Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The third out of the six group games took place across North and Central America over the Weekend (truth be told I forgot but it gives me a good excuse for an article to do this morning). There are 3 groups in which the top two progress to the final qualification stage.
The CONCACAF format is probably the most convoluted and truth be told is designed to protect the top nations such as Mexico and the U.S.A. but as Mexico proved in the last World Cup it still isn’t as easy as it looks. Here is what happened over the Weekend in Groups A to C.
Group A
El Salvador vs Honduras
Canada vs Mexico
Group B
Jamaica vs Costa Rica
Haiti vs Panama finished goalless so I’ll spare you a couple of minutes having to watch that video
Group C
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines vs Trinidad And Tobago – Quite possibly the longest named International Fixture ever – can you find a longer one?
Guatemala vs United States of America
After 3 matches it’s not quite crisis for the United States but they have to win their reverse of the fixture against Guatemala on Tuesday otherwise they are going to face a real uphill struggle if they are to even make the final round of CONCACAF qualification.
The sluggish start to their World Cup Qualifcation has certainly heaped pressure on Jurgen Klinsmann, imagine the nightmare scenario of being knocked out of qualification with still 2 years before the tournament.
That’s another way in which the CONCACAF Qualification is far from ideal. If a team gets knocked out in the early phases then they have very large periods of activity, which a) doesn’t do smaller nations any good in terms of progress and b) stops them from earning vital funds in the way of gate receipts
Again as mentioned before it’s a very top heavy format – one designed to protect the top teams. But I can’t see any change happening any time soon as why would the top nations vote for something that would affect them the most.
I’ll have a Gameday 4 Round Up later in the week.
