Best of 2022: 🇭🇹🇵🇦 Fighters position themselves for 2023 Women's World Cup place
Could Concacaf have two teams debut in Australia/New Zealand?
This is the fourth in a five-part series looking back at the best moments of 2022 in the Concacaf region and what those moments mean going forward.
Monday: Canada runs the Octagonal. What does it mean for CanMNT & the region in 2023?
Tuesday: Sounders break MLS’ CCL hex
Wednesday: Dominican Republic comes from nowhere to clinch 2024 Olympic qualification
At first glance, the results of July’s Concacaf W Championship seemed a bit ho-hum.
The United States won again, their ninth title. Canada finished second and set itself up to earn a spot in the 2024 Olympics to defend its gold medal.
The other semifinalists, earning qualification to next year’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand, were Jamaica and Costa Rica. Jamaica is back at the World Cup for a second consecutive time, while Costa Rica returns after appearing in the 2015 tournament.
Go a little deeper, though, to the teams that finished third in the groups and missed out on World Cup qualification in the regional stage but will take part in February’s inter-confederation playoffs, and there are interesting stories to be told.
Much more attention was paid to Mexico’s failure to get even a point (or even score a goal) on home soil than the team that beat El Tri and earned a place in the playoff.
That’s Haiti, which didn’t just beat Mexico it dismantled Mexico in a game everyone expected Mexico to win. Haiti converted a pair of penalties to go up 2-0 and rather than find any sort of counter-punch, Mexico conceded a splendid third goal to Sherly Jeudy.
The other team from the region that will push for a playoff place in February is Panama. The Central Americans went into their final group match against Trinidad and Tobago knowing a winner would move on, with Canada and Costa Rica already winning their first two games.
It was a tense affair, but one that saw Panama’s big-game player Marta Cox have a big-game moment with a goal scored on her second touch.
Between Cox’s score and Panama’s defensive strength, Panama booked its place in the playoff.
Detractors may not that these teams managed to win just one game in the tournament and now are into the playoff. But both teams rolled through qualification for the W Championship, winning all four games and doing so in impressive fashion by allowing zero goals.
Haiti’s 21-0 victory over the British Virgin Islands certainly skewed the numbers a bit but Haiti ended with four wins and a +44 goal difference, even beating runner-up Cuba 6-0.
Panama’s goal difference was +24, but it faced a tougher team in the finale, getting past El Salvador, 2-0.
Those performances showed these teams are a cut above the Concacaf stragglers, something they backed with their big wins in the W Championship that ultimately have them in position to play on and, they hope, earn a place in the World Cup for the first time.
What it means for 2023 and beyond
It could mean as many as six teams from Concacaf in the field for Australia-New Zealand if both Haiti and Panama are able to advance from the playoff.
The Concacaf region has been a women’s soccer power, but that’s largely thanks to the teams at the top: The United States and Canada.
This summer’s Euro tournament was a great watch and showed just how many European teams are ready to attempt to become just the third-ever winner from Europe. Concacaf strengthening its ‘middle class’ of teams like Panama, Haiti and others who didn’t qualify like Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and El Salvador, would be a big boost toward the region continuing to be a leader in the women’s game.
Even those teams may not be quite ready for the big time. Haiti lost its other group games 3-0 and 4-0 in Monterrey and fell to Portugal 5-0 in a November friendly meant to help prepare for February. Panama kept things closer in its group stage losses and had more success against its November friendly opponents Ecuador and Venezuela. (It also has what is, on paper, the easier route to the finals).
Obviously, Concacaf officials will be rooting for Haiti to make it, a remarkable story of triumph despite heinous abuses by federation officials, and introduce the world to its generation of rising stars led by Melchie “Corventina” Dumornay.
They will hope Panama gets in and continues the momentum the country has as a soccer country after years and years of baseball being the biggest sporting export.
And they ultimately will hope the confederation becomes one that is top-to-bottom a power in the women’s game, not just one that benefits from two of the best programs in the world happening to be in the region.
With the ‘rightsizing’ set to take place adding a Women’s Nations League, a Women’s Gold Cup and a Women’s Concacaf Champions League at various points in the near future, we should be seeing more competition between not just women’s teams with the funds and prestige to go to the World Cup regularly but from teams fighting and striving to get to that upper echelon.
That will be anything but ho-hum.