🇸🇷 Robinhood: A Concacaf Champions Cup underdog with a storied past

The Suriname side is a surprise entrant but by no means a new one PLUS: Looking at the rest of the CCC slate

Five times the bridesmaid never the bride.

No team knows near-misses in the Concacaf Champions Cup like Robinhood. In 1972, 1976, 1977, 1982 and 1983, the team fell just short of lifting the continental club championship.

In ‘77, it pushed mighty América to a 2-1 aggregate series playing in Paramaribo. In ‘82 a Tuca Ferretti double at the Estadio Olimpico helped Pumas top the visitors from Suriname. A 1-0 aggregate loss to Olimpia over two legs in 1972 may be the one that got away.

You can see “El Momento” from the page “Realidad Americanista”

Today, it is a shock to see Robinhood in the CCC. In a new format launched this year, teams from the Caribbean¹ needed to finish in the top three of the Concacaf Caribbean Cup. As an amateur side, Robinhood earned its place in the Caribbean Cup by winning the Concacaf

In the four previous editions, no team that had to go the Shield route ever had qualified for the Concacaf Champions League. But Robinhood landed in the CCC - and earned a first-round bye - by winning the entire tournament, capped with a 2-0 win over Jamaican squad Cavalier.

Photo via Concacaf

“History is not something you can change,” former Robinhood forward Shaquille Cairo told me this week. “The footballers of this time now are working to achieve or reach those kinds of achievements or make new ones.”

The team’s runner-up finishes came in strange tournament formats. Robinhood often beat teams that then seem to vanish into the mist. In the 1977 run to the final, they beat Guyana’s YMCA team. There were triangular series, regional qualifiers and other quirks of playing international matches in the 1970s and 1980s.

Even so, that history shouldn’t be erased, and with Concacaf’s decision to revert to the CCC name and embrace the past history, the five runner-up finishes are serving as inspiration for the current Robinhood squad.

“Robinhood is a club that has existed for a while already - and we have made history in Concacaf before,” manager Roberto Gödeken said Monday. “It’s the first time for quite some time that we have performed at this level and have gone this far. This is another chance to show what we can do.”

That past success can feel very distant, however. There have been very lean years for soccer in Suriname, even as players from the country or with Surinamese heritage continue to excel. Only recently were players carrying Dutch passports also allowed to acquire a Suriname passport and represent the national teams.

Even before things started to take a turn, you could see evidence of Suriname soccer slipping. Fifteen years after pushing Club América in that 1977 CCC final, Robinhood fell to América 7-0 in the 1992 semifinal, a one-off match hosted in Queretaro.

Robinhood made the CCC in the next two years as well but after the 1994 tournament, a 2019 Concacaf League appearance was the next time the Paramaribo outfit saw continental action.

This season, officials launched the Suriname Major League, a restructured league looking to take a step toward professionalism. Still, the sport has a long way to go until players are truly on level footing with even regional rivals in countries like Jamaica or Trinidad and Tobago.

Cairo, who led Robinhood in scoring with five goals during the Concacaf Caribbean Cup, still works odd jobs in construction or clearing yards. He won’t take part in the series against Herediano after a short-lived winter move to Jamaican club Mount Pleasant ended in mysterious circumstances but said he hopes his former teammates secure a win and he can participate in the quarterfinals.

Cairo celebrating a goal

“It’s not what we thought it would be,” the 22-year-old said of the new SML. “When you say, "‘Major League’ or 'We’re going to play pro,’ we need to focus just on football.”

A typical day may see Cairo working until 6 p.m., getting a quick shower at home, playing an 8 p.m. kickoff and heading to bed before the next morning’s alarm.

While Robinhood secured a first-round bye as the Caribbean champion, this setup clearly marks it as the underdog and would make any result against Costa Rican giant Herediano an impressive one.

It will need standout performances from Jamilhio Rigters, the team’s creative engine and likely MVP during the Caribbean Cup run, from hard-nosed midfielder Renske Adipi and from midfielder Franklin Singodikromo, who scored the winning goal in the final.

The country is watching, hoping it can latch on to something that makes it proud just like the old days.

“When we play in Concacaf, people take it very seriously and are supporting us, hoping we win and achieve some big things,” Cairo said. “We don’t only do it for the team but for the whole country of Suriname.”

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Elsewhere in the Concacaf Champions Cup…

The rivalry matchup between Club América and Chivas definitely draws the eye. While Las Aguilas are in much better form, Chivas have been competitive at home, where they’ll play Wednesday’s first leg, winning their last three league matches and the CCC tilt with Forge FC.

This is one of the first major tests for new manager Fernando Gago, who opted to keep his XI the same this weekend after a 3-1 win at home against Pumas and saw his team fall 3-0 to Cruz Azul in Mexico City. Another defeat at the Azteca must be avoided.

The near-unthinkable now is possible, though, with Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez available to come into matches as a substitute. If his first goal back is against the club’s biggest rival in a CCC series, it will produce legendary scenes.

Two of the MLS on MLS series are understandably drawing attention as well. First, Inter Miami meeting Nashville SC in a rematch of the final of the Leagues Cup tournament both teams utilized to qualify for the CCC. Lionel Messi will make his CCC debut, and while the hymn will play and the referees will be from Concacaf rather than whoever MLS managed to scrounge up during the strike, it won’t truly feel like a continental moment unless Miami advances and meets a team from another country.

That could be Monterrey if it gets past FC Cincinnati, but it’s also possible that Miami could get to the final without playing a Liga MX team. That would require both Rayados and Tigres to get bounced - and a run from the New England Revolution or Philadelphia Union would set up an all-MLS trek to the title.

I’m getting WAY ahead of myself though. The other MLS on MLS matchup is Columbus Crew, still playing great soccer after winning MLS Cup in Wilfried Nancy’s first season, going up against Ben Olsen’s Houston Dynamo, steeled by getting past St. Louis CITY SC in the first round but still missing Hector Herrera.

Tigres and Orlando City meet again after last year’s tight Round of 16 series that saw Tigres move through on away goals. Looking at Tigres’ recent form and knowing how Oscar Pareja plays in knockout formats, that series should again be a nail-biter.

Rayados and Cincy don’t know each other as well, but forward Brandon Vazquez’s return to TQL Stadium as he shoulders more and more of the goal-scoring burden for Monterrey should be a compelling one.

I expect goals and chaos from Pachuca, which leads Liga MX in goals scored with 24 in 10 matches but also has conceded 18, and Philadelphia Union, who tried to avoid this fixture by gifting Saprissa the win last round but eventually rescued it.

And the Revs? They’ll have to play better than they did against Toronto FC to beat Alajuelense, a team outpacing Saprissa in the Costa Rican league thus far.

1. A member of political organization CARICOM and Dutch-speaking rather than Spanish or Portuguese, Suriname is culturally Caribbean despite being geographically South American - especially in soccer since CONMEBOL wouldn’t take them.