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Offline Rastaman

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #60 on: August 28, 2019, 07:25:38 AM »
When is our team being named ??????????????????

Offline Trini _2026

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #61 on: August 28, 2019, 03:01:36 PM »
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sports/reggae-boyz-to-take-game-against-antigua-and-barbuda-seriously-says-ricketts_173476?profile=1498




CATHERINE HALL, St James — Jamaica will be taking next weekend's Concacaf Nations League game against Antigua and Barbuda at Montego Bay Sports Complex seriously, says Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) President Michael Ricketts.

With a place in the hexagonal round of the Concacaf World Cup qualification in another 12 months at stake, fourth-ranked Jamaica will be doing their best to maintain their position in the ranking and as such will be selecting their best team next week, Ricketts told journalists in a press briefing held at Montego Bay Sports Complex yesterday.

The game will be played on Friday, September 6 starting at 7:00 pm, and Ricketts said: “We are starved for real high-quality games and we will put out our best team and build on the momentum created by the staging of the Concacaf Gold Cup game earlier.”

Ricketts said the squad will be named later this week. “We are getting the best possible 11 and we will also be bringing in some players from overseas. This is a very important game because as the World Cup Qualifying is structured this could impact on our qualification.”

The JFF boss added: “Come next September the top six will qualify for the hexagonal in Concacaf and we are number four now and it is important that we maintain our position.”

Jamaica are in the lower tiered Pool B in Nations League and ranking points from games are harder to be earned “while teams in Group A can pass us with wins over the top teams, so we must ensure that we keep our position”, Ricketts reiterated.

Playing friendlies against higher-ranked teams is one possibility Ricketts identified for maintaining the high ranking, but he said there was one challenge. “Most of the Fifa dates will be taken up by Nations League games but the JFF is committed to do what we can to ensure we maintain our ranking, so if it means us trying to get friendlies against strong teams that is the route we will go as the onus is on us to do what we must do.”

The JFF boss said it was the job of head coach Theodore Whitmore to name his team, but he said they were looking to the United Kingdom for players and reported that two players — Cardiff United's midfielder Bobby Reid and central defender Che Dunkley — had both gotten their Jamaican passports and were eligible for a call up.

Preston North End midfielder Daniel Johnson was also being looked at but he said Whitmore “is adamant that he would not arbitrarily, or on a wholesale basis, start inviting new players. He wants players for selected positions that he thinks can improve the defensive unit”.
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Offline Trini _2026

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #62 on: August 28, 2019, 03:03:07 PM »
When is our team being named ??????????????????

I await to see  what improvements will be made to the team .....
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Offline Trini _2026

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #63 on: September 01, 2019, 09:56:05 AM »
Omar On Grenada Call-Up

Omar Beckles has been confirmed for the Grenada squad for their games with Belize.

He joins Aaron Pierre in the Spice Boys squad for the Concacaf Nations League games.

It is a big honour for Omar who has had the opportunity to play for Grenada for a while.

It is something that he is looking forward to and to play for the country his father was born in.

"It is really good to get the call-up, it's something that has been going on behind the scenes for a while", said Omar.

"I'm excited about the new challenge of playing international football and start to build on a little project over there.

"I got married over there in the summer and it is something that is really personal for me to play for my fathers country."

Omar's father Linton was born in Grenada and the call-up has a big sentimental honour for him.

"It is going to mean a lot to play for Grenada, I went out there in the summer for my wedding and to see where my father grew up", said Omar.

"It was my first time out there and I got the chance to really connect emotionally with family members.

"From that moment on I knew I had to take the chance to play for Grenada."

Omar is looking forward to meeting up with the squad ahead of the game for the next challenge in his career.

"I've not really seen much football over there but I've followed the competitions out there in the Caribbean", said Omar.

"A few of my friends play for other countries in the Caribbean and I'm really excited about the challenge."

Omar's career has seen many achievements along the way. If he starts against Ipswich Town tomorrow it will be his 100th appearance for Town and the call-up is another achievement for him.

"It's definitely up there, I've had the opportunity to play for them for a little while", said Omar.

"I've prioritised playing league fixtures and I don't want to miss league fixtures where I can.

"The priority has been to prove myself in the league and to push on there.

"The call-up though is a great achievement and is more of sentimental thing as well as something to add to the CV."
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Offline Tallman

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Concacaf Nations League to serve as pathway for 2021 Gold Cup
« Reply #64 on: September 04, 2019, 11:26:33 AM »
Concacaf Nations League to serve as pathway for 2021 Gold Cup
Concacaf.com


Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) today confirmed that the inaugural Concacaf Nations League, set to kick off on Thursday, September 5, will serve as the qualifying pathway for the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup, for all 41 Member Associations. The new centralized men’s national team competition represents a new era of national team football for the Confederation.
 
Created to maximize the match dates available within the FIFA international calendar, and as part of a wider strategy to provide more competitive football for all Member Associations, the Concacaf Nations League group stage will take place in the September, October and November FIFA windows of 2019. After round-robin play, the four League A group winners will advance to the Concacaf Nations League Finals to crown the first-ever competition champion. The Concacaf Nations League Finals, originally scheduled for March of 2020, will now take place in June. The complete group stage schedule is available here.

Additionally, the group winners from League B and League C will be promoted to League A and B, respectively, while the teams at the bottom of League A and League B will be relegated to League B and C, respectively, for the next edition of the Concacaf Nations League. The official draw, which sub-divided the three Leagues into groups took place March 27, 2019, at the Chelsea Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“The Concacaf Nations League is about uniting the Confederation through meaningful competition, while providing an exciting pathway to the Gold Cup,” said Concacaf President Victor Montagliani. “Through this tournament, all 41 Concacaf Member Associations are able to follow the dream of competing on a more consistent basis, opening the door for continued development across our entire region.” 

As announced in March of 2018, the Concacaf Nations League qualifies the region’s top teams to the Concacaf Gold Cup. The qualifying process for the 2021 Gold Cup will be as follows:

Concacaf Nations League A (8 teams): After group stage play in November 2019, the top two teams from each of the four League A groups will qualify directly to the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup.
 
Concacaf Nations League B (4 teams): After group stage play in November 2019, the winner of each of the four League B groups will qualify directly to the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup.
 
Gold Cup Qualifiers (4 teams): After Concacaf Nations League group stage play in November 2019, the third-place finishers in League A, the second-place finishers in League B and the first-place finishers in League C will advance to a two-round qualifier, to be played in March and June of 2020.

For the first round of the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup Qualifiers, the second-place finishers of League B will face the first-place finishers of League C in March of 2020. After home-and-away play, the four matchup winners will advance to the second round, where they will face the third-place finishers of League A in June of 2020. The four matchups winners of Round two will qualify to the 2021 Gold Cup.

For the FIFA Men’s World Ranking, all  2019-2020 Concacaf Nations League matches will be granted a coefficient score which corresponds to qualification matches to a Confederations final competition, rather than friendly international matches played during FIFA International Match Calendar window.
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Offline Deeks

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #65 on: September 07, 2019, 05:54:15 PM »
Just watched Curaçao best Haiti 1-0.  Very impressed with Curaçao game. Good skills controlling that ball on that AstroTurf. Haiti was defensive and counter. But the  Dutch were ready for them. We got work to do.

Offline frico

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #66 on: September 08, 2019, 02:09:12 PM »
We got plenty work to do and no time to do it.

Offline Deeks

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #67 on: September 08, 2019, 09:01:13 PM »
Panama just got rocked 2-0 at home by Bermuda. And they have a new coach.

Offline maxg

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #68 on: September 08, 2019, 09:34:34 PM »
Panama just got rocked 2-0 at home by Bermuda. And they have a new coach.
and with a more non-pro local team than Panama, oui..guess they fit the intl players where necessary.

Offline ffisback

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #69 on: September 09, 2019, 02:12:15 AM »
Panama just got rocked 2-0 at home by Bermuda. And they have a new coach.
and with a more non-pro local team than Panama, oui..guess they fit the intl players where necessary.
Most of the players and coach's in Bermuda have played and trained in England I'm not surprised that they have always kicked our butts there league is probably better than the pro league.

Offline frico

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #70 on: September 09, 2019, 05:16:03 AM »
We always thought Bermuda was easy meat for us,even as a boy in TT i can still recall,having said that we should always buss dey rass no matter where they train.

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #71 on: September 09, 2019, 05:22:19 AM »
Left unstated is  that Panama dismissed Bermuda 4-1 in Bermuda only a few days previous to the 2-0 on the road.

When Gallego was appointed coach of Panama, he promised goals. He got 4 in the opening match, but Panama is playing a different brand of ball than under prior management and Bermuda had not seen that brand and having seen it for the first time in Bermie, made the tactical adjustments for the away game. It's nothing to do with the geography of where the Bermudans play, just good coaching prep.  Both goals were scored by Nakhi Wells. Known commodity, although the second goal was more characteristic than the first ... which was placed on a platter.

On top of that, the possession was in the range of 75% in favor of Panama with Panama having multiple legitimate chances on goal (Bermuda's GK had a boss game). Bermuda scored against the run of play to open.

Regardless, Gallego took responsibility for the loss rather than deflected (cough*, cough). At the end of the day, all Bermuda is doing is confirming that they should be in the A bracket. Mexico will have the final word on that. So too will goal difference.

It's in our interest if Panama say adios now rather than later.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2019, 05:27:57 AM by asylumseeker »

Offline Flex

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #72 on: October 02, 2019, 01:45:08 AM »
CONCACAF competition holding United States and Mexico back - Jurgen Klinsmann.
By Jeff Carlisle - U.S. soccer correspondent


Former United States men's national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann called the CONCACAF Nations League "a waste of time" and said that if the U.S., Mexico and Costa Rica are ever going to get to the level of the top international sides, they need to find competition outside the region.

Speaking to ESPN's Herculez Gomez in the wake of ESPN securing the U.S. broadcast rights to the Bundesliga, Klinsmann was blunt in his assessment of the CONCACAF region.

"I think the biggest challenge for the United States, or even Mexico or Costa Rica, for the key countries in this region, is you don't really have the highest competition outside," Klinsmann said. "That means when you play just within your own system, you don't have the big matches against European countries or South American countries in order to grow your program, in order to grow your players.

"So literally when you are kind of locked into CONCACAF and you don't play Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Chile every year, or you don't play Holland, Germany, England, Spain, Italy every year, you have no chance to grow.

"And that's what I always said, you have to leave this region here in order to make your program better, to improve your players. And this a big, big handicap for all the players and all the programs, if it's Mexico, Costa Rica or the United States."

The U.S. has played nine of the 10 CONMEBOL nations as well as England, France and Italy, since the start of 2018 -- the team also played 15 games away to European nations during Klinsmann's five years in charge -- but the advent of the CONCACAF Nations League limits the number of friendly games.

The two remaining international fixture windows for 2019 will be taken up by Nations League matches, with the U.S. in a group with Cuba and Canada. With the finals of the CONCACAF Nations League slated for next June, that only leaves the March 2020 window to schedule matches against teams from outside the region.

"It's a waste of time, I'm telling you," Klinsmann said of the new competition. "It's a waste of time because you that need [that competition] as a country. I mean talking about Mexico, everyone is hoping for the fifth game in the World Cup. You're not reaching that fifth game in the World Cup if you play the teams you are playing now in the Nations League in CONCACAF. You are not.

"Because you need to play Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Holland and England. That is your competition. And when you have an opening for a national team window and you can maybe make one or two friendly games, you need to play Argentina or Germany and not a CONCACAF team.

"So within that system that was created here, it's almost impossible for United States or Mexico to get better. And that is why Mexico just lost against Argentina 4-0."

There was always a question of how much countries like Mexico, Costa Rica and the U.S. would get out of the Nations League, given how it limits opportunities to play nations from other confederations.

But given the advent of a similar competition in Europe called the UEFA Nations League, as well as the fact that World Cup qualifying for South America will begin shortly after the 2018 World Cup concludes, those opportunities were already going to be limited.

"There will still be space for [intercontinental friendlies]," CONCACAF said in a statement accompanying the announcement of the competition in November 2017. "In broader terms, the League of Nations aligns CONCACAF with the general movement in the world of international football, away from low-stakes friendly matches."

Klinsmann added that another problem in the U.S. is that the federation prioritizes finances over results in terms of finding international opponents.

"There might not be the financial benefit to it when you travel to Italy or to Holland or to Germany or to England, than playing a home game in the United States with the, I don't know, whatever revenues are coming in," he said. "So at the end of the day it is very, very difficult to make your players better when they don't have the highest competition possible."

When approached by ESPN, U.S. Soccer declined to comment.

In the interim, the priority for U.S. players is to seek out the high-level club opportunities, in particular playing for European teams.

"The players need to play in the best leagues in the world, which are in Europe, as many as possible," Klinsmann said. "Which we are very proud of, a lot of them now playing in the Bundesliga, or Christian Pulisic playing in the Premier League. This is super exciting.

"And the same with the Mexican best players, they play in Europe, it doesn't matter where they play. [Hirving] Lozano plays in Napoli and [Javier Hernandez] plays [with Sevilla], and so on. So the challenge for a coach is always, 'How do I get my players to play at the highest level possible for them?' And if not, then you know you always have these setbacks."

Klinsmann also insisted that he thinks MLS benefits American players, just that some things can be improved.

"I think MLS is a wonderful place, to come through, to fight through," he said. "I think that the coaches here that really try to give the younger players the chance, I see a lot of young players now out there. And then it's down to the players as well.

"So how far do I want to take it now from here? I think with the growing MLS, every year the quality is improving. Every year they are trying to compete more, especially with Liga MX, which is awesome to do. I think the developmental path is there. But they have got to give a clear message to the players as well that it is down to them to become more consistent."

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Offline Deeks

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #73 on: October 02, 2019, 02:35:16 PM »
My take. If these teams think that they too good for Concacaf, then they should join South America.

Offline Deeks

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #74 on: October 17, 2019, 06:05:42 AM »

Offline Flex

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Re: CONCACAF Nations League Thread
« Reply #75 on: November 19, 2019, 02:43:56 AM »
CONCACAF boss: New W/Cup format was best.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).


CON­CA­CAF pres­i­dent Vic­tor Mon­tagliani is stand­ing by the change in the CON­CA­CAF World Cup qual­i­fy­ing for­mat im­ple­ment­ed ear­li­er this year, say­ing it was forced up­on them be­cause of a me­dia rights is­sue and the new Na­tions League. How­ev­er, he says the for­mat will again change for the 2026 World Cup in the Unit­ed States.

The first phase of the new qual­i­fy­ing for­mat will fea­ture on­ly the top six ranked CON­CA­CAF teams based on the FI­FA rank­in­gs af­ter the June 2020 win­dow. These coun­tries will play a Hexag­o­nal home-and-away round-robin se­ries for three au­to­mat­ic CON­CA­CAF berths in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The sec­ond phase of the qual­i­fy­ing com­pe­ti­tion will in­volve the CON­CA­CAF coun­tries ranked 7-35. These 29 coun­tries will en­gage in a group stage and knock­out phase com­pe­ti­tion. For the group stage, the coun­tries will be di­vid­ed in­to eight groups (five groups of four and three groups of three) and the first-place team in each of the eight groups will qual­i­fy for the knock­out stage. The win­ner of this knock­out phase se­ries will then play the fourth-placed team from the Hex. The win­ner of that se­ries will then ad­vance to a play­off se­ries with the Asian con­fed­er­a­tion qual­i­fi­er for a fi­nal spot in Qatar.

But many of the Caribbean Foot­ball Union min­nows had ar­gued when it was an­nounced ear­li­er this year that this was un­fair, since many coun­tries would not get a chance to par­tic­i­pate in ei­ther phase of the com­pe­ti­tion, much less get a tra­di­tion­al chance at cre­at­ing some of the up­sets of past World Cup tour­na­ments.

On Mon­day, how­ev­er, Mon­tagliani, who was in Trinidad for the launch of the TTFA's Home of Foot­ball in Cou­va, said the de­ci­sion was reached af­ter a process of vot­ing and that the ma­jor­i­ty of CON­CA­CAF mem­bers even­tu­al­ly un­der­stood the process and rea­son­ing be­hind it.

“Once it was ex­plained why it was done, then every­one un­der­stood. I would have liked to have a dif­fer­ent for­mat my­self, in that I would have liked to use the Na­tions League as a for­mat. The re­al­i­ty is that be­cause of me­dia rights and the Na­tions League is owned by ob­vi­ous­ly us, the cal­en­dar is an­oth­er is­sue, the re­al­i­ty is that the Na­tions League has tak­en up a lot of the cal­en­dar, which means that you on­ly have a few days to play.”

He added, “We can­not play like we did be­fore, rounds one, two, three and four. We had to keep the Hex be­cause of con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tions from a me­dia stand­point, or a lot of our mem­bers would have lost a ton of mon­ey from a me­dia rights per­spec­tive. So we had to fit a square peg in a round hole.”

Some CON­CA­CAF mem­ber coun­tries claimed to have been un­aware of the de­ci­sion be­fore it was an­nounced. But Mon­tagliani dis­missed this, say­ing that those coun­tries who were against it were in the mi­nor­i­ty. He said they even­tu­al­ly en­sured that all coun­tries would still get a chance at qual­i­fy­ing de­spite the new for­mat.

“This was the best for­mat, so I gave every­one a chance. Now we have over 500 games in a four-year pe­ri­od. Be­fore it was just 100, so if you look at the to­tal­i­ty of it, it is why peo­ple are on board with it,” Mon­tagliani said.

“It’s not per­fect but it’s go­ing to evolve be­cause the for­mat will change again for 2026.”

Mon­tagliani mean­while de­scribed the new Home of Foot­ball as a fan­tas­tic one, say­ing it is now the jew­el of the Caribbean and the CON­CA­CAF in some ways. He said with the new fa­cil­i­ty, it is time for T&T foot­ball to build some of the blocks by start­ing with the play­ers on the T&T un­der-15 team with the 2026 World Cup as the fo­cus.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

 

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