Monday, March 29, 2010

Central American qualification for CAC games



I love soccer tournaments because the passion that they bring from the fans. It is nice to track the tournament in group play and see how your nation stacks up against the other teams in the group. You always want your team to advance and see exciting soccer. Well the biggest tournament is coming up this summer in South Africa and Concacaf nations can see how their representatives stack up against the rest of the World. The Yanks and Mexico are traditional players in the world even but this year we will see how Honduras stacks up. We should all be pulling for out CONCACAF teams. While this tournament will catch the World attention another tournament will be going on with in CONCACAF. Puerto Rico will be hosting the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) games in Mayasa, Puerto Rico. The U-21 Nations teams will battle for this title.
There will be 4 teams from the Central American region and 4 Caribbean nations for a total of 8 nations. The groups should have 2 nations from each region to create interest. Puerto Rico automatically qualified since they are hosting.

The qualification for Central America (4 spots)
El Salvador played a home and away against Honduras. These two have a rich history against each other after the “Soccer War”. El Salvador really needed to win just so their country can have someone to cheer for during the World Cup games. El Salvador won 1:0 on Honduras soil then held them to a tie 0:0 at the famous Cascatalan stadium. El Salvador will advance to the CAC games in Puerto Rico. f
Belize played Nicaragua in a home and away. These 2 nations are clearly the bottom two teams in Central America. Pitting them against each other was a good idea. At least one will make the CAC tournament. Both nations need the exposure and experience of playing in big tournaments. Belize surprisingly won 1:0 in Belize. The return trip to Nicaragua new national stadium was another story. Nicaragua won 2:1. This score propelled Belize into the CAC tournament. Belize got through because they had more away goals.



Panama played Guatemala. Guatemala use to be the better nation however Panama has come a long way in 10 years and are now considered the superior nation to advance on both the national and youth levels. Guatemala missed the last Gold Cup and the new national team will have to develop in the youth ranks. This is a perfect time to regain the high stature they had in Central America. Panama held Guatemala scoreless in the first game 0::0 in Guatemala. Then Panama posted a 3:0 shutout of Guatemala in Panama. Panama continues to improve.
Costa Rica the heavy favorite will play Nicaragua for the last spot. The game will take place
April 11 and April 18th..

Sunday, March 28, 2010

New Caribbean soccer league

  1. Trinidad,
  2. Jamaica,
  3. St. Kitts,
  4. Haiti,
  5. Bermuda,
  6. Antigua,
  7. Guyana,
  8. Dominica

These 8 nations will try to for a league. They are hopeing to create more exposure to their league amns to the sport. Travel will be expensive but cheers to them.

Friday, March 26, 2010

UNCAF Nations Cup 2011 Host to be Panama









After many reports that the UNCAF Nations cup would be held in Costa Rica we finally get notice fron UNCAF web site with new news. Panama will be hosting regional tournamnet. It also sounds like there will be a name change for this tournament. the new name indicated it will be Central American Cup.




I think this is great that Panama, the reigning Champions will be hosting over Costa Rica. Since 1991, Costa Rica has already hosted twice (1999, 1991). Guatemala, El Salvador have also hosted twice. Honduras has hosted the most at 3 while Panama 1 (2003) and Nicaragua (0) and Belize (0) have the least. UNCAF seems to be spreading the wealth around which is great for this tournament. No one nation has such a big advantage. (like USA and the gold Cup).




Panama has invested close to $19 million to refurbish their national stadium Estadio Rommell Fernandez. The nation is eager to show it off. Here are a few pictures of the new facility. Panam's has the 2nd best economy (after Costa Rica). Their futball program has increased every year and the results have shown on the national level.



Past host
1991 Costa Rica 1st
1993 Honduras 1st
1995 El Salvador 1st
1997 Guatemala 1st
1999 Costa Rica 2nd
2001 Honduras 2nd
2003 Panama 1St
2005 Guatemala 2nd
2007 El Salvador 2nd
2009 Honduras 3rd
2011 Panama 2nd
As you can see this is the second "go around" of hosting this tournament. Nicaragua just finished building a national stadium in Managua which is FIFA certified. They will soon be looking to host once their national team becomes competative enough to win the tournament.



http://fedefutguate.org/index.php?news=469