2019 CONCACAF League

Qualification

• North American Zone: 1 team
• Central American Zone: 18 teams
• Caribbean Zone: 3 teams

North America

Central America

• In the league of Costa Rica, both champions, and the non-champions with the best aggregate record, qualified. If there was any team which were champions of both tournaments, the non-champions with the second best aggregate record qualified.
• In the leagues of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, both champions, and the runners-up with the better aggregate record, qualified. If there was any team which were finalists of both tournaments, the runners-up with the worse aggregate record qualified. If there were any two teams which were finalists of both tournaments, the semi-finalists with the best aggregate record qualified.
• In the league of Nicaragua, both champions qualified. If there was any team which were champions of both tournaments, the runners-up with the better aggregate record qualified.
• In the league of Belize, the champions with the better aggregate record qualified.

Caribbean

Teams

• Ten teams enter in the round of 16: two each from Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama, and one each from El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the Caribbean.
• Twelve teams enter in the preliminary round: two each from El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Caribbean, and one each from Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, and Belize.

Draw

The draw for the 2019 CONCACAF League was held on 30 May 2019, at 20:00 Eastern Time, at the Grand Tikal Futura Hotel in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
The draw determined each tie in the preliminary round between a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, each containing six teams. The "Bracket Position Pots" contained the bracket positions numbered 1 through 6 corresponding to each tie. The teams from Pot 1 were assigned a bracket position from Pot A and the teams from Pot 2 were assigned a bracket position from Pot B. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other in the preliminary round except for "wildcard" teams which replaced a team from another association.
The draw also determined each tie in the round of 16 between a team from Pot 3 and a team from Pot 4, each containing eight teams, with the six preliminary round winners, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, in Pot 4. The "Bracket Position Pots" contained the bracket positions numbered 1 through 8 corresponding to each tie. The teams from Pot 3 were assigned a bracket position from Pot A and the teams from Pot 4 were assigned a bracket position from Pot B.
The seeding of teams was based on the CONCACAF Club Index. The CONCACAF Club Index, instead of ranking each team, was based on the on-field performance of the teams that had occupied the respective qualifying slots in the previous five editions of the CONCACAF League and CONCACAF Champions League. To determine the total points awarded to a slot in any single edition of the CONCACAF League or CONCACAF Champions League, CONCACAF used the following formula:

Points per	Participation	Win	Draw	Stage advanced	Champions
CONCACAF Champions League	4	3	1	1	2
CONCACAF League	2	3	1	0.5	1

Teams qualified for the CONCACAF League based on criteria set by their association, resulting in an assigned slot for each team.
The 22 teams were distributed in the pots as follows:

Pot	Rank	Slot	2014–15 CCL	2015–16 CCL	2016–17 CCL	2017 CL or 2018 CCL	2018 CL or 2019 CCL	Total	Team
Pot 1	1							32.5	Santa Tecla
Pot 1	2		0	0	0			26	San Francisco
Pot 1	3		0	0	0			23.5	Marathón
Pot 1	4							23.5	Capoise
Pot 1	5					0	0	22	Antigua GFC
Pot 1	6		0	0	0			21.5	Saprissa
Pot 2	7		0					16	Belmopan Bandits
Pot 2	8		0	0	0			15	Alianza
Pot 2	9		0	0	0			11.5	Real Estelí
Pot 2	10		0	0	0			7	Robinhood
Pot 2	11		0	0	0	0	0	0	Comunicaciones
Pot 2	12		0	0	0	0	0	0	Forge FC

;Notes

Format

In the CONCACAF League, the 22 teams played a single-elimination tournament. Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis.

• In the preliminary round, round of 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals, the away goals rule was applied if the aggregate score was tied after the second leg. If still tied, the penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner.
• In the finals, the away goals rule was not applied, and extra time was played if the aggregate score was tied after the second leg. If the aggregate score was still tied after extra time, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.

  Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Round	First leg	Second leg
Preliminary round	30 July – 1 August 2019	6–8 August 2019
Round of 16	20–22 August 2019	27–29 August 2019
Quarter-finals	24–26 September 2019	1–3 October 2019
Semi-finals	24 October 2019	31 October 2019
Finals	7 November 2019	26 November 2019

Times are Eastern Time, as listed by CONCACAF :

• Times up to 2 November 2019 are Eastern Daylight Time, i.e.,.
• Times thereafter are Eastern Standard Time, i.e.,.

  Bracket

Preliminary round

In the preliminary round, the matchups were decided by draw: PR-1 through PR-6. The teams from Pot 1 in the draw hosted the second leg.

Summary

The first legs were played on 30 July – 1 August, and the second legs were played on 6–8 August 2019.

Matches

Alianza won 6–1 on aggregate.
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1–1 on aggregate. Robinhood won on away goals.
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Saprissa won 6–2 on aggregate.
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Forge FC won 2–1 on aggregate.
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Comunicaciones won 3–2 on aggregate.
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2–2 on aggregate. Santa Tecla won on away goals.

Round of 16

In the round of 16, the matchups were decided by draw: R16-1 through R16-8. The teams from Pot 3 in the draw hosted the second leg.

Summary

The first legs were played on 20–22 August, and the second legs were played on 27–29 August 2019.

Matches

Motagua won 3–2 on aggregate.
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2–2 on aggregate. Waterhouse won 7–6 on penalties.
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0–0 on aggregate. San Carlos won 4–2 on penalties.
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Alianza won 2–1 on aggregate.
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Independiente won 3–2 on aggregate.
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Saprissa won 2–1 on aggregate.
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Comunicaciones won 2–1 on aggregate.
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Olimpia won 4–2 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

In the quarter-finals, the matchups were determined as follows:

• QF1: Winner R16-1 vs. Winner R16-2
• QF2: Winner R16-3 vs. Winner R16-4
• QF3: Winner R16-5 vs. Winner R16-6
• QF4: Winner R16-7 vs. Winner R16-8

The winners of round of 16 matchups 1, 3, 5, 7 hosted the second leg.

Summary

The first legs were played on 24–26 September, and the second legs were played on 1–3 October 2019.

Matches

Motagua won 2–0 on aggregate.
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Alianza won 2–1 on aggregate.
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Saprissa won 4–2 on aggregate.
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Olimpia won 2–0 on aggregate.

Semi-finals

In the semi-finals, the matchups were determined as follows:

• SF1: Winner QF1 vs. Winner QF2
• SF2: Winner QF3 vs. Winner QF4

The semi-finalists in each tie which had the better performance in previous rounds hosted the second leg.

Summary

The first legs were played on 24 October, and the second legs were played on 31 October 2019.

Matches

Motagua won 4–1 on aggregate.
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Saprissa won 4–3 on aggregate.

Finals

In the finals, the finalists which had the better performance in previous rounds hosted the second leg.

Summary

The first leg was played on 7 November, and the second leg was played on 26 November 2019.

Matches

Saprissa won 1–0 on aggregate.

Top goalscorers

Qualification to CONCACAF Champions League

Starting from the round of 16, teams were ranked based on their results using the following criteria :

1. Points ;
2. Goal difference;
3. Goals scored;
4. Away goals scored;
5. Wins;
6. Away wins;
7. Disciplinary points ;
8. Drawing of lots

Based on the ranking, the top six teams, i.e., champions, runners-up, both losing semi-finalists, and best two losing quarter-finalists, qualified for the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League.

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Award	Player	Team
Golden Ball	Johan Venegas	Saprissa
Golden Boot	Johan Venegas	Saprissa
Golden Glove	Jonathan Rougier	Motagua
Best Young Player	Manfred Ugalde	Saprissa
Fair Play Award	—	Saprissa