1981 CONCACAF Championship

1981 CONCACAF Championship

Campeonato de Naciones de CONCACAF 1981 (Spanish)
Tournament details
Host country	Honduras
Dates	1–22 November
Teams	6 (from 1 confederation)
Venue	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Honduras (1st title)
Runners-up	El Salvador
Third place	Mexico
Fourth place	Canada
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	28 (1.87 per match)
Attendance	470,484 (31,366 per match)
Top scorer	Hugo Sánchez (3 goals)
← 1977 1985 →

The 1981 CONCACAF Championship, the eighth edition of the CONCACAF Championship, was held in Honduras from 1 to 22 November. All games were played in the Estadio Tiburcio Carías Andino in Tegucigalpa. This tournament was won by the host, Honduras, who earned their first title and secured for the first time a place in the FIFA World Cup, as the tournament also served as qualification to Spain 1982. The North, Central American and Caribbean zone was allocated two places (out of 24) in the final tournament. This edition was marked by an upset as Mexico, traditional CONCACAF heavyweights and needing a win to go through, were eliminated by Honduras. The 0–0 tie between Mexico and Honduras qualified El Salvador to participate in the World Cup as the CONCACAF runners-up. El Salvador also became the first Central American team to qualify for more than one World Cup. This would be the last tournament which would feature a host nation for the final round.

Tegucigalpa
	Tegucigalpa
	Estadio Tiburcio Carías Andino
	Capacity: 35,000

Team	Method of qualification	Total times qualified	Last time qualified	Previous best performance
Canada	North American Zone winners	2	1977	Fourth place (1977)
Cuba	Caribbean Zone Group A winners	2	1971	Fourth place (1971)
El Salvador	Central American Zone runners-up	4	1977	Runners-up (1963)
Haiti	Caribbean Zone Group B winners	6	1977	Winners (1973)
Honduras (host)	Central American Zone winners	5	1973	Runners-up (1967)
Mexico (title holders)	North American Zone runners-up	8	1977	Winners (1965, 1971, 1977)

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Honduras	5	3	2	0	8	1	+7	8	1982 FIFA World Cup
2	El Salvador	5	2	2	1	2	1	+1	6
3	Mexico	5	1	3	1	6	3	+3	5
4	Canada	5	1	3	1	6	6	0	5
5	Cuba	5	1	2	2	4	8	−4	4
6	Haiti	5	0	2	3	2	9	−7	2

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1981 CONCACAF Championship winners
Honduras First title

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Consecutive finals appearances	Previous best performance
Honduras	Winners	16 November 1981	1st	—	1	—
El Salvador	Runners-up	22 November 1981	2nd	1970	1	First round (1970)

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

• Frantz Mathieu (playing against Cuba)

Source:^[1]

Ideal XI by RSSSF

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Luis Guevara Mora	Ian Bridge Francisco Osorto Efraín Gutiérrez Jaime Villegas	Norberto Huezo Ramón Maradiaga	Ramón Núñez Carlos Caballero José Figueroa Hugo Sánchez

To date, this is the last time that Mexico failed to qualify for a FIFA World Cup. (Mexico did not appear in the 1990 FIFA World Cup as they were banned in light of a scandal in which they used overage players in a youth tournament.)

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