🏆 Winners, disappointments & surprises from March's Nations League matches
From League A to League C
The Gold Cup field is set. The prelims are set. We know who will be in the hunt for Concacaf’s 2024 Copa América spots.
It was an important March window in the Concacaf region for men’s teams as they prepare for this summer and beyond.
So, for each of the three Leagues, let’s look at the biggest winner, the biggest disappointment and the best story or biggest surprise.
Hopefully I’ll be telling the stories of those surprise teams - and the big winners and losers too - in future newsletters. Just…act surprised when you see those newsletters pop up.
League A
Biggest winner - The United States
The U.S. had the best showing of any Concacaf team in the 2022 World Cup and looks to be dealing with any potential hangover effect well, too. Despite Gregg Berhalter’s departure(??), Gio Reyna ending up in the tabloids and other potential distractions, the U.S. earned more points than any other League A team.
The roster is a big reason why the Stars and Stripes should be feeling good ahead of a Nations League semifinal against rival Mexico.
Forward Ricardo Pepi is back and scoring, even after the disappointment of being left off the World Cup list. Winger Alejandro Zendejas is in the fold and at worst looks like a minutes eater and at best like a useful weapon.
In defense, center back Miles Robinson is fit again, goalkeeper seems settled and outside back competition is heating up.
Plus, a good half-dozen players who will compete to start in CNL and Gold Cup were deemed surplus for this camp - and were as the U.S. had a six-point window with a rout of Grenada and a controlled showing against El Salvador.
It’s good to be on top, and right now that’s where the U.S. is.
Biggest disappointment - Costa Rica
Martinique, Grenada and Suriname all finished last in their groups with one point each, but that matched expectations.
Costa Rica? This is a team that was preparing for the World Cup playoff, so the June loss to Panama at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez is totally understandable.
This window’s slog of a win over Martinique and listless loss to Panama in San Jose are less so.
During that loss to their southern neighbors, Costa Rica supporters in the stadium gave voice to something that has been kicking around online for a while, with “Fuera Suarez” clearly heard on the broadcasts.
The manager somehow kicked the Ticos into gear as they came on strong in the second half of World Cup qualification, earning the playoff spot and beating New Zealand to book a spot in Qatar.
He did that largely by giving chances to his younger players, leaning into their strengths to allow for a more open idea tactically. Those ideas went out the window at the World Cup as did any efforts to adjust in-match, as evidenced by the 7-0 thrashing to Spain.
“They brought me to qualify for the World Cup, and I did it, to change circumstances where the team wasn’t getting wins and after they got them with me,” Suarez said after the match when a journalist asked why he was staying on in the midst of so many failures. “After the loss you mentioned, the team went forward.
“The group motivates me. It has the desire to go forward. We’re in this moment after generational change that we’ve been trying to achieve. Sometimes times you get young players who respond well and other times not as well. That’s the circumstance that makes me think there are still things to be done.”
One of the country’s best young players, Manfred Ugalde, is staying away from the national team until Suarez is gone. Other rising stars are seeing sporadic playing time with the national team.
Suarez was given an extension in summer 2022 that will take him through the 2026 World Cup. It’s increasingly difficult not only to see how he will make it that long but also why Costa Rica would stick with him until then.
Joel Campbell will still be there. His message was more succinct.
“We apologize to the fans for not giving them the victory. More than anyone, we wanted it,” the forward said. “They have the right to express their frustration in the stadium.
“We failed.”
Best story or surprise - Jamaican me hope again
It’s been a turbulent start leading the Reggae Boyz for Heimir Hallgrímsson, who started out with a friendly against Argentina and then had a few more friendly matches before his official debut against Mexico.
The Iceland native is yet to oversee a win, so why the positivity?
Jamaica gave Mexico everything it could handle at the Estadio Azteca and did so playing a coherent style that didn’t leave it totally unprotected at the back.
“We are still looking forward. We can take a lot of positives from today,” winger Leon Bailey said after the Mexico match. “We showed a lot of character, which has been lacking for some time.”
“We have a big opportunity to make the next World Cup,” he continued. “With the US, Canada and Mexico already qualified, it’s a big opportunity for us and we are going to make the most of it but we still have a long way to go.”
It feels like there’s a “Jamaica Hope Cycle”. We were high in 2015 and even higher after their run to the Gold Cup final that year and a return appearance in 2017.
Then things fell apart, Jamaica fell well short of the final round of World Cup qualification in the 2018 cycle and we started all over.
With players like Bailey, Bobby Reid and Ethan Pinnock coming in regularly and the excitement of the U-17 generation led by Dujuan “Whisper” Richards and Malachai Molina, there could be the ingredients for something fans in the region have been waiting to see for a long time: A consistently dangerous Jamaica.
The JFF needs to let Hallgrímsson cook and see what he can whip up.
League B
Biggest winner - Haiti
I haven’t written much about the Haiti men’s team since before the Nations League, and there’s a reason for that:
They’ve been drama free.
With other teams, we’ve needed to crunch the numbers. We’ve highlighted big matches on the final day. We’ve talked about the issues that might keep them from winning matches.
Despite being unable to play on Haitian soil, Jean-Jacques Pierre’s side steamrolled through Group B undefeated, dropping points just once and clinching promotion and a Gold Cup place essentially the moment the ball was rolling on the March games.
The drama that was in the team looks to be behind it, with forward Duckens Nazon back and scoring for Les Grenadiers.
After the disappointment of a series poorly played against Canada in the second round of 2022 World Cup qualification, Haiti once again will be able to test itself against the big boys. On current form, it will hold its own.
Biggest disappointment - Dominican Republic
The young players qualifying for the Olympics was a huge statement of arrival for the Dominican Republic. In addition to a baseball player factory, soccer is on the rise in the DR.
Well, maybe. With some of those young players in the squad, the DR won just twice in a stacked group that also included Guatemala, French Guiana and Belize. Both wins came over last-place Belize with the DR splitting both games with the eventual first-place team and runner-up in the group. That means it won’t even qualify for the Gold Cup prelims and once again will be in League B when CNL play resumes.
The DR actually earned four points in this March window, but they came thanks to a strange draw earned when it converted from an indirect free kick against French Guiana and then a win over Belize.
Those points were too little too late. New manager Marcelo Neveleff has emerging players and some results to build on. He’s working on convincing more eligible players to join the national team.
But the fact he won’t be putting together a team for the summer is a step back for the Dominican soccer revolution.
Best story or surprise - French Guiana hangs tough
They’re going to the prelims instead of the Gold Cup proper, but French Guiana very nearly won the group over Guatemala and will be a contender to clinch one of three spots in the tournament when the prelims kick off.
This was no mercenary group of European veterans, either. Forward Joël Sarrucco, a 32-year-old playing in the domestic league, scored in each of the first four CNL games. He competes in that league against the entire midfield, while goalkeeper Donovan Léon and long-time defenders Ludovic Baal and Grégory Lescot are France-based.
Under the guidance of Jean-Claude Darcheville, himself a former French Guiana international, Les Yana Dòkòs overachieved and gave themselves a pathway to a Gold Cup return.
League C
Biggest winner - Saint Lucia
Three teams went unbeaten in League C to go up and earn a Gold Cup prelims spot, but of the trio the most surprising is Saint Lucia.
Saint Lucia didn’t even bother attempting to qualify for the World Cup, the only team to pull out. That decision wasn’t up to the players, who protested at FA headquarters, and they’ve shown that they could’ve at least given some joy to fans were they able to compete. Part of that was down to the FA hiring Stern John and actively scheduling friendly matches - Saint Lucia played four between Nations League games including an innovative series against European minnow San Marino.
After a relatively easy group containing Dominica and Anguilla, John’s men will be stepping up the level this summer and in the next CNL.
“The main thing in football is momentum. We want to keep that momentum going now and winning needs to be a habit. You don’t want to take your foot off the gas,” defender Terell Thomas told Charlton Athletic’s official site.
“We’ve got that momentum now; we’ve won the four games and the team is in really good spirit going into the games in June.”
Biggest disappointment - Bonaire falls short
Oh, Bonaire.
Bonaire came into the window full of hope. It was opening a newly renovated stadium that met Concacaf’s hosting standards and it knew that a win in one of two matches would put it into League B and the Gold Cup preliminary round.
Not bad for a team representing a country of just more than 20,000 people.
But it all went wrong. Bonaire fell 6-1 against Sint Maarten. The pressure of that home debut seemed to release in the second minute when Guillermo Montero scored the opener with a screamer of a free kick.
But Concacaf vet Billy Forbes was on the mark twice, scoring a stunning set piece of his own, and Bonaire simply couldn’t find any more goals.
That means the team will again play in League C when the tournament resumes in the fall, hoping to learn from its slip-up and earn promotion.
Best story or surprise - Gerwin Lake’s Sint Maarten
On the flip, for every loser there has to be a winner. Except Sint Maarten didn’t just ride Bonaire’s bad luck, it created it.
Forward Gerwin Lake scored his second hat trick of the competition in a 6-1 victory over Bonaire last week and Lake scored a stunner, with Jeroen Cox adding a second Tuesday for a 2-1 win over the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Lake ends the competition with eight goals in six matches and now will focus his attention on the Gold Cup prelims, the biggest moment in the soccer history of a country that previously participated in one Caribbean Cup (losing all three games in the 1993 edition).
Great coverage. Keep it coming.