I figured since the match-ups are set for the second stage, I would start a new thread for any discussion. Here they are: United States vs. Barbados Guatemala vs. Saint Lucia Trinidad and Tobago vs. Bermuda Antigua and Barbuda vs. Cuba Belize vs. Mexico Jamaica vs. Bahamas Honduras vs. Puerto Rico Saint Vincent and the Grenadines vs. Canada Grenada vs. Costa Rica Suriname vs. Guyana Panama vs. El Salvador Haiti vs. Netherlands Antilles I believe all the first legs will be June 14/15 with the second legs on June 21/22.
Looking at this, i believe possible upsets could be: Bahamas over Jamaica NA over Haiti. Other than that, the Panama-El Salvador tie bears watching. El Salvador slipped down into stage 1 for whatever reason allowing a tough draw for Panama. They must be wondering why this happened to them after finally making the Hex.
Suriname vs. Guyana will be somewhat interesting. Based on the results of the 2006 qualifers, you'd think Suriname are vastly better.
Most likely upsets (based on seeded vs non-seeded): 1. Suriname vs. Guyana 2. Panama vs. El Salvador 3. Haiti vs. Netherlands Antilles 4. Antigua and Barbuda vs. Cuba 5. Honduras vs. Puerto Rico 6. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines vs. Canada 7. Grenada vs. Costa Rica 8. Trinidad and Tobago vs. Bermuda 9. Guatemala vs. Saint Lucia 10. Jamaica vs. Bahamas 11. United States vs. Barbados 12. Belize vs. Mexico
Bahamas is not going to be upsetting Jamaica. If you can't beat the BVI home and home you have a problem. In any case, The Reggae Boyz have learnt their lesson from the Digicel Cup, and if they didn't the second half in the friendly against the Soca Warriors should have been enough warning. No way are they going to underestimate this tie. They're going to bring in the foreign legion I'm pretty sure.
I was just in the process of going back to remind myself of who Bahamas played in preparation to saying the same thing. I thought Bahamas had struggled in their first round. I guess Jay510 has a very low opinion of Jamaica!
Notice that your top 3 picks (they're mine as well) are all in Costa Rica's group. That group will be a lot of fun to watch, I think. It really is a joke, though. Any one of Canada, Honduras or Jamaica could win that group. Sorry, it's hard not to look at the pairings and think about Stage 3. Feels like a long time until June.
i dont think highly or lowly of Jamaica. I believe they are much weaker than they have been in a decade, and their tendency to play to their competition level could make it a close tie. I think however they will still win, as they will do very well in the home tie.
Honduras- Puerto Rico will be played already on June 4 with return match on June 14. http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/nccamerica/matches/index.html
FIFA seems to think Belize is. Too bad they're going up against Mexico. They're not going to get much of a chance to refute that. Especially now that Hugo's gone.
Well, the schedule has been set and we're just a week away! Here are all the first legs (with the inclusion of Puerto Rico-Honduras's second leg, to be played June 14): Wednesday, June 4 Honduras vs. Puerto Rico - San Pedro Sula - 10:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14 Grenada vs. Costa Rica - St. George's - 4 p.m. Suriname vs. Guyana - Paramaribo - 7 p.m. Puerto Rico vs. Honduras - Bayamon - 8 p.m. (second leg) Guatemala vs. St. Lucia - Guatemala City - 10 p.m. Sunday, June 15 Trinidad and Tobago vs. Bermuda - Port of Spain - 4 p.m. United States vs. Barbados - Carson - 5 p.m. Haiti vs. Netherlands Antilles - Port-au-Prince - 6 p.m. St. Vincent / Grenadines vs. Canada - Kingstown - 6 p.m. Belize vs. Mexico - Houston, USA - 6:30 p.m. Panama vs. El Salvador - Panama City - 7 p.m. Jamaica vs. Bahamas - Kingston - 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 17 Antigua and Barbuda vs. Cuba - St. John's - 7 p.m. And here are the second legs (with the exception of the already-completed match-up between Puerto Rico-Honduras): Wednesday, June 18 Bahamas vs. Jamaica - Trelawny, JAM - 7 p.m. Friday, June 20 Canada vs. St. Vincent / Grenadines - Montreal - 8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 21 St. Lucia vs. Guatemala - Vieux Fort - 4 p.m. Costa Rica vs. Grenada - San Jose - 11 p.m. Mexico vs. Belize - Monterrey - 12 a.m. Sunday, June 22 Barbados vs. United States - Bridgetown - 3 p.m. Guyana vs. Suriname - Georgetown - 4:30 p.m. Netherlands Antilles vs. Haiti - Willemstad - 6 p.m. Bermuda vs. Trinidad and Tobago - Prospect - 7:30 p.m. Cuba vs. Antigua and Barbuda - Havana - 8 p.m. El Salvador vs. Panama - San Salvador - 8 p.m. All times ET. 24 teams, 12 match-ups, 12 slots for the third round on the line. Best places to find results/live stats: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/nccamerica/matches/index.html http://soccernet-akamai.espn.go.com/scoreboard?league=all&cc=5901 http://www.soccerway.com/
I love reading articles like that. It's cool to see what's going on in the other CONCACAF countries that only get any attention once every four years.
I think antigua might have a chance to pull it off against Cuba, CUba is not that strong so i think Antigua has a good punchers chance to win it.
Honduras wary of island threat PR is much improved; it's a shame that they got an unlucky draw. They need to keep the margin of defeat at 2 or less to have a chance in the return leg.
3-0 Honduras in the 59th minute, field is absolute crap. Live stream here: mms://208.75.230.31/TvLiveSoccer
After Canada played so well against Brazil, even though It was In a losing effort (3-2 for Brazil), they shouldn't have too much trouble beating St. Vincent. Is It three countries from CONCACAF that advance to the WC or Is It still two countries?