CONCACAF WC qualifying

[jmann09]

third round groups were recently drawn

group 1: Cuba, Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
group 2: Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica
group 3: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, Suriname

anyone know if they've set dates and venues for the fixtures yet?

 

[pantone159]

There are some dates on the FIFA website (which is generally very good btw):
The LinkThe Link

It doesn't list times or venues yet, ussoccer.com might have more info buried somewhere.

 

[gecko]

Those of you that follow soccer closely....how would you seed the 12 teams...?

My HiDef experience with Euro2008 has me looking forward to WC and any other world class soccer event I can lay my eyes on.

 

[MajorYoung]

USA
Mexico
(Big Step Down)
Honduras/Canada
...The rest

 

[THEU]

agree with MajorYoung

 

[pantone159]

Group 3 looks really easy... Costa Rica and El Salvador ought to advance easily. The other two are much more even.

 

[1899horn]

The group that Mexico drew will be stronger than the final hexagonal tournament, and I fully expect the two survivors of that group to join the US. I think it might be Honduras, but their pendulum swings violently between Jeckyl and Hyde. Which is why I have Canada pegged as the team. If Mexico gets their act together (and that's a big if), they should be the other team through. They have more talent than they have had since the late 80's but they are very young, and have not played together very much. SGE gets thrown into the fire right off the bat against the Catrachos. I loved Hugo Sanchez as a player but his coaching arrogance had me very worried about world cup qualifying. At least SGE will take the time to actually scout the other teams. Something Hugo would just not do.

 

[Napoleon]

Canada would easily win Group 3.

Canada has become the #3 team in CONCACAF. Far and away better than any other team other than the US & Canada.

If they had Owen Hargreaves on the team (he's Canadian, NOT English) and Jonathan de Guzman who decided to play for Holland because the Dutch are better than Canada and he's been training with a club there since Junior High...

Well Canada could have a chance at finishing in the Top 2 in CONCACAF. They are much more creative than the USA and Hargraeves would go a long way towards controlling games.

 

[Utkclack15]

In reply to:

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[History Horn]

What 1899 said about the Mex group is true. I don't know that at this stage there can be a "group of death", but this one is by far and away the toughest. On the other hand, you've got a group with the weak sisters of the poor. All four of the teams in Mexico's group can make a legitimate claim they should be in the hex over teams from group three.

That said, the US should come through and make the hex. Mexico should make it out of their group and the other team that comes out of Mexico's group should round out the qualifiers for WC. I don't think the fourth place team in the hex will stand a real chance of beating out the CONMEBOL team for the final spot.

Hook 'em

 

[Huckleberry]

CONCACAF sucks, relatively speaking to UEFA, of course, but that doesn't mean that there can't be a group of death. Groups of death are always relative to the competition they're a part of.

With that said, the second group is clearly a group of death. Let's just say I would not want the USA to trade places with Mexico.

 

[dongato]

Based on FIFA July 2008 rankings, the groups stack up as follows:

Group 1: USA #30, Cuba #78, T&T #103, Guatemala # 104
Group 2: Mexico #19, Honduras #48, Canada #77, Jamaica #94
Group 3: Costa Rica #79, Suriname #87, El Salvador #117, Haiti #119,

Group 2 appears to be the hardest. I don't think Canada will make it out of this round, unless their home games are played outdoors East of the Rockies in late fall.

 

[Hornin Hong Kong]

How many injuries will come out of our match with guatemala?