5️⃣ Anguilla's breakthrough, Costa Rica aiming high + more: Five thoughts from the March window
WCQ, friendly matches & a glance ahead to June
The United States beat Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League Final Four. Canada and Costa Rica locked up places at the Copa América. But most of the other 41 members of the region also were in action this month, including two whose World Cup qualification journey ended before most teams’ has even started.
From Anguilla to…man how cool would it be if a Concacaf country started with ‘Z’? We have to settle with: From Anguilla to the U.S. Virgin Islands, let’s look at five things we can take away after a packed March slate in the region.
Anguilla is playing on
Still without a win - ever - in a World Cup qualification match, Anguilla is heading into the second round of Concacaf World Cup qualification after topping the Turks and Caicos Islands in a penalty shootout Tuesday. The first leg ended in a scoreless draw in Anguilla, and when Billy Forbes scored the opener for TCI in the 23rd minute, it seemed like that was as good as it would get.
Instead, Anguilla won a penalty that Luke Paris converted, pushed things to a penalty shootout and won from the spot, moving into the second round of World Cup qualification for the first time ever.
Last week, I wrote about the German scout who helped find a handful of Europe-based players with heritage making them eligible for Anguilla. All five of the players he brought into the fold who were in the current camp started, with Paris converting in the penalty shootout. Clearly, the efforts Anguilla made to get off the bottom have started to pay off. Who thought there would be an event to welcome the national team back to the island today?
“We made history & it means a lot to us!” captain Germain Hughes told the federation’s official site. “It was an exciting game, with both teams going from end to end. The fact that it went to penalties shows just how close the game was. Thankfully we came out on the winning side!
“We will enjoy this moment. However, our focus will soon be on preparation for the next round of qualifying"
No matter what Anguilla does in that next round, joining a qualification group that includes El Salvador, Suriname, Puerto Rico, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it will make history by playing more WCQ matches than it has in any previous cycle. It’s something to build on.
The British Virgin Islands also are through, also needing a penalty shootout to get past the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Highlights here with a delightful BVI commentator who keeps saying “Oooooh dear me!”)
After the teams drew 1-1 thanks to a late goal from the BVI in the first leg, things went to extra time scoreless and ended up decided from the penalty spot.
BVI goalkeeper Frankie Beckles made a pair of stops in the shootout as the hosts converted four of five from the spot to advance.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands won’t have official matches until Nations League resumes in the fall. Even then, it’s a much sooner resumption than in the past when there would be three to four years of inactivity.
Tuesday friendly matches show Central American contrast
Taking advantage of the Saturday playoff for a Copa América place, both Costa Rica and Honduras played friendly matches after the 3-1 Costa Rica win in the Copa América playoff.
Costa Rica flew to Los Angeles to meet Argentina, the reigning world champion. Honduras made the quick trip to Houston to play rival El Salvador, a team in transition that drew with Bonaire earlier in the window (and also met Argentina in the March window).
Costa Rica lost 3-1, and it could’ve been worse, but the opener from Manfred Ugalde and the lessons learned trying to stop Angel Di Maria, Lautauro Martinez and company should serve the Ticos well going forward.
“We’ve got a test against the champion of the world, and obviously it’s a test we can learn from,” Costa Rica manager Gustavo Alfaro said before the game. “We’re going to try to play the best match possible, but it’s the world champion and we have the privilege to play them.
“It’s going to teach us lessons. With all respect, I’d rather play Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, England than play against other teams because the level of opponents is the level we can have.”
It’s true. Costa Rica will take bigger steps because of the experience its players had against Argentina on Tuesday night than Honduras will from playing a Selecta squad it knows well.
I don’t want to present this as some masterclass of federation scheduling: Argentina would’ve been in China were it not for frustration about Lionel Messi and Inter Miami’s trip to Hong Kong. Even then, it was Nigeria that was originally supposed to play Argentina in LA before Costa Rica stepped in because of potential visa issues for the AFCON runners-up.
Still, it shows the gulf opening up between the haves and have-nots in Central America.
Panama is setting itself apart as the class of the subregion. Costa Rica is working hard to reclaim that mantle. After that, every time one of the northern triangle takes a step forward on the field, it feels due to take at least one if not two steps back.
This always was going to be a tough window for Los Catrachos with so many players suspended after the CNL quarterfinal series with Mexico, plus the serious injury to Alberth Elis, the less serious knock that kept Luis Palma out and other fitness blows.
Yet, after beating Mexico 2-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinals and having manager Reinaldo Rueda steering the squad again like he did in the successful 2010 World Cup cycle, Honduras fans were filled with hope that La H would beat Costa Rica and move into the Copa América, with Tuesday’s game in Houston a send-off party.
Instead, Rueda was just happy to have another game to allow the suspended players like forward Anthony Lozano, center back Denil Maldonado and goalkeeper Edrick Menjivar to get a game in the interim between the November matches against El Tri and the June 6 WCQ opener against Cuba.
That the game was a tight one with El Salvador, though, shows there’s a growing gap between where Honduras was during Rueda’s first stint in the 2010 cycle and where it’s at now relative to its regional rivals.
Everyone in action as WCQ approaches … no, like, everyone
This shouldn’t be a headline, but it still very much is in this region. Though only the teams in the Final Four, the Copa América playoffs & World Cup qualification were obligated to play matches in the March window, nearly every team in the region went out and found games.
This varied from teams like Guyana and Bermuda in far-flung FIFA Series contests, to Martinique meeting Suriname in the Netherlands, to Cuba heading down to Nicaragua and somehow coming back with a 1-0 win.
Even teams like the Cayman Islands, a team rarely in action outside the mandatory matches, found a way to play, squaring off with a club team and later losing 4-0 to Moldova in Turkey in what was billed as the Cayman Islands’ first friendly outside the Concacaf region.
For many of these teams, the simple act of the federation actually finding and funding trips to friendly matches is notable. It speaks to the impetus teams now feel, largely thanks to the Concacaf Nations League. With players coming in regularly, managers feel they can put together successful medium- and long-term projects. That means that with World Cup qualification beginning for nearly everyone in June, the March window offered a valuable chance for a final tune-up.
Sugar Boyz with some salt?
In Monday’s Conca-catch-up, we covered St. Kitts and Nevis avoiding defeat twice against San Marino and extending the UEFA minnows’ winless streak to 20 years long with a 3-1 win and a scoreless draw.
It was about far more for the Sugar Boyz than simply defending Concacaf’s honor. The matches taking place in San Marino allowed manager Francisco Molina to call in more Europe-based players than usual.
Fourteen Europe-based players, 13 of them in England, made the relatively short trip to Serravalle for the contests. Many of them entered with fewer than a half-dozen SKN caps, and it was a chance for Liverpool U-18 player Kyle Kelly to debut in the Sugar Boyz midfield among other new faces.
“Very happy that we had seven players debut in this window,” Molina said. “We had to switch a couple of things in our formation because of players having to go back to their club teams, injuries. I’m very proud of the boys.
“This puts us in a positive pathway moving forward. Moving forward is very important for us to build up toward the qualifiers. We said at the beginning these are not friendly games, these are preparation games for us. We have to build from this.”
SKN may want to look for another friendly if possible because it opens World Cup qualification with a trip to Costa Rica on June 6. The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada round out their group.
Who benefitted from March … and who should be nervous ahead of June’s WCQ?
No teams benefitted more than those who earned more matches to come together, more time to learn what they’re trying to do on an international level.
Canada’s plans for the summer were it to fall short against Trinidad and Tobago were not at all clear. Without World Cup qualification games, the Reds need all the high-level competition they can get. Copa América will provide that.
Meanwhile, Nicaragua’s loss to Cuba on the back of a defeat in Peru should raise some red flags - as will Puerto Rico falling to Belize, albeit in a match that saw manager Charlie Trout use a number of players out of rhythm because they’re currently without a club or playing in the NCAA setup.
You can make your case for the winners and losers of the window in the comment section.
And, as always, thanks for your support of Getting CONCACAFed, whether you are a premium subscriber, tell a friend about the newsletter or just send goodwill from afar!
I wrote about all of the momentum and things that could be after Honduras beat Mexico…now just 4 months later, it seems like that reality is slipping away.
The US got lucky vs Jamaica and dominated Mexico. I still don't know which team shows up at CA