CONCACAF WCQ First Round For those interested in such things, I've got a preview of the opening round of the CONCACAF qualifiers up at: www.planetworldcup.com Best, Peter Goldstein
Nice article. Just a small correction, but Gullit and Rijkaard were both born in Amsterdam, although of Surinamese descent. If Surinam beats Aruba and advances to the semis because Guatemala is disqualified, I wonder if they'll mine the Dutch league for eligible players, the way the English Caribbean teams have done. Keith Gumbs has scored like 500 goals for St. Kitts/Nevis--I wonder if anyone has the official total. Bermuda would be one of the better caribbean teams if they could get their full lineup together, but that never happens.
Thanks for the correction--but in my research I found several biographies on the Web which listed both Gullit and Rijkaard as born in Surinam. Did they get it wrong? Just the other day, after I filed the article, I found a note from November which said Gumbs had quit the St. Kitts & Nevis national team over some disagreement. The SKN papers talk about his play in Malaysia all the time, but there's been nothing since on whether he'll play in the qualifiers. I really enjoy researching the lesser nations: there's so much out-of-the-way stuff to be found. Best, Peter
http://www.rsssf.com/players/dutch-players-in-it.html lists both as being born in Amsterdam, other sources seem to support that. Not a big deal.
USA Costa Rica Mexico Jamaica Honduras Trinidad & Tobago El Salvador Guatemala Barbados Panama Canada St. Vincent Peter good article , but I would not name any of these groups the group of "Death". perhaps the second group should be called the " least comfortable" Remember they will be qualifying for the World Cup Finals ! no team in the world with World Cup ambitions should tremble at the site of ANY of these !
Hi, PanchoM. You're right that if a team wants to make the World Cup, they have to beat the good teams. But remember, to make Germany 2006 from CONCACAF, you only have to be the third best, or maybe even the fourth best. So you don't have to beat USA, Mexico, or even Costa Rica. So it matters very much which teams you have to face in the round of 12. At the same time, it's a matter of basic fairness. To qualify for the Hexagonal, Honduras would have to beat out both Canada and Guatemala (assuming Guatemala is allowed to play). Trinidad & Tobago would only have to beat out Barbados and St. Vincent. It's true, small disparities are inevitable in a draw--someone is always going to have it a little tougher than someone else. But in my opinion, a disparity that huge should not be acceptable in World Cup competition. Best, Peter
"Disparity" is an opinion until proven or disproven. You can't both have a "draw" and prevent "disparities". It is - as they say - the "luck of the draw." And I wouldn't get too worked up about it. There's a reason they play the games. France, afterall, had a cakewalk to the second round in Korea/Japan. Except for the fact that they didn't score any goals. The games are played for a reason. Looking back at 2000's CONCACAF semifinal round between Costa Rica, Guatemala, the US, and Barbados - remember that Costa Rica, who won the Hexagonal in 2001, opened with a loss to Barbados and then had top play Guatemala in a winner-take-all game at the end of group play just to get into the Hexagonal. Additionally, the United States was 30 minutes away from being eliminated at the semifinal stage. If the Meola/Llamosa incident results in a Barbados goal, or the Barbados goalkeeper stays hot for the full 90, then we'd still be licking our wounds - and Bruce Arena would be coach of the Dallas Burn.
I guess I disagree with this argument. First, I admit (and admitted in my previous post) that there will be disparities in any draw. But there should be a point beyond which disparities should not be acceptable. Second, although you're right that "disparity" is an opinion until they play the games, it's only an opinion within certain bounds. Imagine if they had had a completely blind draw for the CONCACAF semifinal round, and the groups wound up: Group A Mexico USA Costa Rica Honduras Group B Jamaica Trinidad & Tobago El Salvador Guatemala Group C Canada Panama Barbados St. Vincent and the Grenadines Assuming that two from each group made it to the Hexagonal, it would be hard to say this draw was fair. (The Canadians would love it, of course.) We can argue whether it's tougher to have Canada or El Salvador in your group; we can't argue whether it's harder to have Costa Rica or Barbados. Yes, you might get upsets here and there--Barbados did beat Costa Rica--but over a group stage, large disparities in quality will eventually assert themselves. After beating Costa Rica, Barbados lost their next five games, and even if they did play the USA close, they still lost 0-4. On rare occasions, a heavily favored team will flop dramatically, as did France in 2002. But France was in a fairly solid group, with Denmark, Uruguay, and Senegal. If France had been paired with China, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, you can be sure they would have done better. At some point, then, I would argue that the "disparity" becomes so great that it's a clear matter of fairness. My own view is that the CONCACAF semifinal groups pass that point. But I realize others may differ. Best, Peter St
First off, excellent article Peter! I actually wrote a preview of the 10 match-ups myself, but I couldn't post it where I normally do (since the site I wrote for is down for good it seems like) and yours was quite longer lol. Although I knew a lot about the teams before I read it some stuff you wrote about I didn't know so that was cool. And actually I had visited that Haiti site beforehand and I too couldn't believe that a player from the Turks and Caicos was posting! Great stuff! Oh, and btw, I did get all your trivia right in the beginning (yes, I'm a geography/history/football nerd lol). After reading the other posts in this thread, I do have to agree with the fact that there should be a line of fairness, that is that the draw should be fair and to not have groups like the ones we are most likely going to have in the Semifinal Round. The fact that they did that draw already rather than waiting for the final 12 and reseeding is just plain dumb, but then again, it's CONCACAF we're talking about here. Oh, and I've gotten a lot of people I know that are into soccer here where I go to college to read your articles Peter and they think they are very informative as well. Just though you'd like to know that, and keep um coming, I'll be reading them.
regarding the draw I was very upset when the draw was performed. It just didn't seem fair--and more importantly, it didn't look as if the goal would be accomplished: to have the best six teams in the hexagonal, insuring that our region would have quality sides representing CONCACAF in Germany. However, that being said, the fault does not lie in the draw. Using the draw procedure outlined by Concacaf, I've performed approximately 20 different draw scenarios. None of those draws appear as lopsided--and about 80% of those draws appear very fair. Therefore, it just appears that this is a fluke--the proverbial luck of the draw. It is rather unfortunate that group B has 4 legitimate contenders for the hex and group C has only one. I don't know how one can insure fairness. It certainly doesn't seem fair to say, "Gee, this looks unfair--lets redraw."
Thanks for the kind words, desertfox2, and I'm really impressed you knew the trivia! I'm sorry your website isn't functioning anymore, because I know how much fun it is to have a regular column. It's amazing how much I've learned researching the CONCACAF qualifiers. I hope you get a chance to write for the Web again. Say hi to your friends from me--by the way, I teach at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA. Best wishes, Peter
Re: regarding the draw Hi, eldiablito. You're right: we can't just redraw. And it was interesting to hear that most of the draws you did came out fair. Still, I think it's the responsibility of CONCACAF to ensure that a draw this unfair can't take place at all. The best procedure would have been to wait until the 12 teams were determined before seeding the draw. Failing that, I think the right move would have been to have 4 pots, not 3, and to have put Guatemala, Canada, El Salvador in one pot, and Panama, Barbados, St. Vincent in another. That way any potential imbalance would have been much smaller. Peter
Here's the complete first round fixture list, from FIFA: Date Venue Teams Time 18-Feb-2004 ST. JOHN'S (Antigua and Barbuda) Antigua and Barbuda - Netherlands Antilles 16:00 Referee: NAVARRO Mauricio (CAN) 18-Feb-2004 ST THOMAS (US Virgin Islands) US Virgin Islands - St. Kitts and Nevis 19:00 Referee: BRIZAN Neal (TRI) 18-Feb-2004 MIAMI (USA) Haiti - Turks and Caicos Islands 20:30 Referee: STOTT Kevin (USA) 21-Feb-2004 HIALEAH (USA) Turks and Caicos Islands - Haiti 20:00 Referee: VALENZUELA Ricardo (USA) 22-Feb-2004 TORTOLA (British Virgin Islands) British Virgin Islands - St. Lucia 16:00 Referee: STEWART Victor (JAM) 22-Feb-2004 GRAND CAYMAN (Cayman Islands) Cayman Islands - Cuba 19:00 Referee: SIBRIAN Rodolfo (SLV) 28-Feb-2004 ST. GEORGE'S (Grenada) Grenada - Guyana 19:00 Referee: ARCHUNDIA Benito (MEX) 28-Feb-2004 ORANJESTAD (Aruba) Aruba - Surinam 19:00 Referee: MORENO Roberto (PAN) 29-Feb-2004 HAMILTON (Bermuda) Bermuda - Montserrat 15:00 Referee: HALL Brian (USA) 14-Mar-2004 BLAIRMONT (Guyana) Guyana - Grenada 15:00 Referee: QUESADA CORDERO Walter Enrique (CRC) 19-Mar-2004 SANTO DOMINGO (Dominican Republic)Dominican Republic – Anguilla 15:30 Referee: MATTUS William (CRC) 21-Mar-2004 SANTO DOMINGO (Dominican Republic)Anguilla - Dominican Republic 15:30 Referee: PORRAS Greivin (CRC) 21-Mar-2004 PLYMOUTH (Montserrat) Montserrat - Bermuda 19:00 Referee: CHARLES Martin (DMA) 26-Mar-2004 NASSAU (Bahamas) Dominica - Bahamas 19:00 Referee: FORDE Mark (BRB) 27-Mar-2004 HAVANA (Cuba) Cuba - Cayman Islands 15:00 Referee: RODRIGUEZ Marco (MEX) 27-Mar-2004 PARAMARIBO (Surinam) Surinam - Aruba 17:00 Referee: PRENDERGAST Peter (JAM) 28-Mar-2004 NASSAU (Bahamas) Bahamas - Dominica 15:00 Referee: PINEDA Jose (HON) 28-Mar-2004 VIEUX FORT (St. Lucia) St. Lucia - British Virgin Islands 17:00 Referee: CORRIVAULT Jean-François (CAN) 31-Mar-2004 BASSETERRE (St. Kitts and Nevis) St. Kitts and Nevis - US Virgin Islands 19:00 Referee: RECINOS Neftali (SLV) 31-Mar-2004 WILLEMSTAD (Netherlands Antilles) Netherlands Antilles - Antigua and Barbuda 20:30 Referee: PIPER Richard (TRI)
Not to worry: there will be no soccer balls on the track. The official TC FA website www.football.tc says the game will be at Ted Hendricks Stadium, Hialeah, Florida - 8.00pm By the way, from the looks of the website, the TCFA is taking the game very seriously. Looks like they've brought in three ringers from abroad (acutally, one of them is Turks and Caicos born Gavin Glinton of the LA Galaxy) and they've played five warm up games since January. Go Turks and Caicos!
Antigua roster for tomorrow's game: GK Janiel Simon, Elvis Anthony. DEF: George Dublin (captain), Steveroy Anthony, Ranja Christian, Ashorn Martin, Edlorn Garro, Ashton Cyriellen. MID: Schyan Jeffers (vice-captain), Desmond Bleau, Tyo Simon, Quentin Clarke, Tamarley Thomas, Kevin Watts, Garfield Gonsalves, Winston Roberts. FWD:Kerry Skepple, Gayson Gregory, Peter Byers, Lennox Julian. Simon and Skepple play small-college ball in the US. Gregory used to play for Joe Public in Trinidad. Bleau scored against Guatemala in the 2002 qualifiers.
The official FIFA website appears to be updating games in progress. http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/t/sc/index.html
FT Antigua & Barbuda - Netherlands Antilles 2-0 Goals: Roberts 42' Clarke 89' A good result for A&B in what figured to be a well-balanced tie. No away goals for the Antilles. Second leg is march 31.
Onandi Lowe just scored a beaut...a 35 foot free kick against Uruguay. It was an absolute laser beam. Jamaica 1 - 0 Uruguay in the 10 minute