Winnipeg Fury Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Group 1 USA Jamaica Panama El Salvador Group 2 Costa Rica Honduras Canada Guatemala Group 3 Mexico Trinidad & Tobago St. Vincent and the Grenadines St. Kitts and Nevis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devioustrevor Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Groups 1 & 2 will be competitive, while in group 3 Mexico and Trinidad were given a free pass to the qualification finals. There needs to be some tweaking of the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis_Rancagua Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 What I am really concern here is whether we can seriously beat Honduras and Guatemala. Costa Rica is so difficult to beat at home. Our away record against Costa Rica is not too impresive. For this reason I would love to see players such as Olivier Ocean play a serious role on this squad. I will surely be keeping my eyes open on Stephen Ademolu's progress in Sweden. If Ademolu starts to pop goals at the back of the net in the same way that Ocean is doing in Norway, then it would be a good idea to bring him on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnipeg Fury Posted June 21, 2004 Author Share Posted June 21, 2004 Well we don't have to beat CR away, but we have to at home. The key to advancing is to win your home matches. If we can draw all of our away matches, that's as good as a victory. My only concern with this team is the Keeper. Lars is unemployed and needs to play first team somewhere quick, and Onstad has not proven himself at the international level. Nobody has a lock on our number one spot, nor do I see any quality of depth in goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bc_soccer_fan Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Here is our all-time records vs. each team in our group: Costa Rica: 3 wins, 5 ties, 4 losses Guatemala: 6 wins, 2 ties, 1 loss Honduras: 5 wins, 2 ties, 5 losses With a record like that I don't see why we can't get out of this group in at least 2nd place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natesta Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 We'd have to beat a couple of these teams in the Hex anyway in order to advance, if we're scared here I don't see how you feel we can have any hope of making it through. I for one am glad we're in this group, if we can advance first here we should make the WC no problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballboy Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Yup. The key is look after your home games, then try to come out unbeaten in the away matches. In theory, it's pretty simple but of course, everyone knows visiting down South is not an easy task. Plus the teams in our groups are all worthy opponents. I have faith in our boys but I am not gonna go crazy and say it's gonna be a walk in the park either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 The competeitive strenght, balance and quality changed considerably in this region in the past 8-10 years. Therefore the all-time records have very little meaning anymore. Also, If you look back at the way the 2000 WCQ semifinal and final round unfolded, you can also concluded that the notion of looking to win at home and playing for a tie on the road, no longer applies either. This strategy had merit 10-15 years ago (ie.: prior to the WC94 FIFA rule changes relating to offside rule) where there was hardly any side who could score goals in concacaf. Many if not most games ended 0-0 or 1-0. But that is no longer the case. Now, you have to win both at home and away. Last time, those sides who won some away matches, advanced and qualified, those who didn't, went home. The biggest change and reason for this is that teams in concacaf can now score goals. Canada needs to stop thinking that they are decided underdog when they go to places like San Jose, Tegucigalpa and Azteca and play knowing that they play in some of the best leagues in the world and therefore be confident of winning even in Azteca ( should we get there). If CRC can do it, why can we. If we go down to those places and play like we did in 98 where we are just kicking the ball out of bounds constantly to kill the clock, then our WCQ campaign will be very short lived. If we end up with draws in some of the hostile environments, that fine and its not the end of the world, but we cannot go in with that mind set. Afterall, didn't T&T win in Edm against us to open the semifinal round? and what did that do for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trueviking Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 honestly....if we cant beat honduras and guatemala, we dont deserve to get anywhere near a world cup....i would venture to say that there are not many countries in the world that wouldn't switch places with us and take our path through. even with the inhospitable away games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhat Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 quote:Originally posted by trueviking honestly....if we cant beat honduras and guatemala, we dont deserve to get anywhere near a world cup....i would venture to say that there are not many countries in the world that wouldn't switch places with us and take our path through. even with the inhospitable away games. So true! However playing in Central America is full of BS: the diving ("simulation"), crappy refs, bags of piss thrown at you, etc. It made playing in Finland, Wales, and even Egypt and Libya, almost like being on a holiday. I doubt if any Euro teams would appreciate them, either. But you're right; we will have to beat these teams anyways, so why don't we? At least Yallop has a grasp on CONCACAF. And as Free Kick says, if Costa Rica can do it, why can't we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante79 Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 We MUST win all our home games we cannot afford a tie! on the road we have to get at least 3 points Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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