tournament.[4]
Starting from this edition, League A was increased from twelve to sixteen teams and a new quarter-final round was introduced. The group stage became two groups of six teams instead of the four groups of three teams of previous editions, and four teams received a direct bye to the quarter-finals. The twelve lowest-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings as of March 2023 entered the group stage and were divided into two groups of six teams, with each team playing four matches against group opponents (two at home and two away) on a Swiss-system format. The top two teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals, and were joined by the four top-ranked teams in the CONCACAF Rankings as of March 2023. The quarter-finals were played on a two-legged home-and-away basis, with the four winners advancing to the Nations League Finals and qualifying directly to the 2024 Copa América, while the four losers played two single-legged play-in matches for the last two berths to the CONMEBOL tournament.[3]
The Nations League Finals retained its previous format of a semi-final round, third place play-off and final match to determine the champions.
A total of sixteen national teams contested League A, including the twelve sides from the 2022–23 season and four promoted from the 2022–23 League B. As a result of the expansion to 16 teams, there were no relegated teams last season, so the twelve teams from the 2022–23 season remained in League A for this edition.
Team changes
The following were the team changes of League A from the 2022–23 season:
| Promoted from Nations League B |
|---|
Nicaragua originally qualified for promotion to League A as League B Group C winners, but they were disqualified due to fielding an ineligible player. As a result, they were replaced by Trinidad and Tobago on 12 June 2023, and Nicaragua replaced Trinidad and Tobago in League B.[5]
Teams promoted from League B
Cuba, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago returned to League A after a one-season absence. Guatemala reached the top division of the CONCACAF Nations League for the first time after starting in League C in the inaugural edition and moving up from League B the previous season.
Seeding
The pots were confirmed on 2 May 2023, with the lowest twelve League A ranked teams, based on the CONCACAF Rankings as of 31 March 2023, being split into six pots of two teams. The top four ranked teams (Mexico, the United States, Canada and Costa Rica) were directly seeded in the quarter-finals.[6]
| Pot | Team | Pts | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama |
1,695 | 5 |
| Haiti |
1,482 | 6 | |
| 2 | Jamaica |
1,479 | 7 |
 Guatemala |
1,405 | 8 | |
| 3 |  Honduras |
1,403 | 9 |
| El Salvador |
1,330 | 10 | |
| 4 |  Martinique |
1,246 | 12 |
 Cuba |
1,176 | 13 | |
| 5 | Curaçao |
1,171 | 14 |
 Suriname |
1,079 | 16 | |
| 6 |  Trinidad and Tobago |
1,254 | 11 |
| Grenada |
791 | 25 |
Draw
The group stage draw was held on 16 May 2023, 19:00 EDT, in Miami, Florida, United States[3][7] where the twelve involved teams were drawn into two groups of six. The draw began by randomly selecting a team from Pot 1 and placing them in Group A and then selecting the remaining team from Pot 1 and placing them in Group B. The draw continued with the same procedure done for the remaining pots.
The draw resulted in the following groups:[8]
|
|
The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 6 July 2023.[1][2] All match times are in EDT (UTC−4) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).[9][10][11][12]
Group A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation | |
|
|
|
|
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama |
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 10 | Advance to quarter-finals | — | — | 3–0 | 3–0 | — | — | |
| 2 | Trinidad and Tobago |
4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 9 | — | — | — | 3–2 | 1–0 | — | ||
| 3 | Martinique |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 7 | — | — | — | — | 1–0 | 1–0 | ||
| 4 | Guatemala |
4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 4 | 1–1 | — | — | — | — | 2–0 | ||
| 5 | Curaçao (R) |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 3 | Relegation to League B | 1–2 | 5–3 | — | — | — | — | |
| 6 | El Salvador (R) |
4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 1 | — | 2–3 | 0–0 | — | — | — |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1–0 | Curaçao |
|---|---|---|
James  87' |
Report |
| Guatemala | 2–0 | El Salvador |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
| Martinique | 1–0 | Curaçao |
|---|---|---|
| Labeau 48' |
Report |
Attendance: 18,313[18]
Referee: Saíd Martínez (Honduras)
Referee: Ismail Elfath (United States)
| Martinique | 1–0 | El Salvador |
|---|---|---|
| Marajo 23' |
Report |
Attendance: 13,536[20]
Referee: Armando Villarreal (United States)
Group B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation | |
|
|
|
|
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamaica |
4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 5 | +5 | 10 | Advance to quarter-finals | — | 1–0 | — | — | 2–2 | — | |
| 2 | Honduras |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 | +7 | 7 | — | — | — | 4–0 | — | 4–0 | ||
| 3 | Suriname |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 5 | — | — | — | — | 1–1 | 4–0 | ||
| 4 | Cuba |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 5 | — | 0–0 | 1–0 | — | — | — | ||
| 5 | Haiti (R) |
4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 6 | −1 | 3 | Relegation to League B | 2–3 | — | — | 0–0 | — | — | |
| 6 | Grenada (R) |
4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 13 | −11 | 1 | 1–4 | — | 1–1 | — | — | — |
Estadio Panamericano, San Cristóbal (Dominican Republic)[note 2]
Attendance: 550[24]
Referee: Randy Encarnación (Dominican Republic)
Attendance: 2,994[25]
Referee: Kwinsi Williams (Trinidad and Tobago)
Referee: César Ramos (Mexico)
Attendance: 4,394[29]
Referee: Joseph Dickerson (United States)
Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)[note 3]
Referee: Walter López (Guatemala)
Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago)[note 4]
Referee: Keylor Herrera (Costa Rica)
The quarter-finals pairings were determined based on the CONCACAF Rankings published after the October 2023 FIFA Match Window for the four pre-seeded teams and the group stage results for the winners and runners-up of each group.[4]
|
|
The match-ups were as follows:
- Quarter-final 1 (QF1): Fourth-ranked seeded team vs. Best-ranked group winner
- Quarter-final 2 (QF2): Third-ranked seeded team vs. Next best-ranked group winner
- Quarter-final 3 (QF3): Second-ranked seeded team vs. Best-ranked group runner-up
- Quarter-final 4 (QF4): First-ranked seeded team vs. Next best-ranked group runner-up
Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the order of legs being decided by the four pre-seeded teams that received a direct bye to the quarter-finals (Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States).[35] If the aggregate score is level at the end of the second leg the away goals rule would be applied. If away goals were also equal, then 30 minutes of extra time would be played without taking into account the away goals rule during this time. If still tied after extra time, the tie would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Winners advanced to the Nations League Finals and qualified for the 2024 Copa América, while losers advanced to the Copa América qualifying play-offs.
Summary
The first legs were played from 16 to 18 November, and the second legs were played on 20 and 21 November 2023.[35]
Matches
The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 6 July 2023.[1][2] All match times are in EST (UTC−5) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).[36][37]
Panama won 6–1 on aggregate, advanced to the Finals, and qualified for the 2024 Copa América. Costa Rica advanced to the play-in.
United States won 4–2 on aggregate, advanced to the Finals, and qualified to the 2024 Copa América. Trinidad and Tobago advanced to the play-in.
4–4 on aggregate. Jamaica won on away goals, advanced to the Finals, and qualified for the 2024 Copa América. Canada advanced to the play-in.
Attendance: 22,444[46]
Referee: Juan Gabriel Calderón (Costa Rica)
2–2 on aggregate. Mexico won 4–2 on penalties, advanced to the Finals, and qualified for the 2024 Copa América. Honduras advanced to the play-in.
Seeding
The four teams were ranked based on their results in both legs of the quarter-finals to determine the semi-final matchups. The first seed played the fourth seed and the second seed played the third seed.[48]
Bracket
| Semi-finals | Final | |||||
| March 21 – Arlington, TX | ||||||
| Panama | 0 | |||||
| March 24 – Arlington, TX | ||||||
| Mexico | 3 | |||||
| Mexico | 0 | |||||
| March 21 – Arlington, TX | ||||||
| United States | 2 | |||||
| United States (a.e.t.) | 3 | |||||
| Jamaica | 1 | |||||
| Third place play-off | ||||||
| March 24 – Arlington, TX | ||||||
| Panama | 0 | |||||
| Jamaica | 1 | |||||
All match times are in EDT (UTC−4) as listed by CONCACAF (local times are in parentheses).[49]
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Referee: Tori Penso (United States)
Final
There were 101 goals scored in 36 matches, for an average of 2.81 goals per match.
5 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Jonathan David- Alphonso Davies
- Stephen Eustáquio
- Ismaël Koné
Francisco Calvo
Willian Pozo
Juninho Bacuna- Kenji Gorré
- Godfried Roemeratoe
Brayan Gil- Eriq Zavaleta
Saydrel Lewis- Trevon Williams
Pedro Altán- Carlos Mejía
- Rubio Rubin
Mikaël Cantave
Denil Maldonado- Luis Palma
- Romell Quioto
Leon Bailey- Greg Leigh
- Dexter Lembikisa
- Romario Williams
Brighton Labeau- Johnny Marajo
Luis Chávez- Orbelín Pineda
- Julián Quiñones
Abdiel Ayarza- Adalberto Carrasquilla
- Michael Murillo
Myenty Abena- Ridgeciano Haps
- Mitchell te Vrede
- Djevencio van der Kust
- Gleofilo Vlijter
Justin Garcia- Kristian Lee-Him
- Kareem Moses
- Malcolm Shaw
- Ryan Telfer
Tyler Adams- Ricardo Pepi
1 own goal
- Jacob Bedeau (against Suriname)
- Ricardo Adé (against Jamaica)
- Cory Burke (against United States)
- Boris Moltenis (against Panama)
- Haiti played their home match against Cuba at Estadio Panamericano in San Cristóbal (Dominican Republic) due to the ongoing Haitian crisis.[23]
- Haiti played their home match against Jamaica at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago) due to the ongoing Haitian crisis.[31]
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