Still watching for this. If Mexico goes into the B3 -v- B4 game, and starts Monday, there would be no reason to start the double-date early. Or maybe just move the MD 6 game up a day to Monday, and that would give enough time to get to Russia. (Draw is November 26)
We'll always have Kansas City. And hey, at least we made good use of these last two games for incorporating young talent into the squad (e.g. Damus, Désiré). Now we have to win our Caribbean Cup group next month to qualify for the next Gold Cup...and after that, figure out how/when to dump Neveu, as his player selection has been baffling even by middling Haiti NT coach standards.
Group A and Group B each played 12 games without any team scoring more than 3 goals in any game. Out of the 15 Semifinal groups in qualifying for World Cups 1998 through 2014, there were only 2 groups without any team scoring more than 3 goals in any games.
Using the ELO Ratings with 100 points added for home field, I calculated the correlation between the game number and opponent's difficulty for each team. The teams are ordered from having their early games being harder (negative correlations) to their later games being harder (positive correlations): Mexico: -.3819 USA: -.2379 Costa Rica: -.1036 Panama: .0542 Trinidad and Tobago: .2380 Honduras: .4325 Honduras starts with their easiest two games, hosting Panama on Matchday 1 and hosting Trinidad and Tobago on Matchday 2. I wouldn't be surprised to see them open with two wins and then two losses because on Matchdays 3 and 4 they play at USA and home vs. Costa Rica. They have three consecutive away games starting on Matchday 5. They end with two out of three games at home, but they're against USA (home), Costa Rica (away), and Mexico (home). The first three matchdays will all have a game between two of Mexico, USA, and Costa Rica.
Yeah I wasn't to happy to see Honduras opening with those two games. It's going to give them a quick start. Hopefully Panama and T&T can prove me wrong because if Honduras screws up those games then USA, Mexico and Costa Rica can really bury Honduras early
Panama have regularly given Honduras fits over the last decade. Just in the last WC cycle, Panama won in Honduras in the semifinal round and gutted out a 2-2 draw in the Hex. Plus, Panama's only Hex victory to date came against Honduras.
Yes, but take into account the last decade: Panama have straight-up owned Honduras across all competitions, including eliminating them from the 2009 Copa Centroamericana on their own turf en route to winning the whole thing. It's just against everyone else that Honduras tend to get better results than Panama (which, you know, kinda matters in the Hex ).
Honduras has over twice as many wins against Panama as Panama has against Honduras, but a lot of that was a long time ago. Honduras has 23 wins, Panama has 11 wins, and there have been 10 draws. In the first 20 head-to-head meetings, which were played in 1995 or earlier, Honduras had 16 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses. Since then it has been near equal with 7 Honduras wins, 8 Panama wins, and 9 draws. In the last 13 games, which were played in 2007 or later, there have been 3 Honduras wins (all in friendlies), 5 Panama wins, and 5 draws. Honduras's last win over Panama that wasn't a friendly was in the Gold Cup on July 12, 2005, but Panama finished that Gold Cup ahead of Honduras.
I decided to bump this topic up before the Hexagonal starts. http://www.concacaf.com/article/honduras-names-26-player-squad-for-wcq has Honduras's roster. http://www.concacaf.com/article/joevin-kenwyne-jones-highlight-tt-wcq-squad has Trinidad and Tobago's roster.
I have to give props to all who said Panama has Honduras' number. You were right. Bolillo was able to beat out Pinto.
great panama! i want to see a world cup first timer in russia and their chances are the biggest, with only iceland and uzbekistan as other teams on the brink, after montenegro lost in armenia. now let t&t overcome crc and we have a wide open hex!
All three home teams have lost once before. On September 1, 2001 the scores were: USA 2:3 Honduras Trinidad and Tobago 0:2 Costa Rica Jamaica 1:2 Mexico If you count games moved for the Confederations Cup as played on the date that had the two Hexagonal games not involving the team in the Confederations Cup, this was the 43rd Hexagonal matchday with 3 games. In 1997, the last two matchdays had every team play the same day, but teams played their first eight Hexagonal games on different days.
Great start, Panama, great start! Embarrassing behavior by both sides though, I don't remember seeing so much of laying down, throwing, acting, diving.