But as of now, Jamaica would STILL be going to the Gold Cup in 2019, which is the much bigger deal than being in League A.
But unable to win the Nation League trophy, they would be fighting to promote to league A. My understanding is that only those in League A can go to Nation League playoffs
Not debating that, but the Gold Cup is bigger than the Nations League playoff right now. Hell, we havent even had the first iteration of that yet. Of course, any team would want to qualify for both.
I think that is correct. I misunderstood the format and thought that B and C teams could get a couple more games in their own final rounds but they don't talk anywhere about finals for League B or C.
A pretty unforgiving if you finish last in League A https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_CONCACAF_Nations_League
Well, that's the point of this format. If you finish last, your reward is playing with weaker teams next time.
Concacaf stated ahead of the draw that if and when Guatemala were fully reinstated, they would be bound for League C. Missing out on these CNL qualifiers means that your boys can't make the Gold Cup or a better league at the outset (if there is a Copa América in 2020, that's out of the question as well)...so they'll spend the first edition of the CNL beating the ever-living crap out of the likes of Sint-Maarten en route to League B promotion
Neither here, nor in UEFA - although in the UEFA NL, the group winners in the lower leagues are guaranteed a playoff between them for a Euro 2020 berth if they don't grab a berth in regular qualifying. Something that, as we can see in this round, I really hope Concacaf doesn't adopt here (sorry, League C fodder, but I don't think the Gold Cup needs Mexico dropping double digits on anyone).
Yeah, that's what UEFA is doing. The worst team in League A will still be ranked / seeded higher than the best team in League B (at least for a couple of years, until the next season of Nations League is played).
2019-20 CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying Round Home team first, times are CT Monday and Tuesday results: Matchday 1 Thursday, September 6 Dominica 0-0 Suriname Guyana 2-2 Barbados Friday, September 7 Anguilla 0-5 French Guiana Antigua and Barbuda 0-3 Saint Lucia Belize 4-0 Bahamas Saturday, September 8 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 0-2 Nicaragua Cuba 11-0 Turks and Caicos Islands Montserrat 1-2 El Salvador Sunday, September 9 Bonaire 0-5 Dominican Republic U.S. Virgin Islands 0-8 Canada Aruba 3-1 Bermuda Jamaica 4-0 Cayman Islands Saint Kitts and Nevis 1-0 Puerto Rico Monday, September 10 Haiti 13-0 Sint Maarten Curacao 10-0 Grenada Tuesday, September 11 Saint Martin 0-3 Guadeloupe Martinique v. British Virgin Islands PPD 2019 Gold Cup slots in italics. Standings 1. Haiti 1 g.p. 3 pts +13 2. Cuba 1 g.p. 3 pts +11 3. Curacao 1 g.p. 3 pts +10 4. Canada 1 g.p. 3 pts +8 5. Dominican Rep. 1 g.p. 3 pts +5 6. Fr. Guiana 1 g.p. 3 pts +5 ------------------------------------- 7. Belize 1 g.p. 3 pts +4 8. Jamaica 1 g.p. 3 pts +4 9. Guadeloupe 1 g.p. 3 pts +3 10. St. Lucia 1 g.p. 3 pts +3 11. Aruba 1 g.p. 3 pts +2 12. Nicaragua 1 g.p. 3 pts +2 13. El Salvador 1 g.p. 3 pts +1 14. St. Kitts & Nevis 1 g.p. 3 pts +1 15. Barbados 1 g.p. 1 pts +0 16. Guyana 1 g.p. 1 pts +0 17. Suriname 1 g.p. 1 pts +0 18. Dominica 1 g.p. 1 pts +0 19. Martinique 0 g.p. 0 pts +0 20. Br. Virgin Is. 0 g.p. 0 pts +0 21. Montserrat 1 g.p. 0 pts -1 22. Puerto Rico 1 g.p. 0 pts -1 ----------------------------------------- 23. Bermuda 1 g.p. 0 pts -2 24. St. Vincent & Gren. 1 g.p. 0 pts -2 25. Antigua & Barbuda 1 g.p. 0 pts -3 26. Saint Marten 1 g.p. 0 pts -3 27. Bahamas 1 g.p. 0 pts -4 28. Cayman Is. 1 g.p. 0 pts -4 29. Anguilla 1 g.p. 0 pts -5 30. Bonaire 1 g.p. 0 pts -5 31. US Virgin Is. 1 g.p. 0 pts -8 32. Grenada 1 g.p. 0 pts -10 33. Turks & Caicos Is. 1 g.p. 0 pts -11 34. Sint Maarten 1 g.p. 0 pts -13 Matchday 2: October 11-16 Matchday 3: November 16-20 Matchday 4: March 21-26, 2019
2019-20 CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying Round Home team first, times are ET Matchday 1 TBA Martinique v. British Virgin Islands Matchday 2 Thursday, October 11 French Guiana v. St. Vincent and the Grenadines 7:30 pm Friday, October 12 US Virgin Islands v. Curacao 4:00 pm Bahamas v. Antigua and Barbuda 6:00 pm Dominican Republic v. Cayman Islands 6:00 pm Bermuda v. Sint Maarten 6:30 pm Grenada v. Cuba 8:00 pm Saturday, October 13 Turks and Caicos Islands v. Guyana 4:00 pm Suriname v. British Virgin Islands 6:30 pm Saint Lucia v. Haiti 8:00 pm El Salvador v. Barbados 10:00 pm Sunday, October 14 Bonaire v. Jamaica 4:00 pm Saint Martin v. Saint Kitts and Nevis 4:00 pm Montserrat v. Belize 6:00 pm Nicaragua v. Anguilla 7:00 pm Monday, October 15 Puerto Rico v. Martinique 4:00 pm Tuesday, October 16 Canada v. Dominica 7:00 pm Guadeloupe v. Aruba 8:00 pm Matchday 3: November 16-20 Matchday 4: March 21-26, 2019
A couple fascinating details from today's Saint-Martin/Guadeloupe encounter: 1. At 7:12 in the stream, the match commissioner gestures to the players to get on with the handshakes - the assistant ref has to remind him angrily that they still have to play the national anthem. 2. Speaking of, I always wondered how Concacaf handled it when two overseas French teams play each other here. They go with the logical solution of playing La Marseillaise once; Guadeloupe's players just stood with their arms at their sides, while all the Saint-Martin players had their hands to their hearts and a few even sang. 3. ...which is curious considering that Guadeloupe is technically more French than Saint-Martin is. The first is an overseas department (pretty much to France what Hawaii is to the US), while Saint-Martin is an overseas collective. I don't know exactly what that means vis-à-vis France's overseas territories, but it's not immediately considered part of the country. Btw, in "The More You Know" Saint-Martin was actually part of Guadeloupe until 2003, when its population voted for secession and France granted it a new status four years later. Doesn't seem like there was any bad blood on the field
It's used for Seeding for the 2020 Euro qualifiers, not the 2022 WC qualifiers. (FIFA probably wouldn't allow anything other than FIFA rankings to be used for WC qualifiers seedings).
Cayman Islands was Jamaica's weakest opponent. They should have an easy time with Bonaire and Suriname, but Jamaica ends at El Salvador. According to Wikipedia, there are seven pairs of teams that are tied on points, goal differential, and goals scored. Six of them are decided by Fair Play. The funny one is that Barbados is ahead of Guyana 2-0 on away goals, which happened with a 2-2 draw in Guyana. Every team will finish with two away games, but it's still funny to see a team losing an away goals tiebreaker when they haven't played away. Jamaica needs to pass two teams to go to League A, and at least two teams ahead of Jamaica can't win all four games because of these head-to-head games: Matchday 3: Cuba vs. Dominican Republic Matchday 4: Haiti vs. Cuba Matchday 4: Canada vs. French Guiana The top nine teams could win their Matchday 2 games. Tenth place St. Lucia hosts first place Haiti in the only Matchday 2 game between two teams in the top ten
Nations League Results and FIFA ranking points changes NOTE: Matches involving non-FIFA members are not considered. Dominica (DMA) (1.2) 0 : 0 (-1.2) Suriname (SUR) FIFA Points - DMA: 952.0 -> 953.2 SUR: 1036.0 -> 1034.8 Guyana (GUY) (0.97) 2 : 2 (-0.97) Barbados (BRB) FIFA Points - GUY: 936.0 -> 936.97 BRB: 1003.87 -> 1002.9 St Vincent and the Grenadines (VIN) (-5.32) 0 : 2 (5.32) Nicaragua (NCA) FIFA Points - VIN: 960.0 -> 954.68 NCA: 1116.0 -> 1121.32 Cuba (CUB) (6.48) 11 : 0 (-6.48) Turks and Caicos Islands (TCA) FIFA Points - CUB: 939.36 -> 945.84 TCA: 868.0 -> 861.52 Montserrat (MSR) (-2.19) 1 : 2 (2.19) El Salvador (SLV) FIFA Points - MSR: 872.0 -> 869.81 SLV: 1332.0 -> 1334.19 US Virgin Islands (VIR) (-2.56) 0 : 8 (2.56) Canada (CAN) FIFA Points - VIR: 892.0 -> 889.44 CAN: 1304.0 -> 1306.56 Aruba (ARU) (7.96) 3 : 1 (-7.96) Bermuda (BER) FIFA Points - ARU: 916.0 -> 923.96 BER: 948.0 -> 940.04 St Kitts and Nevis (SKN) (5.48) 1 : 0 (-5.48) Puerto Rico (PUR) FIFA Points - SKN: 1104.0 -> 1109.48 PUR: 960.0 -> 954.52 Jamaica (JAM) (1.8) 4 : 0 (-1.8) Cayman Islands (CAY) FIFA Points - JAM: 1399.23 -> 1401.03 CAY: 880.0 -> 878.2 Curaçao (CUW) (3.39) 10 : 0 (-3.39) Grenada (GRN) FIFA Points - CUW: 1300.0 -> 1303.39 GRN: 979.17 -> 975.78
Speaking of which: if the Global Nations League gets ratified, what would happen to our non-FIFA members? I presume they wouldn't be allowed to play in the GNL finals in any division; but would they still be allowed to compete in the CNL? And if the likes of Martinique were to win a group, would its GNL berth then go to the runner-up?
My "still way too early" predictions: Canada beats French Guiana and takes all 12 points Haiti beats Cuba and takes all 12 points Jamaica beats El Salvador and takes all 12 points Belize beats Puerto Rico on Matchday 3, and Guyana on Matchday 4 and surprisingly takes all 12 points Dominican Republic steals a draw on Matchday three in Cuba and ends on 10 points Curacao and Guadeloupe draw on Matchday 3, meaning that their respective Matchday 4 games are must-win for League A. Curacao proceeds to beat Antigua and Barbuda, while Guadeloupe and Martinique draw. Martinique and Curacao are level on points at 10 with Dominican Republic. On the strength of their 10-0 demolishing of Grenada, Curacao qualifies for League A. Dominican Republic edge out Martinique for the final League A berth. French Guiana, El Salvador, Cuba and Martinique all end on 9 points and qualify for the Gold Cup ahead of Nicaragua, who also ended on 9 points. Despite not losing any games, Guadeloupe is done in by it's two draws and misses out with 8 points.
Yikes. I just realised a math error in my previous post. My prediction of Haiti beating Cuba and Dominican Republic drawing Cuba means Cuba would end up with 7 points, not 9. So Nicaragua would be in, and Cuba out. My mistake.
UPDATED: The Martinique games have been moved a bit to get in the rescheduled game from Matchday 1. A couple of other games have new times. 2019-20 CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying Round Home team first, times are ET Matchday 2 Thursday, October 11 French Guiana v. St. Vincent and the Grenadines 7:30 pm Friday, October 12 US Virgin Islands v. Curacao 4:00 pm Bahamas v. Antigua and Barbuda 6:00 pm Bermuda v. Sint Maarten 6:30 pm Dominican Republic v. Cayman Islands 8:00 pm Grenada v. Cuba 8:00 pm Saturday, October 13 Turks and Caicos Islands v. Guyana 4:00 pm Puerto Rico v. Martinique 4:00 pm Suriname v. British Virgin Islands 6:30 pm Saint Lucia v. Haiti 8:00 pm El Salvador v. Barbados 10:00 pm Sunday, October 14 Saint Martin v. Saint Kitts and Nevis 4:00 pm Montserrat v. Belize 6:00 pm Bonaire v. Jamaica 6:00 pm Nicaragua v. Anguilla 7:00 pm Tuesday, October 16 Canada v. Dominica 7:00 pm Guadeloupe v. Aruba 8:00 pm Matchday 1 Tuesday, October 16 Rescheduled: Martinique v. British Virgin Islands 8:00 pm Matchday 3: November 16-20 Matchday 4: March 21-26, 2019
According to the Haitian Fed, our game against St. Lucia's been rescheduled for Tuesday at 9:15 p.m. in Martinique.
I'm assuming that is Michael-related, but how does that work? I don't imagine there are too many stadiums in Martinique and there is already the re-scheduled Martinique vs. British Virgin Islands game scheduled that day, in Martinique, for 7PM.