Caribbean Cup 2016

                This tournament will again act as a qualifier for the 2017 Gold Cup. The top 4 teams will get a bids to the tournament while the 5^th place nation will enter into a playoff game against the 5^th place Central American Cup finalist. This playoff is a great idea in the fact it creates more interest between the 2 regions.

                The Draw: 4 teams were given byes (T&T, Jamaica, Haiti and St Vincent and the Grenadines)

The first round :  The odd thing about the draw was that Group 1 has the 3 highest ranked teams (that did not get byes) A&B , St Kitts and Aruba in the same group.  A&B is in the drivers seat with a 1-0 over Aruba. However anything could happen here with these teams.

Group 2: Grenada should cruise to an easy win here over US Virgin Islands and lowly Sint Maarten. Anything else will be a big upset.

Group 3: Another  quality group with Caribbean power Cuba, the rich Bermuda nation and the South American participant French Guiana. Cuba has the advantage with one win Bermuda in Havana.                            Unfortunately for Cuba they have to travel to South America for their leg.  We could see a changing of the guards here.

Group 4: Dominican Republic, Barbados and Curacao. Ugggg. Barbados have been producing quality teams these last fee cycles, Playing the yanks in the last World Cuip qualification. Curacao (formally Netherlands Antilles) has that Dutch mentality and show technically sound teams. Barbados slipped by the Dutch island 1-0 and lead this group. Dominican Republic has the huge population of about 8 million and would make thing interesting if they could get this population behind their team.

Group 5 The South American nation of Guyana should battle Puerto Rico for top spot and both should get bye Anguilla. Nothing to report here. Hopefully Puerto Rico can incorporate their domestic team Puerto Rico inlanders players on the team and create interest on this heavly populated island.

Group 6 Both Guadeloupe and Suriname will beat Saint Martin.

Group 7 Martinique and Dominica will both get by British Virgin Islands. It is just a matter of who win the group.

The secnd round is where and when things get interesting.

Group

              

CONCACAF World Cup qualifying Group B review

    This group was the tightest contested group with 3 nations vying for the top spot. Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Bermuda all fielded competitive clubs. Guyana, the tiny nation from South America was the team that came out on top. They beat Trinidad & Tobago when they had to. 18,000 spectators turned out for this match against T&T Nov 11th in Providence Stadium in Guyana. This also was the highest attended game in the group. This win propelled Guyana into the semi-finals. Guyana will now face tougher competition in Mexico, Costa Rica and Group A Champion El Salvador. The road does not get easier but all the Guyana fans are thrilled to be moving on.

Trinidad & Tobago has been the Caribbean pace setter for over a decade. This tiny country of about 1 Million was a great disappointment to their fans but not to me. I thought they played well and only missed out on advancing. This was a very difficult group and T&T only missed out by 1 point. I think once Jack Warner issues settle T&T will be back to it old self playing for the Caribbean championship and displaying quality football we have been accustom from the red and black.

Bermuda played well in the last World Cup Qualifying so there was no reason to think they would not be worse this time around. This qualifying campaign we got to see how they performed over 6 games. I have to say they performed well to keep pace with Guyana and T&T.

Barbados did not win any games. They only scored 2 goals. They need a lot of work to compete in the Caribbean.

Bermuda National Stadium

    Bermuda is the nation that will NOT be participating in the preliminary rounds in CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers. They will be the 6th team to be placed in Pot D withthe 5 winners. I quick look at Bermuda beautiful stadium.
The Bermuda National Sports Center is the name of this venue. It is located in Hamilton Bermuda. I am guessing it's attendance for a soccer game is 5,000.