And with Haiti's +2 GD to -1 for Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti advances with a win, tie or loss by 1. OTOH Trinis have to win by at least 2.
Yeah, what I said was incorrect...but not as much as you think: if the game goes down to PKs, the result won't matter as Haiti will have Trinidad and Tobago beat for GD. Unless CFU go with the unprecedented step of considering the margin of victory of a shootout as a tiebreaker... (And let's not forget that Haiti's only here because another unprecedented tiebreaker got struck down after the fact.) Also, this sets up perfectly for one of those kooky situations we thought we'd left behind with the Shell Cup: if the Trinis are only up by 1 and running out of time in the 2nd half, they could always just score an own-goal to buy themselves 30 more minutes.
Within one competition, I think leading after regulation should always be considered better than being tied after regulation. In American sports, a big margin of victory in overtime can affect people who bet on the game with a point spread, but the point differential is irrelevant to the teams.
Copa Centroamericana kicked-off last night in Panama. 1st matchday Honduras - Nicaragua 2-1 Costa Rica - El Salvador 0-0 Panama - Belize 0-0 2nd matchday is to be played tomorrow. Each team plays each. Top four qualify to Gold Cup, fifth faces Haiti in playoff home-away tie.
Going into matchday 3 here are the results of the 2nd one: Belize - Costa Rica 0-3 El Salvador - Honduras 1-2 Panama - Nicaragua 2-1 Catrachos lead the group with 6 pts, Costa Rica and Panama have 4 each, El Salvador and Belize 1 each while Nicaragua still has to win a point. Today: El Salvador - Belize Costa Rica - Nicaragua Panama - Honduras
Congrats, @Catracho_Azul - not only are Honduras in the Gold Cup, but you might as well give them the Copa Centroamericana trophy already. With two matchdays left, they are the only perfect team, with a four-point lead over second-place Costa Rica and a game with Belize still on the horizon. Meanwhile, Friday's most important game might be the first, as Nicaragua take their surprising point against Costa Rica and superior GD into a de facto elimination match against Belize. All the pinoleros need is a tie for the inside track on the playoff with Haiti, while Belize have to win.
After Matchday 4, Panama and Costa Rica are guaranteed to qualify for the Gold Cup, while Belize are eliminated. The last direct qualifier will emerge from the Nicaragua-El Salvador match on Sunday...and surprisingly, thanks to GD, Nicaragua have the upper hand. That is: El Salvador must win to seal their berth; otherwise, a draw or defeat sends Nicaragua to the Gold Cup, while the cuscatlecos would have to face the playoff with Haiti. EDIT: Ok, so Belize still have a mathematical shot if Nicaragua-El Salvador doesn't end in a draw and Belize beat Honduras by enough to overtake the other game's loser on GD...but I don't see that happening.
Noticed Mexico's head coach, Juan Carlos Osorio, was "spying" on the Honduras vs CR game. I feel bad for him, because that's probably the most far and away squads you'll never see dispute a WCQ.
All done in Central America: El Salvador held on for dear life at the end of the second half (never thought I'd see them resort to timewasting against Nicaragua), but they got the 1-0 win and are headed straight to the Gold Cup. Thus, the last berth will be contested in the UNCAF-CFU playoff between Nicaragua and Haiti, tentatively in March.
Gonna be a tough one for Haiti. Nicaragua as seen against Jamaica has zero problems getting results away from home.
In fact, it's not every day that you see Nicaragua - or any CONCACAF team, for that matter - bow out of WCQ with a 100% road record.
Nicaragua and Belize are still the weakest teams I missed the Costarican players abroad in this tournament. I watched some of the matches and were so boring -_-
Don't know about that that...the Nicaragua/El Salvador game could've gone either way. What happens when UNCAF holds this tournament outside of the FIFA window. They really should've thought long and hard about doing this in October 2016 instead...
Knew it: given the slate of Caribbean Cup semifinalists, it would have made little sense for the CFU to insist on having the final round in the US, so Martinique will host instead. The matches: Jamaica vs. French Guiana Martinique vs. Curaçao The major problem for Jamaica and Curaçao is that since their opponents don't exist for FIFA, they can't obligate clubs to release players (same as when you set up a friendly with Catalonia or Euskadi). In addition, unless they run into each other in the Third-Place Match or Final, they're not getting any FIFA ranking points for this.
What leagues outside of Jamaica and Curacao have the most players on those national teams? Most UEFA leagues will not be playing then. MLS plays then.
The USL. With no obligation to release players, Jamaica won't be able to force anything, but they do have a strong relationship with USL clubs. The USL clubs are also generally pretty willing to release players since the prestige of international duty tends to benefit their brand. If Jamaica wanted to, they could probably get a few USL guys in. They could also obviously call the UEFA guys who are out of season. In reality, however, you're probably just going to see a heavily Jamaica-based side. Jamaica has shown a bias against the Euro-based and USL-based players recently and there's every reason to believe that will continue. They want to show a local bias and get as many domestic-league players in the shop window as possible.
For starters, MLS teams sure as hell won't release players in June if they don't have to. Also, Curaçao have a couple players in the Premier League and the Eredivisie; and I don't know how much goodwill they could gin up across the pond, especially since they're going to call up the full team for the Gold Cup in July.
I think FIFA should make leagues have a designated offseason time where clubs can't stop players from playing for national teams.
Most countries play in confederations with about 10 percent of their teams qualifying for the World Cup. It's impossible to play double round-robin group stages to eliminate most countries without having matchdays during the seasons of the best leagues.