🏆 Ticos' youth makes rocky start stranger, Mexico, U.S. qualify despite criticism & more WCQ final day thoughts
Don't cry because it's over...unless you're a Panama fan
SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — (Well, kind of…Started writing in San José and ending it back in the U.S. after a hectic travel day. Please forgive the tardiness.)
It’s all over now. Canada, Mexico and the United State qualified automatically to the 2022 World Cup, with Costa Rica securing the playoff position and heading to face New Zealand in the summer.
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Pour one out for this type of World Cup qualification.
In four years, the North American teams that topped the table this time around will be hosting the World Cup and there will be more teams headed to the showpiece tournament.
That may be a huge benefit for teams that missed out on the final round or fell just short of the final tournament this time around, but it also will seem a little less special with the stakes not as high, especially not for the region’s powers - though something tells me a top team or two still will manage to give its fans a scare no matter what qualification looks like in eight years.
Rather than look ahead nearly a decade, let’s look back to last night, starting with a team that gave its fans a scare this time around but later was able to kick off a party ahead of a stressful weekend of presidential elections:
Costa Rican kids put on a show, making poor start even more confusing
The average age of Costa Rica’s starting XI for a 2-0 victory against the United States on Wednesday night was 23.8, a number driven up by 35-year-old Keylor Navas and 34-year-old Kendall Waston in the group.
Many veterans who will play in the World Cup playoff (Celso Borges, Joel Campbell, Francisco Calvo) rested rather than risk a second yellow card of qualification and the suspension for the playoff that would come with it.
But the emergence of this younger group as Costa Rica captured 19 of its last 21 possible points makes the rocky start to the campaign all the more puzzling.
“There’s an arsenal of interesting players. Maybe a lot of them still don’t have a lot of professional minutes, but they’re ready for the national team,” Suarez said. “
Before the match Suarez talked about the talent donut he encountered when taking the job, with a big group of veterans and plenty of rising stars but few talents in their prime. That’s the issue that sunk the United States in the previous campaign, so it’s a credit to Costa Rica and, yes, to Suarez that he eventually was able to get the mix right, keeping the veterans happy and pushing despite reduced roles and identifying which domestic-based players were ready to step into pressure-packed World Cup qualification games and respond.
It was on display again last night. Anthony Contreras looks to be on the road to being a starting forward option for a team that hasn’t had a great one, meaning Joel Campbell could go out to the wing. Daniel Chacon appears to be Concacaf’s next great midfield destroyer, getting brusque but fair tackles in on Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah. The 19-year-old Ian Lawrence didn’t look entirely overmatched at left back, despite dealing with ventures forward from Weah and DeAndre Yedlin.
After the game, Suarez was asked about how he’d deal with the league fixtures conflicting with the playoff and the preparation for the most important game in Costa Rican soccer in four years.
The manager, never one to expound deeply, noted he’s worked well with the league and its presidents to conduct mini-camps and get players in even during the season.
It is an issue he’ll have to juggle, but the reality is that it may not be a problem for the next manager. Costa Rica has a good rising generation, and clubs around the world are going to take notice.
Narratives around Mexico, U.S., confusing after qualification clinch
Mexico and the United States went into Wednesday night not guaranteed a spot in the 2022 World Cup. They finished the night qualified for the World Cup.
Mission accomplished, right?
Fans of both teams, however, have been grumbling for much of the cycle about their weaknesses, their managers and their inability to get past Canada and into the top spot.
It’s totally fair to criticize aspects of both teams, but the time we’re now entering, the months between making the World Cup and actually kicking off group play, are the time to refine, to determine which players will take the final few roster spots, to try out variations.
Even the United States team itself seemed less than thrilled after the final whistle blew on a 2-0 loss to Costa Rica, a result that despite being a defeat sends to the United States to the World Cup for the first time since 2014.
“The team’s ecstatic. Really excited to be qualified for the World Cup,” U.S. manager Gregg Berhalter said after the Costa Rica match, something soon proved true by his festive players leaving the locker room smiling after their celebration. “Qualifying is a grind and we did it, so the team is very happy.”
And that’s the thing. This competition is a total grind. The U.S. has never won in Costa Rica in World Cup qualification. It has never won at the Estadio Azteca in qualification. But it did enough with the draw in Mexico and the rout at home over Panama to go into the final day knowing what it needed to do to qualify.
Mexico hasn’t played the type of soccer it should under Tata Martino. Clearly, the attacking trident of Raul Jimenez, Hirving Lozano and Jesus “Tecatito” Corona isn’t working together as it should, something only driven home by Uriel Antuna looking like El Tri’s most dynamic attacker in a comfortable victory over El Salvador.
Those kinks must be worked out and quickly. But there’s nothing wrong with looking at positive elements as well. Mexico’s defense kept a clean sheet in its last five qualification matches, something helped both by playing four of those contests at home but also by the continued growth of Cesar Montes as a rock at the back.
U.S. fans should be excited about Christian Pulisic’s Sunday hat trick, about the thrilling, deep midfield and about simply returning to the World Cup. Mexico fans have to be happy with Montes and maybe even a consistent Montes-Johan Vasquez pairing?!
International soccer is difficult to judge at times because the benchmarks are so few and far between. Both North American soccer powers qualified for the World Cup in the automatic spots and did so without too many nervous moments for fans.
That’s worth taking a few moments to celebrate before getting back to the frustration.
Qualification end gave stragglers something to build on
The teams headed to the World Cup seem to be looking at the Nations League as something of a hinderance to their preparations for Qatar in November, but I promise we won’t be talking about one or two games against fellow League A competition as the reason a team did or didn’t get out of the group stage
The region is much larger than the (hopefully four) teams it is putting in Qatar. Very few people watched it, but a game like Jamaica against Honduras actually ended up to be a decent watch and gave both teams something to build on headed into the Nations League, Jamaica for the first time in League A.
“What we've got to do with [these] young players is to get them hungry, so they can keep their place,” Jamaica manager Paul Hall told the Jamaica Observer after his first win as Reggae Boyz boss. “They can't just have the divine right because they've good technical skills. They have to come in hungry,
Panama also came out and gave a good account of itself against a Canada team that still managed to achieve its goal of topping the qualification table. Still, there’s lots to show in the Nations League and future competitions.
Perhaps the only team that disappointed is El Salvador, continuing with its habit of falling flat in the final matchday of three-day windows. La Selecta did well to get to this point, and clearly building blocks are there. The team must address its lack of depth if a World Cup return in 2026 is a realistic goal.
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I started this little newsletter as a pandemic was taking hold in the U.S. and put a pause on any soccer matches in the region (except Nicaragua, as I wrote about at the time). I really had no idea how things would go but hoped that once games got going, this community would grow.
It has in a way that has exceeded my expectations. You all have welcomed my regional approach to coverage, belief in telling stories that are flying under the radar and analysis that goes beyond the star player for the United States’ or Mexico’s opponent.
The good news is that even though qualification is over, there are so many more stories to be told. Whether it’s Costa Rica’s playoff journey, the Concacaf Nations League, Women’s World Cup qualification, the U-20 men’s tournament or simply the stories that interest me from around the region, there’s much more to come.
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