Should Gold Cup Qualification be changed???

Discussion in 'Gold Cup' started by drt2k3, Jul 8, 2013.

  1. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    One thing's for sure. Canada doesn't deserve automatic entry.

    They're now ranked as the 12th best team in CONCACAF by FIFA (below the Dominican Republic). They haven't won a single game in 2013. They just played Mauritania (ranked 151st by FIFA) and suffered the indignity of a 0-0 draw.

    I think the automatic entry issue is easy to resolve. All 6 participants of the 2014 WCQing Hexagonal should have received automatic entry into both the 2013 Gold Cup and 2015 Gold Cup. You want the best teams in CONCACAF competing in the Gold Cup? There they are right now without question. Everybody else needs to qualify................................
     
  2. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The problem is that the Hexagonal qualifiers were determined in October 2012 and you would need time between then and the 2013 Gold Cup to have qualifiers for the rest of CONCACAF for six Gold Cup spots.
     
  3. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Canada just slipped again in the FIFA rankings to 106th. The 13th best CONCACAF team according to those ratings...................and Antigua & Barbuda is on their heels.

    It just doesn't see "fair" that they get an automatic slot in the competition.
     
  4. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    16 team gold cup.

    10 mainland countries plus 6 CFU, no more best 3rd place thing.
     
  5. SJJ

    SJJ Member

    Sep 20, 1999
    Royal Oak, MI, USA
    Club:
    Michigan Bucks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    p.s. this is not the "format of gold cup" thread; if someone has a realistic format for QUALIFICATION for the gold cup (in its current 12-team form), feel free to post.
     
  6. Sebsasour

    Sebsasour Member+

    New Mexico United
    May 26, 2012
    Albuquerque NM
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    President Webb did say in an interview with Best Soccer Show awhile ago (it got overshadowed by the 2016 Copa America announcement that technically wasn't an announcement) that if expansion were to happen it would mostly come from the CFU nations and maybe one Central American

    Starts at the 6:30 mark


    I'd like to see Canada compete with the Central American nations in an 8 team tournament with the top 6 qualifying, and honestly I wouldn't mind seeing the US and Mexico compete in it as well and having the top 8 qualifying (though that'd never happen). 8 from the mainland and 8 from the CFU
     
  7. drt2k3

    drt2k3 Member

    Jul 1, 2005
    Wilmington, NC
    Club:
    Wilmington H.
    Easiest thing to do would be to make the lowest ranked NAFU team (IE Canada) have to qualify for the Gold Cup with the Central American Teams. That would make that tournament 8 teams. 2 groups of 4, each group has the top 3 qualify. If the Gold Cup expands and Central America gets an additional spot the bottom 2 teams in each group can have a playoff for the expanded spot.
     
  8. italiancbr

    italiancbr Member

    Apr 15, 2007
    The Gold Cup is the flagship tournament of CONCACAF and goes a long way towards making the region relevant in global soccer. The problem is that it is probably the fifth most watched and interesting continental soccer showpiece. There have only been three winners, all from North America, it has been hosted by two countries, and there's little build-up to it with qualifying tournaments. It has stagnated while other continents have expanded and grown their tournaments.

    By far the biggest change that has to happen is to have different countries host it. Revenue and ticket sales should not be what the confederation is about. It should be about popularizing the sport of soccer across all countries in the region and giving soccer players the opportunities and exposure they need to keep playing. Besides Oceania, CONCACAF is probably the confederation with the least amount of interest in soccer. By keeping the tournament every two years, changing venues, and adding teams, I believe interest in the Gold Cup will increase and all the federations will have an easier time keeping their players active and give them an opportunity to cap more players. This should be rotated among all three regions in the confederation (i.e. year 1 North American country, year 2 Central American country, year 3 Caribbean country).

    The second issue is that qualifying should be fair and the tournament should be expanded to 16 teams with four groups of four and the top two advancing to the knockout stages. Semifinalists from the previous edition should be automatically included in the next tournament. This should be a formality for Mexico and the U.S., but if they didn't make the semifinals than they should have to qualify just like everyone else. There shouldn't be any special treatment. There are three sub-regions within CONCACAF and the Gold Cup should be more representative of all three regions. Besides the previous semifinalists and the hosts, only the UNCAF and Caribbean Cup semifinalists should be included automatically.

    Ok so qualifying should look like this:
    1 Spot: Host
    4 Spots: Previous semifinalists
    4 Spots: UNCAF semifinalists
    4 Spots: Caribbean Cup semifinalists
    3 Spots: Playoffs (Home and Away)
    So three spots left: Canada, 4 losing Caribbean Cup quarterfinalists, 5th place UNCAF qualifier all get put in a hat or bowl and get drawn into three home and away ties. The three winners round up the three Gold Cup finalists.

    Then you improvise as necessary. For example, if Canada is a host then an extra spot would be given to Central America or Caribbean for the three final playoff spots. If Costa Rica hosts and they are also in the top four spots in UNCAF qualifying, then the fifth place UNCAF team automatically qualifies and the sixth place team gets one of the playoff spots, etc.

    Having only Concacaf members has been a huge improvement over having invitational teams which seemed to be a slap in the face of every Caribbean team. In FIFA each country has one vote, which means Anguilla and Montserrat are just as important as the U.S. in their eyes. By keeping these minnows down, only bigger members of Concacaf are hurt because the rest of the world will continue to see the region as a joke. Therefore FIFA will continue to give the region three and a half World Cup spots and the U.S. and Mexico will always have a tough time in the World Cup by not receiving a top seed. I think Webb is a massive improvement over Warner because he realizes that all members need to be strengthened in order for the region to improve. And the only way to do this is through regular competition. I think that the new format of the CONCACAF Champions League is a step in the right direction.
     
  9. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Let's say that two UNCAF countries made the Semifinals of the last Gold Cup and another UNCAF country was hosting. Then there would be only four countries left so all of them would qualify from a four country UNCAF tournament and there would be no fifth place UNCAF team to compete in the playoffs.
    The CFU currently doesn't play Quarterfinals. They have two groups of four with the top two in each group going to the Semifinals. The third and fourth place teams would be kind of like losing Quarterfinalists.
     
  10. blacksun

    blacksun Member+

    Mar 30, 2006
    Seoul, Korea
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The Caribbean minnows are not minnows because the big countries are "keeping them down", they are minnows because they simply do not have the population base to give them enough good players. Trinidad and Tobago are the smallest country to ever make the world cup - they have a population of 1.3 million. Most of the Caribbean countries are much smaller than that. The best Antigua, Barbados, etc. can hope for is to go from terrible to bad. A minnow going from #125 to #105 will not make any significant difference to the rankings of the big countries.

    The biggest thing that would help the US and Mexico's rankings (other than playing better) would be to have CONCACAF's confederation multiplier increased. That multiplier is based on confederation performances in the World Cup and Confederations Cup, so the minnows ratings have nothing to do with that.

    Respect for the confederation also has very little to do with the minnows. UEFA has Liechtenstein, San Marino, the Faroe Islands, etc. and no one cares because they have lots of strong teams. Respect for CONCACAF will increase when the mid-level countries (Honduras, Panama, Jamaica, etc) improve, or the US and Mexico start making routine deep runs in the World Cup knockout rounds.
     
    PaulieJay repped this.
  11. italiancbr

    italiancbr Member

    Apr 15, 2007

    I would say the Caribbean countries are minnows primarily because soccer is not the number one sport on those islands and there is no grassroots effort by CONCACAF to improve their standard of play, not because of population. If Caribbean countries are minnows than how do you explain Puerto Rican and USVI dominance in basketball, Dominican Republic, Curacao, and Cuban dominance in baseball, and track & field and cricket dominance by virtually every English speaking Caribbean island. Nicaragua is great in baseball too but they're in Central America. In Olympic and World competitions this region gets plenty of qualifying spots in those sports. Also, there are five Caribbean countries (Haiti, Cuba, Dom. Republic, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica) that have populations above or at Uruguay's level yet Uruguay finished fourth in the 2010 World Cup, won the latest Copa America, and have won a pair of World Cups. There are another handful of island nations that have at least as many people as Cape Verde Islands yet they qualified for the last African Cup of Nations and would've been in the final qualifiers for the World Cup if they hadn't used an ineligible player. I'm not saying that every member could improve, but in a region of 35 members, if there were at least 25 of them that were competitive, than FIFA would eventually raise the multiplier. As you mentioned, every region has it's cupcakes, but having 5 or so decent teams in the whole region doesn't help CONCACAF's cause.


    You brought up a great example with Antigua but I would say they've already gone from terrible to decent. They have a very small population yet they have moved up to 14th in CONCACAF in the FIFA rankings (111th overall, just below Canada) and almost tied the U.S. at home in the semifinal group of World Cup qualifying after beating Haiti in the previous round. I think they could still improve and they've done it in a short amount of time by having a semi-professional club team playing against American teams. All these island nations have the potential regardless of their populations yet CONCACAF has never tried hard enough to develop the region or make people excited enough to care about soccer. And in the countries or territories where soccer is the top sport, CONCACAF has failed to grow the sport. In Suriname for example, the best players are snatched up by the Netherlands. If Curacao can be better at baseball than the Netherlands, than I think something can be done to convince players to play for Suriname. In Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana, the best players end up playing for France. All three of those territories could probably be competitive enough to challenge for a spot in the final World Cup hex qualifying group. But until recently they weren't even full CONCACAF members and aren't eligible to receive FIFA funds. Those territories haven't been accepted into FIFA, but they are part of at least one world governing body--in volleyball (FIVB). In fact, the FIVB has 220 national federations to FIFA's 209. Why was there such an effort to make islands like Montserrat and Anguilla members when these other islands would actually make a difference in the competitiveness of the region?



    Ok so the UNCAF tournament would still have 7 teams regardless of who would be already qualified for the Gold Cup. The only way the 5th placed team would automatically qualify is if a UNCAF team was hosting the Gold Cup that year. In that case the 6th placed team would go into the playoffs and the 7th placed team would be eliminated. Otherwise only a team that made it to the UNCAF semifinals that wasn't already qualified could gain automatic entry to the Gold Cup. The 5th and 6th placed teams would go into the playoffs and the 7th placed team would be eliminated. Any extra places would go to Caribbean teams.


    As far as the CFU, before the final stage they had three groups of four in the semifinal qualifying stage. As many of those teams as needed would gain playoff spots. If you still need another playoff place depending on how UNCAF and North America shape up, then you go into the previous round and get the best third-place team based on number of points gained vs. the top two teams finishing in the group.


    To give you an example of how this would work let's assume that the U.S. would be the first host as part of the rotation.


    1 Spot: Host (U.S.)
    4 Spots: Previous semifinalists (U.S., Mexico, Panama, Honduras)
    4 Spots: UNCAF semifinalists (Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador)
    4 Spots: Caribbean Cup semifinalists (Cuba, Martinique, Haiti, T&T)
    So in the above example some teams would qualify twice so there would be extra playoff spots up for grabs. So there would be 10 automatic qualifiers and 6 playoff spots to be decided between 12 teams in home-and-away legs. The playoff teams would be:
    Canada
    5th place UNCAF (Belize)
    6th place UNCAF (Guatemala)
    4 non-qualified CFU finalists (Antigua, Jamaica, French Guiana, Dominican Republic)
    5 best CFU semifinalists based on points that didn't reach final stage (Grenada, Guyana, Guadeloupe, Suriname, St. Vincent and Grenadines)
    From these 12 teams the final 6 qualifiers would emerge.
     
  12. drt2k3

    drt2k3 Member

    Jul 1, 2005
    Wilmington, NC
    Club:
    Wilmington H.
    Between North and Central America, there are 8 spots for 10 teams.

    Another way to do this could be the top 4 North/Central American teams qualify automatically while the remaining 6 compete in 2 groups of 3 where the top 2 in each group qualify.

    This would be similar to the current Central American setup expect it would be have an even number of groups and no need for a playoff round.

    This option would address the issue of Canada having automatic qualification while not providing too much of a shock to the current setup. It would also reward top Central American performers by allowing them to bypass the current Central American qualification.

    So for 2015:

    Automatic Qualifiation: US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama

    Group A: Honduras, Guatemala, Belize
    Group B: El Salvador, Canada, Nicaragua

    Top 2 in each group qualify.
     
  13. coppercanuck

    coppercanuck New Member

    Mar 21, 2008
    The reason the FIFA Rankings don't work in CONCACAF is due to the lack of qualifying matches. All these CFU and UNCAF qualifiers are counting as a 2.5 multiplier. Meanwhile Canada is stuck playing friendlies. Open the qualifying up. 16 teams? minus the one host (USA again?) 15 teams to qualify ... 10 groups with winners advancing and 2nd place play-offs for the remaining 5. 41 teams to qualify. 10 groups of 4.

    How about 4 pots of 10? Based on some kind of combo of AUG-14 FIFA and results from last Gold Cup.
    Pot A - CRC, PAN, HON, MEX, TRI, CUB, HAI, SLV, MTQ^, CAN
    Pot B - JAM, DOM, GYF^, GUA, BLZ, SUR, ATG, GRN, GPE^, SVG
    Pot C - GUY, ARU, PUR, LCA, HAI, NCA, SKN, BAR, MSR, DMA
    Pot D - BER, CUW, MAF^, VGB, AIA, TCA*, VIR*, BAH*, CAY*, q (The * teams didn't play in the qualifiers for the last Gold Cup)
    q = BON^* v SXM^* (two ^non-fifa members of concacaf who also didn't play in qualifiers for the last Gold Cup)

    The FIFA calendar has 2 dates for each of Sep, Oct, Nov. Perfect for home and home pool play. Now every FIFA member get a chance for 6 matches at 2.5 multiplier. Level playing field?
     
  14. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If qualifying required 6 games with each country having to play at at least 4 sites (at least 1 home site and 3 away games) I think even fewer countries would attempt to qualify. It would also make it harder for USA to lead CONCACAF in the FIFA Rankings if Mexico started playing Gold Cup qualifiers.
     
  15. blacksun

    blacksun Member+

    Mar 30, 2006
    Seoul, Korea
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You could have a group of Mexico, Belize, Barbuda, and Bonaire; Mexico might end up with a +50 goal difference. What good does making a bunch of Caribbean teams take long, expensive trips just to get hammered do?

    And Canada's poor FIFA ranking has less to do with them not playing qualifiers than it does with them not winning a game for almost two years.
     
  16. italiancbr

    italiancbr Member

    Apr 15, 2007
    Well let's take a look at Europe to answer this question. Why does UEFA have a long drawn out process for qualifying rather than having pre-qualifying for the weaker teams. I think it's a sign of respect and it shows that they are all equal members within the confederation even if the quality of the teams are very different. It grows the sport. No one would care about watching minnows play each other. Even the players would be tired of playing each other. I'm sure players on these teams enjoy playing against world class players. It's a learning experience.

    Out of 54 UEFA teams probably around 20 have no realistic chance of even coming close to qualifying. And that's even with the expanded format of 24 teams. Only about 35 teams have a chance to qualify for those 24 spots. And do you think that any of those additional 8 teams that are added have a snowball's chance of winning? But they decided to add more spots to increase interest and to be fair to their members. If there are 54 total members, which is 44% of teams. They realize that keeping it at 16 teams makes it seem like a tournament only for the elite. But once in a while there are upsets and that's what makes it so great. Games should be decided on the field.

    Using that same logic, I think many Caribbean teams would welcome an increase in qualifying spots and a fairer qualification format. I don't think they enjoy going through three or four rounds of playing qualifiers against other Caribbean teams. Sure there might be alot of lopsided games as well as some upsets, and I'm sure the players would enjoy it, there would be more interest generated within those countries, and it would be fairer since the teams would decide qualification on the field rather than the board room. Money should not be an issue because distance is not as great as it is in Africa and Asia and those teams still manage to conduct qualifying campaigns. All international teams and confederations get plenty of money from FIFA to be distributed as seen fit by each country's FA in order to grow the game. Having 16 teams in the Gold Cup would roughly put it at the same percentage level as that for Europe. There should be no automatic spots except for the hosts.
     
  17. SJJ

    SJJ Member

    Sep 20, 1999
    Royal Oak, MI, USA
    Club:
    Michigan Bucks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I thought that money is always an issue, especially with the Caribbean. Many of the countries use the FIFA money just be barely survive. If there was any interest, then you would see more sponsors for the Caribbean countries. (I have not heard any more about that pan-Caribbean club league.)
     
  18. nfitz

    nfitz Member

    Aug 20, 2007
    Toronto
    Canada performance in 2013 was certainly poor. Though none of the loses were to lower ranked (well now higher ranked!) CONCACAF FIFA teams.

    However Canada hasn't lost a game in 2014. Canada has only lost 1 game on Canadian soil in the last 4 years the ranking is based on (2011-2014) (with 5 wins and 4 draws).

    In September Canada beat Jamaica, who were ranked 85. And Canada rose from 122 to 120. However they fell from 9th to 15th in CONCACAF because:
    • Guatemala - up 77 spots to 57 (notably beating Honduras)
    • El Salvador, up 55 spots to 72 (notably beating Honduras)
    • Antigua & Barbuda, up 69 spots to 80 (with wins over St. Vincent, Dominican Republic, and Anguilla)
    • St. Vincent up 28 spots to 106 (with wins over Anguilla and Dominican Republic)
    • Dominican Republic up 19 spots to 107 (with 3 losses and a single win over 207th ranked Anguilla)
    • St. Kitts and Nevis up 42 spots to 117 (with wins over 153rd ranked Guyana and 167 ranked Dominica)
    How can any team advance past Canada solely on the basis of beating Anguilla who are 2nd last in the world, whose sole point in the standings was a 0-0 draw against the US Virgin Islands in 2011! (who at the time were ranked 200th).

    While poor 2013 play is certainly a factor for Canada - the shifts for the other nations - particularly the Caribbean nations - are completely bizarre. The formula is broken. Other systems, such as ELO result in more realistic rankings - see http://www.eloratings.net/america.html

    For ELO, Canada is ranked 85 - 10th in Concacaf - and only 10 spots behind 75th ranked Honduras (ranked 4th in CONCACAF. In comparison:
    • Antigua & Barbuda is ranked 135 compared to 80 by FIFA
    • St. Vincent is 166 instead of 106
    • Dominican Republic is 149 instead of 107
    • St. Kitts and Nevis is 162 instead of 117.
     
  19. SJJ

    SJJ Member

    Sep 20, 1999
    Royal Oak, MI, USA
    Club:
    Michigan Bucks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I split Canada's 48-month results into four sets, which are what I believe are the cut-offs for the full-weighting, and each percentage-weighting. Canada's record is (1 W, 3 L, 2 D) in the full-weighting list, and (1 W, 7 L, 3 D) in the 50-percent list.

    Weighted 20%
    datehomevisHgolVgolResult
    8-Oct-2010UkraineCanada22D
    9-Feb-2011GreeceCanada10L
    29-Mar-2011BelarusCanada01W
    1-Jun-2011CanadaEcuador22D
    7-Jun-2011USACanada20L
    14-Jun-2011CanadaPanama11D
    2-Sep-2011CanadaSt. Lucia41W
    6-Sep-2011Puerto RicoCanada03W


    Weighted 30%
    datehomevisHgolVgolResult
    7-Oct-2011St. LuciaCanada07W
    11-Oct-2011CanadaPuerto Rico00D
    11-Nov-2011St. Kitts and NevisCanada00D
    15-Nov-2011CanadaSt. Kitts and Nevis40W
    29-Feb-2012ArmeniaCanada31L
    3-Jun-2012CanadaUSA00D
    8-Jun-2012CubaCanada01W
    12-Jun-2012CanadaHonduras00D
    15-Aug-2012CanadaTrinidad and Tobago20W
    7-Sep-2012CanadaPanama10W
    11-Sep-2012PanamaCanada20L


    Weighted 50%
    datehomevisHgolVgolResult
    12-Oct-2012CanadaCuba30W
    16-Oct-2012HondurasCanada81L
    26-Jan-2013CanadaDenmark04L
    29-Jan-2013USACanada00D
    22-Mar-2013JapanCanada21L
    25-Mar-2013CanadaBelarus02L
    28-May-2013CanadaCosta Rica01L
    11-Jul-2013MexicoCanada20L
    14-Jul-2013PanamaCanada00D
    8-Sep-2013CanadaMauritania00D
    10-Sep-2013CanadaMauritania01L


    Weighted 100%
    datehomevisHgolVgolResult
    15-Oct-2013CanadaAustralia03L
    15-Nov-2013Czech RepublicCanada20L
    19-Nov-2013SloveniaCanada10L
    23-May-2014BulgariaCanada11D
    27-May-2014MoldovaCanada11D
    9-Sep-2014CanadaJamaica31W
     
  20. nfitz

    nfitz Member

    Aug 20, 2007
    Toronto
    I'm not sure your point, though I appreciate the tables.

    My point is that the current ranking isn't that representative; that Canada hasn't yet lost in 2014; that the claim that Canada hasn't won in almost 2 years is false; and that Canadian performance on Canadian soil has been very good. I think the "home" losses you show are all in Europe and elsewhere ... other than the 1-0 loss in Edmonton to Costa Rica in 2013.

    As long as Canada primarily plays better teams primarily away and in neutral grounds, then Canada isn't going to have many wins. As I expect we'll see this month playing number 3 in the world Columbia in USA, especially sending a B team when Columbia is sending an A team. In the match after that Canada plays Panama - in Panama; another likely loss.

    The theory put forth is that Canada's ranking has less to do with not playing qualifiers, and more to with not winning.

    Not winning has a lot to do with seldom playing in Canada, and choosing to play better teams away and at neutral grounds.

    Were Canada to be playing the likes of Antigua, Anguilla, Dominica anywhere, or even Guatemala or El Salvador in Canada with a 2.5 multiplier per game, Canada's ranking would be higher.
     
  21. La Trucha

    La Trucha Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 16, 2009
    42 Wallaby Way, Sydney
    Club:
    Melbourne Victory
    Nat'l Team:
    Australia
    IMO scrap the Copa Centroamericana and the Carribbean Cup and instead have the Central American and Carribbean teams battle it out for Gold Cup qualification. Also, strip Canada off of automatic qualification, it's a joke that they get that privilege despite being a weak team.

    If no Carribean teams were to qualify then so be it. It would simply mean that all 7 Central American teams and Canada were better teams. I wouldn't mind if the Carribean teams united to create a West Indies football team like they do for cricket.....
     
  22. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    So you propose 16 team tournament to qualify into the Gold Cup which is a 12 team tournament?

    Something about that just seems totally off in my book. And Logistically speaking it just could not happen.
     
  23. La Trucha

    La Trucha Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 16, 2009
    42 Wallaby Way, Sydney
    Club:
    Melbourne Victory
    Nat'l Team:
    Australia
    #48 La Trucha, Jul 9, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2015
    Yes I propose that Canada, the Central American and Caribbean teams all battle each other in the qualifications, rather than the current system of a 7-team Copa Centroamericana, an 8-team Caribbean Cup and an automatic qualification for Canada. That way only the strongest possible teams qualify instead just the lucky top 4 in Central America and the lucky top 4 in the Caribbean.

    Heck, I would also suggest that the English-speaking Caribbean countries united to create the West Indies team, which is what they do for cricket.
     
  24. slaminsams

    slaminsams Member+

    Mar 22, 2010
    Not a fan of that idea. The CCL lost a bit for me when the stronger Central American clubs could no longer be grouped together. Now champions from Central American rarely face each other in a meaningful game. The hex would still allow at least two or three teams to meet in a World Cup qualifying cycle however you would likely not see a Panama versus El Salvador game very often anymore

    The World Cup qualifiers already work that way it's good that the Gold cup qualifiers are different.
     
  25. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The Gold Cup has 12 teams, and North and Central America combined have 10, so there would be at least two Caribbean teams. I wouldn't have a problem with Central America and the Caribbean combining their Gold Cup qualifying.
     

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