Many World Cups ago I didn't pay much attention, if any, to how teams outside of Europe made it to the World Cup. Now I know almost every detail of the process in each continental confederation, who's looking good to qualify and how the favourites may be struggling. This then adds a good story to each team which is then at the World Cup.
The region I probably followed the least was Concacaf, the North, Central and Caribbean. Mexico always seemed to be at the World Cup and were joined by Honduras or Costa Rica and more recently, the USA. The Concacaf qualifying is a long process with five rounds and an intercontinental play-off.
They are now down to Round 5, a group of six from which three teams qualify and the 4th goes into the play-off against an Asian team. Like anywhere else the competition is now a lot tougher. While Costa Rica (the surprise team at Brazil 2014) and consistent qualifiers Mexico are first and second, the US lost their first two matches and are in last place. After the sacking of Jurgen Klinsmann, they will be hoping for six points from two winnable home matches against Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago.
The team I will be following, and hoping does make it, is Panama. This is my sympathy vote. Last time round they were beating the US 2-1 in the 89th minute of their final match of round 5 and ended up losing 3-2. Because of that they missed out on a play-off spot and were overtaken by Mexico who went on to qualify for Brazil. Because I'm an old football romantic I'm hoping they qualify not because I know anything about how good they but just so they can make up for the heartbreak of 4 years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment