5️⃣ Bermuda barges in, El Salvador is saved + more from the second round of WCQs
The final round of World Cup qualification is set!
We’re down to a dozen. Two teams advanced from each of the six second-round groups, and the field is set for matches that will be played in September, October and November.
The dream is dead for most Concacaf members, who turn their attention toward the 2030 cycle or the competitions to come in between. But it’s an exciting time for those who moved on - a mix of usual suspects, recently assembled contenders and total outsiders.
Ahead of the draw Thursday (which we’ll talk more about in point number five), here are some thoughts on Bermuda’s stunning performances, on El Salvador’s demanding fans, on a big Curacao blowout and more
🇧🇲 Bermuda barges in with near-perfect June window
We knew someone would join Honduras in advancing out of Group A, but Bermuda still came as a surprise. After throttling the Cayman Islands 5-0 in the first match of the month, Bermuda headed to Cuba knowing it needed all three points to hop the Leones del Caribe and make the final round.
Things started well, with Djair Parfitt-Williams finishing from a bit of a mess in front of a goal in the sixth minute. It was an unpleasant reminder for Cuba that their No. 1 goalkeeper Raiko Arozarena was back in the U.S., opting out of the Cuba home match on the advice of his club.
But Cuba was back level in the 59th minute, a result that would’ve put them through into the last round. Jorge Aguirre, one of Cuba’s new recruits as one of the first naturalized players ever to suit up for the team, finished a close-range chance only moments after he missed the best opportunity of the game.
Bermuda boss Michael Findlay waited another 10 minutes before making a double change. He didn’t have to wait that long for it to pay off. In the 74th minute, veteran Reggie Lambe darted between two Cuban defenders, settled in the box, cut back onto his right to send another defender past and finished.
It was a glorious goal for Lambe, Bermuda’s most capped player all time and a player who at age 34 already is transitioning into the next phase of his career by assisting the women’s team at his lower-league club in England. He hardly looked washed up Tuesday, giving Bermuda passage into the last round.
“You have to take your hat off to Reggie,’’ Findlay told the Royal Gazette. “We always knew that he had the ability, the experience, and we've used Reggie in different times and scenarios. Against Cuba, he did exactly what we asked him to do.
“We felt that we needed to reduce the physical part of the play up front and get a little bit more tactical ability to run at them. Reggie gave us that, and congratulations to him for scoring a monumental goal for Bermuda.”
Bermuda will be in Pot 4 as by far the lowest-ranked team in the FIFA rankings to qualify. But even if things go poorly in the fall, Bermuda’s decision to bring Findlay in and to stick with him has been validated.
Sure, the North American teams aren’t taking part, but this is the farthest the Gombey Warriors ever have been in qualification. For a territory with a population of under 65,000 to be this close to the World Cup is something to be celebrated.
🇸🇻 El Salvador draws ugly, but Bolillo loves ugly
El Salvador fans are ready to return to the World Cup for the first time since 1982. Need evidence? As Suriname passed the ball around the field of the Estadio Cuscatlán in the dying moments of a 1-1 draw between La Selecta and Natio, El Salvador’s own fans began to shout “Olé” with every successful pass.
Many fans jeered and booed as the final whistle blew, even with El Salvador’s players celebrating a truth far more substantial than the point the teams earned: The World Cup dream would continue.
A late Suriname goal would’ve changed everything, but El Salvador was able to keep one from coming - securing the point that kept them in second place and denying Puerto Rico the spot even after the teams opened qualification with a shock stalemate in San Salvador last year.
El Salvador manager Hernan “Bollilo” Gomez knows how to get the World Cup, however, having taken Panama, Ecuador and Colombia to the big stage. There is no guarantee he can do it with this Selecta squad, but he undoubtedly is someone who understands what it takes to get an outgunned team firing well enough to make the top tournament.
“The work in the second half was typical of a qualification match. This is my seventh or eighth World Cup qualification cycle. That’s how a qualification match is played. Getting results and qualifying,” Gomez said. “In the locker room, people are happy for getting through, and I’m sure a lot of Salvadorans are happy too to qualify.”
Gomez correctly noted that not only was it practical for El Salvador to become more conservative as time went on, it was necessary. Suriname was all over El Salvador at the start of the match,
“We made a huge error in setting up this game. At the start of the match, we went to press a ‘European’ team because we needed to get a result. It’s a team that plays fast, one or two touches, that wins its duels and giving them space stretching ourselves to go look for the game? If we hadn’t dropped the line and reduced spaces, the result would’ve been decisive in their favor,” he said.
Even if fans disagree with the tactics or want a bigger result, there are signs Gomez has things going in the right direction. La Selecta playing hybrid friendly matches in March against the Houston Dynamo and Pachuca, plus the non-FIFA friendly against Guatemala mean the sample size is still small. Now, Gomez can work with his team in relative peace at the Gold Cup, trying to fix the mistakes ahead of critical matches coming in September.
Even with the jeering at full time, the 69-year-old Colombian is looking forward to continuing the project.
“I’m not going to fight with the fans. I’m very happy here,” Gomez said. “People on the streets treat me well, with love. People in El Salvador are very decent - except in the stadium!”
🇨🇼-🇭🇹 Can we learn anything from a dead rubber?
Haiti and Curacao went into the final match of World Cup qualification knowing they’d both be playing in the third round and that they both were preparing for the Gold Cup.
Haiti hadn’t lost since 2023, running off a perfect 2024 and starting 2025 well with wins in Azerbaijan and a smooth 5-0 result over Aruba to begin this window.
They ran into a buzzsaw Tuesday. Despite fielding a pretty strong lineup, Haiti was down 2-0 within 15 minutes. A consolation goal seemed to offend Curacao, which ran off three more goals in succession to close out a 5-1 thrashing.
Highlights aren’t available from Concacaf as I write this, as you can perhaps tell from me embedding the full match here and using Fox Deportes videos elsewhere in the newsletter. Sorry, non-US readers.
How much do we make of a dead rubber, a ‘Haiti home game’ played in Curacao’s neighbor Aruba? Is Curacao back to being the team we thought they might be in previous cycles, spurred on by legendary boss Dick Advocaat to new heights? Is Haiti going to fold in this Gold Cup?
My suspicion is that while there clearly are a few things to take from this game, the low stakes (and quick start from Curacao) conditioned the game in a way where Curacao looked better than they actually are and Haiti looked worse. The next couple of weeks will tell us.
One thing we DID learn is that the victory from Curacao will see them jump Haiti in the FIFA rankings, putting Curacao into Pot 2 for the upcoming draw. Not sure how much of a difference being the lowest team in Pot 2 and the highest in Pot 3 will make, but it seems relevant.
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago leaves it to Levi
Many national teams in Concacaf have a star who is head and shoulders above the rest of his teammates. For Trinidad and Tobago, that player is Levi Garcia.
Garcia is a player who pops up where defenders don’t expect him to, who can beat opponents with speed and is a dangerous finisher. Because his current club is in Russia and his other recent stops were in Greece and Russia, he doesn’t get the attention he likely would get were he playing in, say, France. Yet, he’s every bit as good as many of the internationals in some of Europe’s top leagues.
“I see our young squad, a lot of confident guys and exciting talent, so it feels really good to be here. Hopefully I can add whatever I can to the team’s success,” he said as camp started. That underplays exactly what he does bring to the table and how different Trinidad and Tobago is with him in the team compared to what it looks like without him.
While Keylor Navas got the better of him several times, Garcia eventually was able to beat the goalkeeping god for the only goal against Costa Rica of this World Cup qualification round.
Soca Warriors manager Dwight Yorke, who knows a thing or two about star power himself, tried to bring Garcia off at one point in the second half. The score was 2-1 in Costa Rica’s favor, and it was clear that Trinidad wouldn’t lose by the seven goals it would’ve taken for them to fall out of the next round.
But as he approached the sideline, Garcia appeared to shake the legend off, with Trinidad and Tobago hastily delaying the substitution. Garcia made way finally in the 84th minute, but having the 27-year-old excited and engaged is a great sign for the team. His individual performances will dictate how high their ceiling can be raised.
The favorites & the draw
Some of the favorites to actually secure a top spot in the group and make the tournament had few problems Tuesday - or in the window as a whole.
My favorites to make the tournament all topped their groups with perfect records.
Panama took a minute to get past Nicaragua but eventually found a 3-0 victory. A return to the Gold Cup final is looking more complicated for the top team in Central America, with forwards Jose Fajardo and Cecilio Waterman missing the continental championship with injuries after playing the first match of this window. They should be back by September, giving Panama the attackers they’re used to.
Jamaica struggled in the British Virgin Islands but put the slow start behind it with a big win over Guatemala.
And Costa Rica slowed down after a fast start against Trinidad and Tobago but still managed to end the round with a 4-0-0 record and 17 goals for compared to the one Levi Garcia tally late against. Tough to nitpick too much with that.
For those teams, but especially for teams in Pot Two like El Salvador and Honduras, hoping to avoid Panama the draw will be critical. It’s set to take place tomorrow (Thursday), quickly setting out the path the teams will need to take to get to North America.
If my understanding of the FIFA rankings are correct, the pots should be:
Pot 1: 🇵🇦 Panama, 🇨🇷 Costa Rica, 🇯🇲 Jamaica
Pot 2: 🇭🇳 Honduras, 🇸🇻 El Salvador, 🇨🇼 Curacao
Pot 3: 🇭🇹 Haiti, 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago, 🇬🇹 Guatemala
Pot 4: 🇳🇮 Nicaragua, 🇸🇷 Suriname, 🇧🇲 Bermuda
I’ll have a rundown of that probably in the Monday newsletter as we start to turn our attention to the Gold Cup and also a video on TikTok and YouTube
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