Panama has 4 home games against direct rivals… El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica and Canada. Jamaica will host Mexico, Costa Rica and USA… If that’s an easy path for them in next months, how come they were at the bottom of the table until yesterday?
When did we tie Panama at home? We'll play Panama in Mexico on February... Getting a tie against Canada at home was a failure, and that game was horrible. Mexico hasn't played well in none of the games, just a bit of the Honduras game and the first half against ESA, but they're just getting results. Not sold on Martino at all.
Ridiculous btw, 12 would fit the win at home draw on road narrative. More than that is just not to be expected
I'm really not surprised by much so far in this Ocho. We saw in the Gold Cup that El Salvador is a tricky opponent. Hugo has them playing about as well as can be expected. My only surprise is Honduras, of course. They can usually be counted on to put up a real fight. Their talent level seemed down prior to the Ocho, but they usually put up a big fight. They have a lot of character as a group. But its just not happening for them. If you told me at the start of the Ocho that we'd be in 2nd place after 6 games, with at least a 5 point cushion over Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, and El Salvador...............I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. I think we're about to see some coaching changes for teams in the bottom half. Just hoping for a bump. El Salvador will stick with Hugo I think, but let's see what happens with Honduras, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.
El Salvador has a complicated relationship with the US, as does Mexico. Call it a love/hate relationship if you will; they want to come here, they have family here etc, but can't also ignore past and present slights. ES went through some brutal times and the people know very well the US role in that. This is true in much of the region to some extent. OTOH, when I have visitors from Latin America ( my wife is Colombian and has friends all over down there in various countries ) they often want to see Philadelphia and the landmarks of the Revolution, a seminal event in the history of the Americas ( the other would be the Haitian uprising, which was also inspiring ). In fact a common view is that we are all Americans of the Americas, and we share more in common than we differ. And that really is true, despite language differences. Of course they share much in common with their former colonial rulers as well, much like we still have a special relationship with the UK, they share that with Spain, Portugal, and France ( and in some places Holland ).
I think it really depends what happens next window, especially against Mexico. More than any other team they have the ability to beat us at home. Win that game and then I'll feel assured.
Not for qualifiers. Friendlies, Gold Cups, yes. But those Ohio games are usually 90 percent red white and blue.
Even if we draw that Mexico game at home, I'll still be really confident. Yes, we have some tougher road games in the 2nd half of the ocho. That also means we have an easier home schedule as we'll have gotten Mexico, Canada, and Costa Rica out of the way. And if this ocho keeps progressing in the current manner, I'm not sure if our "house of horrors" game at Costa Rica on the last day will actually matter.
I just saw the El Salvador red card. I'm still wondering how both Jamaica fouls against US were not red as well.
The eight people in my prediction contest had us with a mean of 14.75. I had us with 14 with draws at Honduras and Panama. The mean for our last eight games was 15.375, so rounding to the nearest whole number and adding what we have now makes 26. I predicted us to get 26, and the other seven people predicted at least 28. The mean for third was 23.375, and the mean for fourth was 19.75.
Because one match had an extremely experienced MLS ref who will probably be at the World Cup and the other had a guy scared to death in his first WCQ.
They were so scared of Central America that they outplayed Mexico at the Azteca last week. I dont think they’ve recovered.
Thoughts after that game last night. 1) Our oldest starter was younger than Costa Rica's youngest starter. 2) So Costa Rica needs an overhaul. But they've done poorly at the most recently held U23, U20, and U17 CONCACAF Championships. In fact, our backup U23 team beat their best U23 team (or near to it) at the Olympic qualifiers. At the most recently held U20 championships we beat them 4-0 on goals by Llanez, Mendez, Akinola, and Juan Pablo Torres. So there seems to a program wide malaise with Costa Rica at the moment. One of their real problems across these youth events has been Canada surging. Canada knocked them out of the most recently held U17 CONCACAF Championships. I think Costa Rica is still in contention for 4th in the Ocho, but they look inferior to the top 3 in the region right now. At least. They'll probably fire their coach and hope for a bump in the 2nd half of the campaign.
The referee in the Mexico El Salvador match referree-ed the game rationally. He was handing out yellows and reds all night for both teams' dirty play.
Jamaica rotated v. the US to be better the next two matches, didn't have their lineup figured out, or players became later available in the window. Because they made a few switches - Grant, Roofe, Fisher, Flemmings. They'd been saying last window Grant is valuable. I was dead wrong about Honduras. They haven't had some key players available, but there's been a disconnect between youth and senior performances. Like Costa Rica, haven't made that transition, or they're not translating. Nobody can say there haven't been surprises in the Ocho. Many teams have displayed multiple personalities, so we need more time to learn which is their main one.
Jamaica coach isn't going anywhere. He bought himself at least another window with that Honduras win. Here is what that win means to Jamaica: 1. First win in the final Round of World Cup Qualifying since 2001 (yes, it's been a generation). 2. First time getting back to back clean sheets in WCQ since 2008 3. First win over Honduras in Honduras in WCQ (we don't win there, EVER) 4. First time scoring 2 goals in a WCQ since 2013 5. First time scoring 2 goals in an away WCQ since 2004 Can't fire Tappa after all this. He'll be safe at least through the November window now.