The Guatemala U-20 National Team is ready to face one of the most important challenges of the year at the beginning of the Concacaf U-20 Championship 2026a competition that will be held in Mexico and that represents the path towards the next Fifa World Cup in the category.
The tournament will bring together the best youth teams in the region with the aim of winning the Concacaf title and securing a place in the biggest World Cup event to be held next year in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
For Guatemala, this will be a new opportunity to fight to return to a U-20 World Cup and write another important chapter in the history of national football.
Guatemala will seek to return to a World Cup
The Blue and White integrates the Group Bconsidered one of the most demanding in the championship, along with Mexico, Costa Rica and Antigua and Barbuda.
The national team will open its participation facing Costa Rica on Friday, July 24 at 2 p.m.a commitment that could set the course of the group and the qualification aspirations of both teams.
Subsequently, Guatemala must face Antigua and Barbuda and will close the group stage against the host Mexico with the mission of finishing among the teams that will advance to the knockout round.
The main objective of the Bicolor will be to get one of the available tickets for the U-20 World Cup and return to the highest youth competition for the third time in its history, after its participation in Colombia 2011 and Argentina 2023.
The format of the Concacaf 2026 U-20 World Cup
The group stage of the Concacaf U-20 Championship will be played from July 24 to August 1, 2026.
At the end of this stage, the first two places in each group and the two best third places They will advance to the knockout phase.
The Quarter finals will be played between August 4 and 5the Semifinals will take place on August 7while the End is scheduled for August 9when the new champion of the region will be known.
Mexico will host the championship
The U-20 World Cup will take place in three important Mexican stadiums.
The meetings corresponding to the group stage will be disputed in the BUAP University Stadium and the Cuauhtémoc Stadiumboth located in the city of Puebla.
The Quarter finals will be held exclusively in the Cuauhtémoc Stadiumwhile the Semifinals and the End will be moved to history Aztec Stadiumin Mexico City.