Those were important factors in my reasoning when I said earlier that I wasn't convinced that Panama (or El Salvador) is any better than Haiti or Curacao. I can't speak for others; but, my intent wasn't to claim that the Caribbean as a block of nations is suddenly better than Central America. I feel that the Caribbean nations have improved dramatically (with T&T being the notable exception), and where I maybe differ from others on this board is that I actually think that the Central American nations are not at their strongest right now. However, there was a large gap in ability for the Caribbean nations to make up. I think the difference right now between #3 and #11 in the region is as close as it's ever been. That's what is making the Nations League intriguing, and why the WCQ format was disappointing (no home & aways to truly sort out the best)
**looks around at my fellow debaters** So... um, here's the thing about improvements in Caribbean football: The Feds have yet to catch up. Haiti down four starters, including our GK Placide, due to the our federation's incompetence at handling entry paperwork
The time changes from Paramount+ that had less overlap between games turned out to be correct. The Eastern start times are: Curacao vs. Panama: 7:00 P.M. Canada vs. Haiti: Remains 9:05 P.M. El Salvador vs. Saint Kitts and Nevis: 9:30 P.M.
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/rugamas-and-el-salvador-dreaming-big is titled "Rugamas and El Salvador dreaming big." https://www.concacaf.com/world-cup-...or-with-room-to-spare-against-st-kitts-nevis/ is titled "El Salvador with room to spare against St. Kitts & Nevis." https://www.concacaf.com/world-cup-...nama-on-knife-s-edge-heading-into-second-leg/ is titled "Curacao-Panama on knife’s edge heading into second leg." https://www.concacaf.com/world-cup-...out-to-lock-things-down-against-hungry-haiti/ is titled "Canada out to lock things down against hungry Haiti."
Wow. How disappointing. My guess is most federations are really led by incompetents - they get the positions via connections vs ability. The difference is that management in the larger confederations actually hire others to do the work for them/cover their butts and the smaller ones don't have the funds or don't bother.
This same announcer from the Saturday game, still pronouncing Michael Murillo's name as Michael María. It is driving me nuts.
Curacao vs. Panama is scoreless at halftime. Americans who pay can watch at https://www.paramountplus.com/shows...f-qualifiers-road-to-qatar-curacao-vs-panama/
Got to say, Curacao is getting concacafed. Panama is rolling around and the ref is buying it. My favorite was when DM loses the ball to set up a dangerous break, stops, looks around, and THEN decides to clutch his face and start rolling around. lol. Also a pretty sketchy PK call earlier, saved at least. Yeah, I'm hoping Panama loses this.
3-0 Win for Canada But honestly the game wasn't as close as that scoreline. Both David and Larin should've had four goals apiece.
Canada's first goal was an own goal. Cyle Larin and Junior Hoilett scored. Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David didn't need to score. El Salvador won 2-0 tonight and 6-0 aggregate. Here's the schedule for September: Matchday 1: Canada vs. Honduras El Salvador vs. USA Panama vs. Costa Rica Mexico vs. Jamaica Matchday 2: USA vs. Canada El Salvador vs. Honduras Costa Rica vs. Mexico Jamaica vs. Panama Matchday 3: Canada vs. El Salvador Honduras vs. USA Panama vs. Mexico Costa Rica vs. Jamaica USA has two trips to Central America, Jamaica has two tough trips, USA hosts Canada which hasn't happened in a WCQ since 1997, and Costa Rica vs. Mexico will be a big game. Jamaica vs. Panama will also be important because both of them have their other two games against Mexico and Costa Rica. Even if a team's schedule will get easier, nobody wants to get 0 or 1 point from 3 games, and 3.5 spots out of 8 means third and fourth will probably have more points per game than in the Hexagonals. If a team has a bad start, it's a tradeoff between a small percentage of the teams qualifying than in the Hexagonal (bad) and having more games to catch up (good).
Panama is back to the final round after a tense and difficult round against a modest but still dangerous Curaçao. This qualification feels special because we were out of the hex by a CONCACAF decision on taking the FIFA Ranking to select the 6 best national teams from there… beware of the red tide!!
I can smell the fear from the Panama Canal. Honestly you always put Honduras ahead of Panama based on 80s, 90s and 2000 WCQ but avoid to remember the last 2 world cup processes. This time could be your moment to finally beat us bc Panama is renovating the roster… it’s like the 2010 for you guys… now or never… see ya!
You needed a phantom goal to go to the World Cup... The ball neve crossed the line, obviously CONCACAF felt bad for you for what happened on that infamous night against the USA. It's ok, this time there will be no phantom goal to bail Panama out. We'll send photos from Qatar
To me this is going to be the toughest final round ever. These 8 teams are clearly the top 8 teams in CONCACAF. There is not a gimmie in this round. Agree/Disagree?
I agree. It’s always difficult to run the show in Central America and the Caribbean. US got kicked out of WC in Port of Spain last campaign. Canada is getting back to the last round after 23 years bc they struggle when facing Central American teams… specially Honduras. Mexico 2014 campaign was catastrophic and were almost out of WC… Now, things are different but there are clear top sides this time, according to me: - US - Mexico - Honduras Those 3 are called to get the direct tickets… but as the logic and statistics don’t play a role I think this will be around how deep the pool of players is for each country (quality based) and who takes most of the points from their home field advantage. Of course we can talk of teams with best away performance, less errors, most international experience in this final stage, Head coach quality and a large etc…