2024–25 CONCACAF Nations League A
International football competition
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The 2024–25 CONCACAF Nations League A was the top division of the 2024–25 edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the fourth 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 5 September to 15 October 2024.[1][2]
5 September – 15 October 2024
Quarter-finals:
11–19 November 2024
Nations League Finals:
20–23 March 2025
Mexico (1st title)
Panama| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Group phase: 5 September – 15 October 2024 Quarter-finals: 11–19 November 2024 Nations League Finals: 20–23 March 2025 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Mexico (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Panama |
| Third place |  Canada |
| Fourth place |  United States |
| Relegated |  Cuba French Guiana Guadeloupe Guyana |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 36 |
| Goals scored | 93 (2.58 per match) |
| Top scorer | Raúl Jiménez (5 goals) |
← 2023–24 2026–27 → | |
League A culminated with the Nations League Finals in March 2025 to crown the champions of the CONCACAF Nations League.[3]
This edition of the CONCACAF Nations League A served to determine the four teams that qualify directly for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States. The top four teams qualified for the final tournament, while the remaining League A teams could still qualify via the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.[4]
Format
League A maintained the same format introduced for the 2023–24 season, consisting of a group stage, a quarter-finals round and the finals.[5] The 16 involved teams entered the competition in the group stage or directly into the quarter-finals according to their position in the CONCACAF Rankings (as of 31 March 2024), with the 12 lowest-ranked teams entering the group stage and the top four ranked teams receiving a direct pass to the quarter-final round.[3]
The group stage consisted of two groups of six teams, with each team playing four matches against opponents of its group (two at home and two away) on a Swiss-system basis. The top two teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals where they joined the four teams that qualified directly to this round. The bottom two teams from each group were relegated to the 2026–27 CONCACAF Nations League B, but also advanced to the play-in round, in which they joined four teams from League C in order to compete to qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.[3]
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 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Nations League Finals, consisting of a semi-final round, third place play-off and the final match, were played in March 2025 at a centralised venue in Inglewood, California.[3]
2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification
As announced by CONCACAF in February 2023, the 2024–25 CONCACAF Nations League served as a qualifier for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.[5] League A teams qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup final tournament or the Gold Cup qualification tournament (also called CONCACAF Gold Cup prelims) or advanced to the play-in round based on their performance in the group stage and quarter-finals round, as follows:[4]
- The four quarter-finals winners (i.e., the four teams involved in the finals) qualified directly for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
- The four quarter-finals losers qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.
- The third and fourth placed teams of each group also qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.
- The fifth and sixth placed teams of each group advanced to the play-in round, where they faced the top four teams in the League C for the last four slots in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.
Teams
A total of sixteen national teams contested League A, including the top twelve sides from the 2023–24 season and four promoted from the 2023–24 League B.
Team changes
The following were the team changes in League A regarding the 2023–24 season:
|
|
Teams promoted from League B
French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Guyana reached the top flight of the CONCACAF Nations League for the first time, with French Guiana and Guyana spending the first three seasons in League B while Guadeloupe started in League C in the inaugural edition before spending two seasons in League B. Nicaragua had already been promoted to the League A in the previous season but were disqualified for regulatory reasons before the start of the season, so this was their first appearance in CONCACAF Nations League A.[6]
Seeding
The pots were confirmed on 19 April 2024, with the lowest twelve League A ranked teams, based on the CONCACAF Rankings as of 31 March 2024, being split into six pots of two teams. The top four ranked teams (Mexico, the United States, Panama and Canada) were directly seeded in the quarter-finals.[3]
| Pot | Team | Rank[7] | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jamaica |
5 | 1,677 |
 Costa Rica |
6 | 1,621 | |
| 2 |  Honduras |
7 | 1,431 |
 Guatemala |
9 | 1,395 | |
| 3 |  Trinidad and Tobago |
10 | 1,344 |
 Martinique |
11 | 1,322 | |
| 4 | Cuba |
13 | 1,158 |
| Guadeloupe |
15 | 1,119 | |
| 5 |  Nicaragua |
16 | 1,112 |
 Suriname |
17 | 1,070 | |
| 6 | French Guiana |
18 | 1,058 |
| Guyana |
19 | 1,054 |
Draw
The group stage draw was held on 6 May 2024, 19:00 EDT (UTC−4), in Miami, Florida, United States,[8] 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 into Group A and then selecting the remaining team from Pot 1 and placing them into Group B. The draw continued with the same procedure done for the remaining pots.
The draw resulted in the following groups:[8]
|
|
Group stage
The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 23 May 2024.[1][2][9] All match times are in EDT (UTC−4) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).[10][11]
Group A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation | |
|
|
|
|
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Costa Rica |
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 8 | Advance to quarter-finals | — | — | 3–0 | — | 3–0 | — | |
| 2 | Suriname |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 7 | 1–1 | — | — | — | — | 5–1 | ||
| 3 | Guatemala |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 7 | Qualification for Gold Cup prelims | 0–0 | — | — | 3–1 | — | — | |
| 4 | Martinique |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 5 | — | — | — | — | 0–0 | 2–2 | ||
| 5 | Guadeloupe (R) |
4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 4 | Advance to play-in and relegation to League B | — | 1–0 | — | 0–1 | — | — | |
| 6 | Guyana (R) |
4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 13 | −8 | 1 | — | 1–3 | 1–3 | — | — | — |
| Guadeloupe | 1–0 | Suriname |
|---|---|---|
Leborgne  67' |
Report |
| Martinique | 2–2 | Guyana |
|---|---|---|
|
Report | I. Jones 14', 24' |
| Guadeloupe | 0–1 | Martinique |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Labeau 86' |
| Suriname | 1–1 | Costa Rica |
|---|---|---|
| Vlijter 34' |
Report | Alcócer 12' |
| Guyana | 1–3 | Guatemala |
|---|---|---|
| Duke-McKenna 31' |
Report |
|
Group B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation | |
 |
|
|
|
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamaica |
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 8 | Advance to quarter-finals | — | 0–0 | — | — | 0–0 | — | |
| 2 | Honduras |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 7 | 1–2 | — | — | 4–0 | — | — | ||
| 3 | Nicaragua |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 7 | Qualification for Gold Cup prelims | 0–2 | — | — | — | — | 3–2 | |
| 4 | Trinidad and Tobago |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 5 | — | — | — | — | 3–1 | 0–0 | ||
| 5 | Cuba (R) |
4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 3 | Advance to play-in and relegation to League B | — | — | 1–1 | 2–2 | — | — | |
| 6 | French Guiana (R) |
4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 7 | −3 | 1 | — | 2–3 | 0–1 | — | — | — |
| French Guiana | 0–1 | Nicaragua |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
Quarter-finals
The quarter-finals pairings were determined based on the CONCACAF Rankings published after the October 2024 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 pre-seeded team vs Best ranked group winner
- Quarter-final 2 (QF2): Third-ranked pre-seeded team vs Worst ranked group winner
- Quarter-final 3 (QF3): Second-ranked pre-seeded team vs Best ranked group runner-up
- Quarter-final 4 (QF4): First-ranked pre-seeded team vs Worst 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, Mexico, Panama and the United States). If the aggregate score was level at the end of the second leg the away goals rule was applied. If away goals were also equal, then 30 minutes of extra time was played without taking into account the away goals rule during this time. If still tied after extra time, the tie was decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Winners advanced to the Nations League Finals and qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, while losers qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification tournament.
Summary
The first legs were played on 14 and 15 November, and the second legs were played on 18 and 19 November 2024.[41]
Matches
The fixture list was confirmed by CONCACAF on 23 May 2024,[1][2] with the matchups being confirmed on 16 October 2024.[41] All match times are in EST (UTC−5) as listed by CONCACAF (local times, if different, are in parentheses).[42]
| Costa Rica | 0–1 | Panama |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Panama | 2–2 | Costa Rica |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
Panama won 3–2 on aggregate, advanced to the Finals and qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Costa Rica qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.
| Jamaica | 0–1 | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
The United States won 5–2 on aggregate, advanced to the Finals and qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Jamaica qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.
| Canada | 3–0 | Suriname |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
Canada won 4–0 on aggregate, advanced to the Finals and qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Suriname qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.
Mexico won 4–2 on aggregate, advanced to the Finals and qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Honduras qualified for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.
Nations League Finals
Seeding
The four teams were ranked based on their results in the two quarter-finals legs to determine the semi-final matchups. The first seed played the fourth seed and the second seed played the third seed.[51]
Bracket
| Semi-finals | Final | |||||
| 20 March – Inglewood | ||||||
| Canada | 0 | |||||
| 23 March – Inglewood | ||||||
| Mexico | 2 | |||||
| Mexico | 2 | |||||
| 20 March – Inglewood | ||||||
| Panama | 1 | |||||
| United States | 0 | |||||
| Panama | 1 | |||||
| Third place play-off | ||||||
| 23 March – Inglewood | ||||||
| Canada | 2 | |||||
| United States | 1 | |||||
Semi-finals
| United States | 0–1 | Panama |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
Third place play-off
Final
Goalscorers
There were 93 goals scored in 36 matches, for an average of 2.58 goals per match.
5 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Junior Hoilett- Tani Oluwaseyi
Josimar Alcócer- Alejandro Bran
- Ariel Lassiter
- Alonso Martínez
- Kenneth Vargas
Aniel Casanova- Karel Espino
- Yasnier Matos
- Rey Ángel Rodríguez
Jordan Leborgne
Óscar Castellanos- José Carlos Martínez
- José Carlos Pinto
- Rubio Rubín
Ludovic Baal- Raphaël Galas
Stephen Duke-McKenna- Omari Glasgow
- Jalen Jones
Kervin Arriaga- Jorge Benguché
- Deybi Flores
- Alexander López
- Anthony Lozano
- Edwin Rodríguez
Romario Williams- Michail Antonio
Kevin Appin- Rudy Varane
Jorge Sánchez
Juan Barrera- Marvin Fletes
- Harold Medina
- Jaime Moreno
- Widman Talavera
César Blackman- Adalberto Carrasquilla
- José Fajardo
- José Rodríguez
- Cecilio Waterman
Djevencio van der Kust- Ridgeciano Haps
- Denzel Jubitana
- Jaden Montnor
- Gleofilo Vlijter
Sheldon Bateau- Dantaye Gilbert
- Real Gill
Patrick Agyemang- Christian Pulisic
- Tim Weah
1 own goal
- Denil Maldonado (against Jamaica)
- Di'Shon Bernard (against United States)
- Josué Quijano (against Jamaica)
Notes
- Martinique played their home match against Guadeloupe at Stade Roger Zami in Le Gosier (Guadeloupe) instead of the originally scheduled stadium Stade Pierre-Aliker, Fort-de-France due to security reasons related to the 2024 social unrest in Martinique.[22][23][24]
- French Guiana played their home match against Honduras at Stade omnisport, Sinnamary instead of the originally scheduled Stade Municipal Dr. Edmard Lama, Remire-Montjoly which did not meet CONCACAF requirements (playing field in poor condition).[32][33]