The big 10

[midknight]

Since the invention of the hex as we know it (home and away, SF round of 3 groups of 4 teams) i.e. since 1998 qualifying 10 teams have made the hex
US, Mex, CR (3x each) Tri, Jam, Hon (2x each) Can, El Sal, Guat, Pan (1 each). I compiled their total records:

p W L D GF GA PTS
**Mex 50 32 5 10 139 34 106
**USA 50 28 8 14 86 36 98
**CR 51 26 15 10 83 57 88
**TT 48 22 20 6 70 61 72
**Guat 39 17 13 9 59 54 60
**Hon 36 20 9 7 89 44 67
**Jam 44 19 12 13 49 39 70
**Can 32 11 12 9 29 37 42
**ES 34 13 13 8 52 51 47
**Pan 36 10 19 7 42 64 37

[midknight]

Pts/m Gf/m Ga/m Gf/ga
M 2,12 2,78 0,68 4,09
U 1,96 1,72 0,72 2,39
C 1,73 1,63 1,12 1,46
T 1,50 1,46 1,27 1,15
G 1,54 1,51 1,38 1,09
H 1,86 2,47 1,22 2,02
J 1,59 1,11 0,89 1,26
C 1,31 0,91 1,16 0,78
E 1,38 1,53 1,50 1,02
P 1,03 1,17 1,78 0,66

[midknight]

PTS/M GF/M GA/m GF/GA
Mex Mex Mex Mex
usa Hon USA USA
Hon usa Jam Hon
CR CR CR CR
Jam El S Can Jam
Guat Guat Hon TT
TT TT TT Guat
El S Pan Guat El S
Can Jam El S Can
Pan Can Pan Pan

[ZeekLTK]

Are these from the hex only or also including the semifinal results?

[MoRado]

nice job man!

[Qdog]

nice job man!

True, but I would still like to know if it includes the semis. If so, I feel more relevant data would exclude them.

Something I noticed, Costa Rica was 4th accross the boards while Honduras was above CR in three of the four catagories. But Honduras never qualified and CR did twice. Interesting.

[scaryice]

Some hex statistics:

http://usasoccer.blogspot.com/2005/10/usa-2-0-panama-and-hex-statistics.html

[Qdog]

Some hex statistics:

http://usasoccer.blogspot.com/2005/10/usa-2-0-panama-and-hex-statistics.html

Not bad, for a blog. ;)

[Guatefc]

True, but I would still like to know if it includes the semis. If so, I feel more relevant data would exclude them.

Something I noticed, Costa Rica was 4th accross the boards while Honduras was above CR in three of the four catagories. But Honduras never qualified and CR did twice. Interesting.

honduras qualified once in 82' spain

and even tied with the host country spain

[midknight]

Are these from the hex only or also including the semifinal results?

Actually, they include all qualifying results from 1998 to 2006, preliminaries and semifinals included.
I didn't think it very instructive to just take hex results because the table is pretty predictable for the 3 that made it to all hexes and then its really not possible to compare the other countries seeing the fact that they didn't qualify for all hexes or that they didn't qualify necessarily at the same time

(Just for the record,in the hex Jam has 1 3rd place and 1 5th place, Trinidad 1 4th place and one 6th place, Honduras 1 4th place [I made a mistake they've only qualified for the hex once], Canada had 1 6th, El Salvador 1 5th, Guat 1 5th and Panama 1 6th)

I guess one can argue that it would be better to just take the hex and semis results since virtually every one of these 10 countries has got that far in each of the three years and that would take off the results against minnows like some of the Caribbean prelims or even the Mexico -Dominica series this year. My guess is that it wouldn't make a fundamental change to the order of the table although the gap between the first 3 and the next 4 might become larger. I'll try it to see when I have the time

What the total results DO suggest is that the overall pecking order (in terms of absolute performace) in Concacaf is Mex, USA, Honduras, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Guat/TT, El Salvador, Canada, Panama.

Jamaica's strength is in its defensive capacity whereas Honduras is completely the opposite. As to why Costa Rica has qualified twice and honduras never it has to do with the fact that Honduras are usually less than stellar at the end of campaigns in pressure situations:

In 2005, 2005, they were with Costa Rica, Guatemala and Canada in the semis. Needing at least one win from their last 2 matches away to guat (that they'd already draw 2-2 and home to Costa Rica that they'd beaten 5-2 in San Jose, they contrived to gain one solitary point in the last game.
In 2002 they were with Jamaica, El Salvador and St. Vincent and won the group comfortably. In the hex, they went from being in second place at two games from the end, (a point in front of both the US and Mexico) to finish 4th, losing to last placed Trinidad at home in the process.
In 98 they were with Jamaica, Mexico and St. Vincent and went out despite gaining 10 points and beating Mexico in the process.

[midknight]

honduras qualified once in 82' spain

and even tied with the host country spain

I think he meant, qualifed in the period under study (1998-2006) You'd notice that Costa Rica didn't qualify 'twice' as he said but three times...unless you exclude 1990 ;)

[midknight]

These are the same stats excluding the prelim matches (includes the GR Gua playoff in 2002 semifinal)

P W D L GF- GA Pts
Mex 48 30 10 8 119-34 100
US 48 26 14 8 81- 34 92
CR 49 25 8 15 80- 54 86
Jam 38 14 12 12 40- 38 54
Hon 28 13 7 8 69- 40 46
T+T 38 14 4 20 44- 58 46
Gua 29 11 6 12 40- 47 39
Slv 28 9 6 13 38- 56 33
Can 28 8 8 12 20- 37 32
Pan 28 3 7 18 21- 59 16



PTS/M GF/M GA/M GF/GA
Mex 2,08 2,48 0,71 3,50
USA 1,92 1,69 0,71 2,38
CR 1,76 1,76 1,10 1,48
Hon 1,64 2,46 1,43 1,73
Jam 1,42 1,05 1,00 1,05
T+T 1,21 1,16 1,53 0,76
Guat 1,34 1,38 1,62 0,85
El S 1,18 1,36 2,00 0,68
Can 1,14 0,71 1,32 0,54
Pan 0,57 0,75 2,11 0,36

[midknight]

PTS/M GF/M GA/M GF/GA
Mex Mex Mex/USA Mex
USA Hon USA
CR CR Jam Hon
Hon USA CR CR
Jam Guat Can Jam
Guat Slv Hon Guat
T+T T+T T+T T+T
Slv Jam Guat Slv
Can Can Slv Can
Pan Pan Pan Pan

[Qdog]

I think he meant, qualifed in the period under study (1998-2006) You'd notice that Costa Rica didn't qualify 'twice' as he said but three times...unless you exclude 1990 ;)

That's what I meant. The status using all the rounds over the last three years doesn't prove a lot. The level of competition before the hex is just too varied. But the numbers are still interesting.