The CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2019 World Beach Games, known officially as the 2019 World Beach Games – Qualifier El Salvador, was a beach soccer tournament contested by North American national teams who are members ofCONCACAF that took place to determine the nations from North, Central America and the Caribbean that qualified to the beach soccer competition at the inaugural edition of the ANOC World Beach Games.[1]
The tournament consisted of two events: the men's qualifiers and the women's qualifiers, the former a knockout competition from which the top two teams qualified, and the latter a round robin contest from which the top two teams also qualified.[1][2]
Mexico claimed the crown in both the men's and women's events.[3]
Venues
For both the men's and women's tournaments, a beach soccer pitch installed at the International Centre of Fairs and Conventions (CIFCO) in the city of San Salvador, El Salvador was used to host all matches, with a capacity of 5,000.[4]
Men's tournament
Teams
The men's event was an eight-team tournament. The entrants are listed below,[5] ordered by their world ranking (June 2019) in parentheses:[6]
The draw took place internally with most details undisclosed. Teams were organised based on their position in the world ranking in a similar vein to that of the European qualifiers[1] (the hosts were drawn against the team ranked eighth, the best ranked team against the team ranked seventh, second against sixth and fourth against fifth.)
Results
The competition was played as a straight knockout tournament, starting with the quarter-finals and ending with the final with the winner crowned champions of the event.[1] Meanwhile, the losing nations of each round receded to play in a series of consolation matches in order to determine all final placements.
The two teams that reached the final qualified for the 2019 World Beach Games.[1]
The competition was played as a single round robin tournament;[1] the teams competed to earn points for the overall standings table – the two that accumulated the most points after all the matches were completed qualified for the 2019 World Beach Games.[2]
^Originally, CONCACAF were allocated only one berth at the Games;[7] at the time this event occurred, only the winners Mexico qualified.[3] However, the allocation of berths was later redistributed with CONCACAF now receiving two berths. This meant, as the team finishing second in the event, the United States were awarded with qualification to the Games post factum.
