guys. please don't turn this into a pissing match. The US and Mexico are both still the only tier 1 in Concacaf and that won't change until qualifiers are over and done with
Here's how I would rank them: Tier 1 - Mexico, USA Two teams that are head and shoulders above the rest. Tier 2 - Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad Teams that actually could qualify for the World Cup. Tier 3 - Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominica, Dominican Rep. Grenada, Guyana, Net. Antilles, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Surinam Best of the rest. This tier should probably be split into two smaller ones. Tier 4 - Anguilla, Aruba, Bahamas, BVI, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks & Caicos, USVI Pushovers.
That one is probably the most accurate. Not all teams in tier 2 have the same strenght but the difference between one team to the others in that group is so little that those teams can beat each others. Honduras is currently the most successful and probably the strongest in the group but can El Salvador, Jamaica, Guatemala, Haiti, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Panama, Canada beat Honduras? Of course! The same can be said about Tier 3 where SVG, Barbados, Grenada, and Guyana are probably a step ahead the rest. But, a team like SKN is by no means inferior to the top teams in Tier 3. They can beat them anytime.
I'm not sure Cuba belongs in tier 2 just yet. The Bahamas is so crappy they probably need a tier of their own. Guadeloupe is curiously absent.
Guadeloupe can only participate in regional tournaments. Guadeloupe's best team can compete with the Tier 2 teams without a doubt.
1)USA 2)Honduras or Mexico 3)Guatemala or Canada you know honduras can take on U.S but U.S.A is a bit better.Honduras can beat mexico especially when they got the full squad. why do you keep saying canada is #3 they havent proved anything, Guatemala and Honduras gets stronger every day they keep showing they can hang with U.S and Mexico!!!! Canada gets weaker every day.
Based on current results I would agree with this table but based on history I would move it around a little. But history doesn't win games anymore, players are more professional and are not threaten any longer as much by history. Lets just hope Honduras and Guate keep the same speed in WCQ so we can see Guate, USA and Honduras in the WQ. We will give Mexico the repechaje so they can beat the South American team and wake their ass up from the Comma they have been in lately. This way Concacaf will have 4 teams in WC.
Ranking on WCQ results (which is so much a measuring stick then the MM Gold Cup) TIER 1 1- United States 2- Mexico 3- Costa Rica TIER 2 4- Jamaica 5- Trinidad & Tobago TIER 3 6- Honduras 7- Guatemala 8- El Salvador 9- Canada 10- Panama TIER 4 11- Barbados 12- St Vincent & Grenadines 13- Saint Kitts & Nevis 14- Cuba TIER 5 The rest...
Tier one teams too, they did a very good job of it in the last Gold Cup. Many of these small islands have several players(Grenada, St. Vincent) or their entire national teams(Guadeloupe, Netherlands Antilles) playing top-flight in Europe and are vastly underrated. Canada made a very good showing last Gold Cup. That may not mean anything as they got a very ugly win in 2000 by bunkering and countering past every team, but they now have a fully professional league, an MLS team, and several more on the way. Not really a step back. People are rating Guatemala very highly, and I think it's comming almost completely off of that Los Angeles win against Mexico. They have Maradiaga(probably Central America's best-ever coach) running things again and possibly their best-ever team, but still only have one mega star(Ruiz) and two players overseas(Ruiz and Simz.)They are going to have to compete(assuming they make it to the final hex) against 5 other teams with European-based players with an almost completely domestic team. It's going to be tough.
I made my ranking not only based on the NTs but also the youth teams. Using that, I see Honduras and Guatemala as equal to the USA or Mexico. Actually, if anything, I'd put the USA slightly ahead with the other three behind it.
How is CR ranked so high and Honduras so low? I would also rate Canada higher than ES (also Panama > ES). Jamaica hasn't done anything as of late to warrant such a high ranking. Metro
You know what it is Metro, I think he is just in denial on how bad the CR national team is doing at the moment.
this is how i see it TIER 1 1)USA-THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A BIT MORE SUPERIOR 2)HONDURAS-THEIR OUTSTANDING PERMORMANCES THESE PAST YEARS SHOWING THEY CAN COMPETE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES 3)MEXICO-HAVING 108,700,891 HABITANTS HALF THERE TEAM IS NATIONALIZED WTF TIER 2 GUATEMALA- THEY HAVE BEEN PLAYING GOOD BUT CANT FIND THE RHYTEM CANADA-WELL THEY WERE BETTER BUT THEY SEEM TO BE LOSING IT JAMAICA-JAMAICA HAS ALL THE RIGHT PLAYERS
WOW. Your hatred and jelousy towards Mexico oozes from your post. What outstanding performances has honduras done these past years? Your math skills are as bad as your ranking. 2 nationalized players does not equal half of an 18 man roster.
Don't worry about it. They still make cases on teams doing well in Mickey Mouse tournaments (cough cough Gold Cup) despite the fact that they can't qualify to the World Cup.
Even in the gold cup what did they do? they only thing they did that is considered a great acomplishment was beat mexico under one of our worst coaches in history.
Seriously(because it looks as though some of you are actually serious,) Honduras is not better than Mexico, and Guatemala isn´t better than Costa Rica. Canada is about equal to us at the moment(they may pass us soon.) Between the US and Mexico it´s debatable(depending on your own biases,) Honduras would be next in line, and slightly below them would be the group of Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, and Canada(again those four ranked depending on how you see things.) Slightly below would be Haiti, then Jamaica/Trinidad, then Cuba/El Salvador, then the goup of Nicaragua, St. Vincent, Belize, Netherlands Antilles, Grenada, Barbados, Puerto Rico, and Suriname. One notch below would be St. Kitts and Guyana. Anyone else not mentioned would be minnows . The criteria used would be the actual strength of the national team, the strength of the national league, the depths of the lower leagues(for example only the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, and maybe Guatemala have 2nd divisions or lower that are actually professional,) and how many players are playing abroad at big or at least decent clubs. All things that contribute to(or take away from) a national team. Screw history and FIFA rankings.
That was the best analysis of the reality of Concacaf. Some can't seem to admit it. US, Mexico and Honduras are significantly better than the rest. They represent Tier 1. Costa Rica is right below ( Tier 1.5) followed in my opinion by Canada, Panama, Guatemala and Haiti ( maybe i'm biased but some of you don't know what we are preparing ) ( Tier 2) Then would come Jamaica, T&T, Cuba, El Salavador. ( Tier 3) The difference between Costa Rica ( Tier 1.5) and Canada (Tier 2) as well as Jamaica ( Tier 3) is really not that big. Any of these teams can easily beat each other at any time. Guyana, Grenada, Netherland Antilees, Barbados and Puerto Rico would be Tier 4. And then you got the rest.. Thats how I see things
This makes sense too, but I´m not sure Honduras belongs in tier one with the US and Mexico. On a good day they could take both teams, but are nowhere near as consistent as either one of them. Both teams also completely own them in depth. The US with dozens of players in Europe and elsewhere, the Professional MLS, professional USL 1 & 2 leagues, the PDL, and enormous collegate system with Division 1,2&3 tiers. Also the various amateur leagues all over the US which are more or less the same level as the PDL. Mexico also has a fair amount of their players in Europe, a 1st division, 1st division A, 2nd division, and 3rd division, not to mention their fuerzas basicas youth system. The can also call on tons of Mexican-Americans more willing to play for them than the US. This is pretty much why those two are leaving the rest of CONCACAF in the dust. Honduras(and a few others) are very good but just can´t compete with those types of resources.