This week's must-watch World Cup qualification matches
Your viewing guide + Belize's scary situation in Haiti, Olympic Qualification & more
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Second, I’m in the New York Times (yes, that one) this morning with a piece on Cuba calling in a number of foreign-based players for the first time. If you’re into the newsletter, you’ll almost certainly be into this story that features a potential international debut for a 37-year-old forward playing in San Marino, plus questions about why the Cuban government is making this change now.
Five World Cup qualification matches to circle
There are 28 games in the next week as World Cup qualification finally kicks off in Concacaf. I’ll do my best to keep an eye on everything for you, but which are the games that really matter on these first two matchdays? Here’s one for each night of qualification:
🇬🇹 Guatemala vs. 🇨🇺 Cuba
Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET, Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores, Paramount+, Peacock
Curacao is the favorite in the group, and I think Guatemala is right behind. While the addition of Onel Hernandez, CaVaFe and Joel Apezteguía, among others, and the return of Jorge Corrales will certainly raise Cuba’s level, it will probably take more than two training sessions for Los Leones del Caribe to truly roar.
Guatemala’s preparation hasn’t necessarily been inspiring, but with three consecutive friendly victories and a mostly full-strength squad featuring América’s Antonio de Jesus Lopez plus U.S.-based attackers Darwin Lom and Nico Rittmeyer, they have the edge. They need to win both games to have any chance to get into the next round, so the pressure certainly is on them at home.
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago vs. 🇬🇾 Guyana
Thursday, 7 p.m. ET, Estadio Panamericana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Paramount+
This may be the biggest game of the month.
Trinidad and Tobago have been in miserable form. You can throw a strange non-FIFA date friendly with the U.S. that the Soca Warriors lost 7-0 mostly out the window because of the difficulty putting together a roster. Tougher to ignore is the fact that before their entire 2020 slate was canceled because of the pandemic, they’d won a single game of their last 16 and that was against Anguilla, the worst-ranked team in the region.
Their preparation for this match has been disrupted by COVID-19 regulations plus a reported dust-up between manager Terry Fenwick and the federation’s long-time press officer, and they’ll have no home-field advantage with the match being played in the Dominican Republic. Still, there is some optimism, with key players from abroad like Sheldon Bateau and Levi Garcia in the squad after a bit of confusion if they’d be allowed to travel (certainly for the second game of the month, against Puerto Rico).
Guyana has the core of the team that got it to the 2019 Gold Cup with Sam Cox in midfield, Keanu Marsh-Brown up top and Terence Vancooten at the back, though Neil Danns (now 38) was left off by manager Márcio Máximo. They could be the surprise team coming out of Group F, but without getting a result head-to-head against the seeded Trinidad and Tobago squad, it’s unlikely to happen.
🇦🇼 Aruba vs. 🇸🇷 Suriname
Saturday, 8 p.m., IMG Soccer Stadium, Bradenton, Florida, Paramount+
One story I wish we could’ve gotten to in the newsletter (and hope to get to after this round of games) is just how impressive Suriname’s recruitment campaign has been. Because of political changes, athletes who never would’ve been able to suit up for Suriname are now getting passports and ready to help the Natio return to the glory of the 70s and 80s.
Seriously, Suriname is better at every position than the last time it played thanks to new recruits. Its goalkeeper is now Anderlecht’s Warner Hahn. In defense, Kelvin Leerdam is finally set to make his national team debut, with Galatasaray’s Ryan Donk and AZ veteran Ramon Leeuwin able to partner as center backs. The entire midfield has no caps (yet) and Florian Jozefzoon improves an attack that already was pretty damn good with Ivenzo Comvalius (23), Gleofilo Vlijter (21) and Nigel Hasselbaink (Jimmy Floyd’s nephew, 30) leading the line.
It’s obviously a path that has been trod before, but most recently (and most notably in the case of these two former Dutch colonies) Curacao has led the way.
Aruba is trying to embark upon a similar mission, though its smaller population makes it more difficult. New technical director and interim manager Stanley Menzo, an Ajax legend, likely will spearhead things, but his appointment this month comes too late for real change to have taken place.
“We are now making an inventory of who are eligible for the Aruban team,” he told VI. “For the time being you cannot compare us with Suriname or Curaçao.”
So, Suriname should take this one (and the one before against the Cayman Islands) without too much hardship, setting up a June showdown with Canada. But after the pandemic denied us the return of the ABCS tournament, featuring Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and Suriname, it’ll be nice to see at least one of those matchups come to pass.
🇲🇸 Montserrat vs. 🇸🇻 El Salvador
Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, Ergilio Hato Stadium, Willemstad, Curacao, Paramount+
Speaking of recruitment, Montserrat has become a respectable Concacaf team mostly by bringing in imports from England’s lower divisions. That’s the sort of strategy you have to deploy when much of your country is uninhabitable after a volcano eruption, which also spurred a mass migration.
I’m excited to see this contest because it’s hilarious that these two teams with basically nothing else in common keep getting paired up, first on Concacaf Nations League qualification, then in actual Nations League and now in World Cup qualification. La Selecta has won all three contests, but two of them it won by just one goal.
It’s also dealing with a number of off-field issues, so the Emerald Boys may once again be able to make life difficult for the Central Americans.
🇧🇧 Barbados vs. 🇦🇮 Anguilla
Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. ET, Estadio Felix Sanchez, Santo Domingo, DR, Paramount+
You know I had to give you an obscure one.
Barbados has been preparing in the DR for a while now under the eye of Russell Latapy and their roster includes Nick Blackman and Ryan Trotman, a Netherlands-based forward set for his debut.
With that in mind, it may be too much to ask for Anguilla to get its first result since the 2002 World Cup cycle, but this is one of two chances it has to pick up a point (barring the possibility of an absolute shock against Panama or the Dominican Republic).
🇧🇿 - Belize’s scary moment upon arriving in Haiti
Belize arrived in Haiti on Monday morning ahead of Thursday’s World Cup qualification match and experienced a scary situation, with their bus, escorted by four police officers, stopped by armed men on motorcycles.
The Football Federation of Belize released a statement saying it is “in contact with respective authorities from FIFA and Concacaf and are doing everything possible to get (the team) to safer grounds. It is unfortunate that our Jaguars faced such a traumatic experience.”
Earlier this month, a group of Mexico fans went to Haiti to play the U-23, in part because few other teams would agree to go there. Haiti’s (under-fire) president asked international agencies for help with a kidnapping problem in January. Massive protests are a regular occurrence. The Concacaf Council reportedly banned Haiti from hosting club competition matches for a year after violence caused the domestic final to be abandoned.
With so many other matches this window taking place in a neutral site, it’s baffling this game stayed in Haiti.
I texted with a member of the Belize delegation Monday. He said everyone is safe, but obviously a bit rattled and that no one wants to experience anything similar again. Clearly, sports come second here, but I’m not sure this match gets played in Haiti. You can’t blame Belize for wanting to make a quick exit.
🥇 - Group B brings Olympic qualification drama
Save for the Haiti U-23 team’s strange situation starting with 10 players and no goalkeeper because of players not completing COVID protocol in time, then substituting a goalkeeper on after a little more than 20 minutes when they were facilitated, Olympic qualification has gone sort of as expected.
Mexico looks to be the clear favorite. The United States is through, even if it getting to the semifinals was laborious. The matchup between the two could be fun, especially with Mexico forward JJ Macias likely to make his first start of the tournament and the U.S. able to field a strong squad as well. Still, it’s not the game that will get the teams to Tokyo. If I were Jimmy Lozano or Jason Kreis, I would keep something in reserve not only for the semis but also for a potential rematch in the (pretty much dead-rubber) final.
Group B is wide open after Monday’s matches, though. Canada may regret not making the most of its opportunities against Haiti. They still control their own destiny but need a result against boogey-team Honduras to make the critical semifinal round.
A draw in a hard-fought match between Central American rivals Honduras and El Salvador means Los Catrachos also have everything to play for.
Maybe this speaks to the moment we live in, where highlights are everywhere and scouting video abundant, but in my eyes the tournament also is missing a breakout player, someone who comes from totally off the grid to wow us. We’ll see if the final day of Group B play or the semifinals provide us that type of moment.
🇯🇲, 🇸🇻 - It’s player-federation dispute time again
The glory of wearing the national team shirt should be enough reward for any player who wants to represent his country, right? Well, not exactly.
The international game is fun, and, like most of you still reading this far into the newsletter, my absolute favorite. It also can be pretty thankless, though. If you’re a player right now trying to win a starting spot for your club in some European second league and then you get a call that you have to fly from that country’s capital to Madrid to Miami and then to the Dominican Republic, all during a pandemic, to play two soccer games and then head back, there should probably be something in it for you.
That’s why most federations have agreements in place with players about what gets covered, what their pay structure looks like and how much of the cash coming in from television rights, sponsorships and other revenue sources goes into their pockets rather than the federation coffers.
This often gets ugly, and there are two teams right below the top echelon in Concacaf who are currently in disputes.
Much has been written about Jamaica’s recruitment efforts and the wave of England-born players soon to be Reggae Boyz. Yet, take a look at the roster to play the United States in a friendly in Austria and it doesn’t exactly look like a team that will be fighting for Qatar.
Kasey Palmer and Jamal Lowe fit the bill as exciting new recruits, as does Liam Moore who should join with Adrian Mariappa and Michael Hector to make a formidable defense.
But the absentee list is long and includes Leon Bailey, Ravel Morrison, Kemar Lawrence, Bobby Decordova-Reid, Andre Blake, Damion Lowe, Shamar Nicholson and others. There are various reasons, but many mainstays are frustrated with the contract negotiations between the players and the JFF. To see where public opinion is landing you can view this column titled, “Have the Reggae Boyz Lost Their Minds?” but compare the requests to other top Concacaf national team fees and the feeling may be different.
There are frustrations too in El Salvador, which has a home World Cup qualification match against Grenada and later travels to Curacao for a game with Montserrat. Six players from Alianza, including Rodolfo “Fito” Zelaya, Henry Romero andNarciso Orellana, are declining to participate in the WCQs because of disagreements about payments and bonuses.
Obviously money makes the whole thing go ‘round, and with the pandemic cutting into federation receipts, they’re more likely to play hardball. Still, the romantic in me hopes these things get sorted out quickly and each country is able to put their best XI players on the field for each match and that each player gets a fair and deserved match fee and result bonus.