[EvilRick]

Jan 22nd

Mexican Federation officials met with their Central American counterparts to discuss a new World Cup qualifying format for 2006.

Instead of organizing three groups of 4 teams before the hex, there would be 2 pre Hexagonals.
CR, Mexico and USA would qualify automatically to these pre Hexagonals, but the rest would
have to hold regional knockout rounds from which:

4 Central American nations qualify.

4 Caribbean nations qualify

The 5th place Caribbean, the 5th place Central American and Canada would play a three way
elimination round to top off the 12 contestants.

Those 12 teams then get divided into 2 groups of 6 of which the top three qualify to the final Hex.

Apparently they reached this format unanimously and will be present it to the rest of CONCACAF.

[Captain Canuck]

Originally posted by EvilRick
Jan 22nd

Mexican Federation officials met with their Central American counterparts to discuss a new World Cup qualifying format for 2006.

Instead of organizing three groups of 4 teams before the hex, there would be 2 pre Hexagonals.
CR, Mexico and USA would qualify automatically to these pre Hexagonals, but the rest would
have to hold regional knockout rounds from which:

4 Central American nations qualify.

4 Caribbean nations qualify

The 5th place Caribbean, the 5th place Central American and Canada would play a three way
elimination round to top off the 12 contestants.

Those 12 teams then get divided into 2 groups of 6 of which the top three qualify to the final Hex.

Apparently they reached this format unanimously and will be present it to the rest of CONCACAF.

If I have this figured out correctly, this system would have it that every decent Central American side would qualify for the semi-finals (Costa Rica automatically, and the next four likely to be Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador & Panama), which would mean Canada would be put into a group with Belize or Nicaragua & the 5th place Carribean team (top 4 presumably Jamaica, T&T, Cuba & Haiti, so let's say, Bermuda maybe).

Well no wonder the Central American countries are in favour of this!

That's if everything goes according to plan. A fluky result here & there in the regional qualifiers and Canada could be in a group with Honduras & Jamaica & once again, given no second chance initially if they slip up just once when their opponents are already on their second chance (shades of qualifying for 1990 & 2002 from Canada's perspective). Can't say as a Canadian that I like the "no initial second chance" part of this set-up, when everyone presumably gets one.

[El CHarro_NEgro....]

Originally posted by Captain Canuck
If I have this figured out correctly, this system would have it that every decent Central American side would qualify for the semi-finals (Costa Rica automatically, and the next four likely to be Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador & Panama), which would mean Canada would be put into a group with Belize or Nicaragua & the 5th place Carribean team (top 4 presumably Jamaica, T&T, Cuba & Haiti, so let's say, Bermuda maybe).

Well no wonder the Central American countries are in favour of this!

That's if everything goes according to plan. A fluky result here & there in the regional qualifiers and Canada could be in a group with Honduras & Jamaica & once again, given no second chance initially if they slip up just once when their opponents are already on their second chance (shades of qualifying for 1990 & 2002 from Canada's perspective). Can't say as a Canadian that I like the "no initial second chance" part of this set-up, when everyone presumably gets one.

If Canada can't beat Honduras and T&T then they don't deserve to be at the World Cup.

[DoyleG]

Now I'm, starting to belive why the the new MNT nickname is El Cry.

[Captain Canuck]

Originally posted by El CHarro_NEgro....
If Canada can't beat Honduras and T&T then they don't deserve to be at the World Cup.

That's not the issue - why do other teams get an initial second chance before they can be eliminated but not Canada?

Would you say that if Honduras can't beat Panama, they don't deserve to be at the World Cup? They finished 2nd to Panama in their preliminary group of three for 2002, yet were given a "2nd chance" to progress to the next round, & ended up finishing 4th in Concacaf - nowadays that's likely to get you into the World Cup. Under the proposed format, Canada would not get that second chance that all the other teams would seemingly get.

[EvilRick]

Originally posted by Captain Canuck
That's not the issue - why do other teams get an initial second chance before they can be eliminated but not Canada?

The issue was addressed.
Canada does not fall in the Caribbean or Central America, therefore it can't take part in elimination.
In the other hand, those 5th places may came to play at a disadvantage against Canada (More chance for injury, red cards and less strength?)

[Benedict XVI]

North
Central
Carribean


seems canada is the only entry in north america that doesn't go straight to the hex. so they should get north america's spot.


this screws Canada. big time. forget it. they should just put Canada in the central american or carribean zone - it's stupid the way Canada is treated.

[Wolves_67]

This plan looks like it's not worth the paper it took to print it. Highly unfair. Hopefully, CONCACAF will see that it is also and stick with the current plan.

[Crazy_Yank]

I think the current system of qualifying is fine the way it is. No need to change. Last time around we had 5 of the top 6 teams in the hex. That's about as close as you'll get to the best 6. If Canada has their best players availible making the hex shouldn't be a problem under any format.

[JG]

Yeah, just put Canada in the Central American or Caribbean zones. That way they have the same chances as everyone else.

Two hexes = 20 games. Kinda tough to fit on the international calendar, although it seems like an okay format to me on paper.