CONCACAF Nations League - A new competition for national teams

I wouldn't be opposed to a Central American centric group and a Caribbean centric group
Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Suriname
Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Curacao, Cuba, Grenada

 

Paramount+ is the same as CBS sports network?

 

No.

 

3rd final
1985 CONCACAF Championship - Canada won against Honduras to qualifybfor the 1986 World Cup

 

Still, it did came down to that last game and unlike the current WCQ - the winner was crowned champion of the region

 

I see there are NL editions scheduled for both 2023-24 and 24-25 seasons. Is it going to be a new thing or is it something extraordinary?

 

It feels like CONCACAF has finally found a good balance with the Nations League with next year's format. Give your top 4 a bye so all they have to do is play 1 knockout round and then the semis/finals (4 matches). Everyone else can then have a system for competitive matchups where a substantial goal is achievable.

 

Here is an alternative Nations League Set up that I think would be a lot of fun in an attempt to make League A more elite
League A - 9 teams (3 groups of 3)
Leagues B and C - 16 teams (4 groups of 4)

This would go back to the original number of NL games for US and Mexico (6) versus the current number (4) but it would make the groups more competitive and eliminate the waste of time matchups like the US versus Grenada

Here is an example of what I am envisioning using the upcoming NL and current CONCACAF rankings
LEAGUE A
Group A - Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica
Group B - US, Panama, Guatemala
Group C - Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras

These home/away round robin games take place in Sept, Oct, and Nov. US and Mexico can be given scheduling priority they have one of months completely off for friendlies since only 4 games need to be played.

The 3 groups winners and the highest ranked 2nd place go to the March NL Finals as they do now Changing would be the 3 teams in last place along with the lowest ranked 2nd place play relegation playoffs in March. The 4 winners of League B would be paired off for March promotion playoffs with the 2 winners getting promoted. This will allow promotion and relegation of only 2 teams, further eliminating the possibility that a team like Grenada can get sneak in League A with a lucky draw. The same could be done for the 4 League C winners and the 4 League B last place teams in that March window.

Something like this would make better use of the March window for other members of CONCACAF while making League A more elite and allowing the US and Mexico's wishes to be respected to avoid meaningless games against lower ranked team.

 

Good analysis PC

I'm looking at Honduras and thinking they got it made compared to Jamaica and Haiti. Honduras gets Cuba twice and Grenada. They win those, they finish top 2 regardless their game at Jamaica.

Suriname also gets Grenada twice and Cuba. They win those and they finish 3-1 regardless of their game at home vs Haiti

Now if Jamaica and Haiti split and both win all their games against the lower seeded teams, you have 4 teams at 3-1 with goal differential being the tiebreaker. If it comes down to goal differential you're gunna see teams advancing cause they got to run up the score against Grenada twice.

I could very easily see Suriname, Honduras, Curaçao and El Salvador advancing with Panama, Guatemala, Haiti, and Jamaica getting left out due to Goal Differential

 

This is the most confusing schedule known to man.

 

Looking over the upcoming NL schedule again, its amazing how the 3 seed in each pot in particular makes out like a bandit in comparison to the 2 seed.

Group A
#2 Guatemala has 2 games against Panama (H&A) plus Trinidad and Tobago away
#3 El Salvador has 2 games against Martinique (H&A) plus Trinidad and Tobago home

Group B
#2 Jamaica has 2 games against Haiti (H&A) plus Grenada away
#3 Honduras has 2 games against Cuba (H&A) plus Grenada home.

With only two teams advancing and goal differential likely to play a role, how on earth is this set up fair to the #2s. It makes no sense at all to allow the 3 seeds to avoid the 1 line while the 2 seeds have to play the 1 line twice.

If they are hell bent on this format they shouldn't try to force double headers between 1 v 2 and 3 v 4. Here is my suggestion
1 plays A4, H3, A6, H2 (Average Opponent Seed = 3.75)
2 plays H3, H4, A5, A1 (AOS = 3.25)
3 plays A2, A1, H4, H6 (AOS = 3.25)
4 plays H1, A2, A3, H5 (AOS = 2.75)
5 plays A6, H6, H2, A4 (AOS = 4.5)
6 plays H5, A5, H1, A3 (AOS = 3.5)

With only the top 2 teams advancing, the top 2 seeds in each group are rewarded. Instead they are punished and the 3 seed is give the optimal path to advance.

While the 5 and 6 seeds technically have an easier path, those seeds are generally much weaker than the top 4 and this sets them up for some measure of reasonable success and path forward.

Looking at it with the upcoming model here is what the results would yield
GROUP A
Panama - @Martinique, vs. El Salvador, @T&T, vs. Guatemala
Guatemala - vs. El Salvador, vs. Martinique, @curacao, @Panama
El Salvador - @Guatemala, @Panama, vs. Martinique, vs. T&T
Martinique - vs. Panama, @Guatemala, @el Salvador, vs. Curacao
Curacao - @T&T, vs. T&T, vs. Guatemala, @Martinique
T&T - vs. Curacao, @curacao, vs. Panama, @el Salvador

GROUP B
Haiti - @Cuba, vs. Honduras, @Grenada, vs. Jamaica
Jamaica - vs. Honduras, vs. Cuba, @Suriname, @haiti
Honduras - @jamaica, @haiti, vs. Cuba, vs. Grenada
Cuba - vs. Haiti, @jamaica, @Honduras, vs. Suriname
Suriname - @Grenada, vs. Grenada, vs. Jamaica, @Cuba
Grenada - vs. Suriname, @Suriname, vs. Haiti, @Honduras