General - CONCACAF Nations League

[Sébastien]

Thought a thread to talk about the competition in general could be helpful, as camps for it will be starting in the next two months.

First quick observation: only the top 6 teams qualify for the A League, along with the 6 Hex participants. I think at least 6 teams will end up winning their 4 games, including Canada, but while looking at the fixtures, I noticed that El Salvador and Jamaica will be facing each other, in El Salvador, and Cuba and Haiti will also be facing each other, though who knows where that match will take place (Haiti is the host).

So if you're Guadeloupe or Nicaragua (because I have to believe that Canada will defeat both French Guiana and St. Kitts), you have a decent opening to make it to the A league for the inaugural season.

I don't often cheer for Jamaica, but against El Salvador, I feel like I will have no other choice...

***EDIT***

Had tried to delete it to post elsewhere, but realized the other sub was for the CONCACAF Champions League and not the CONCACAF Nations League... Read too fast, my bad!

Edited July 11, 2018 by Sébastien

[Guest Tg11]

Looking at the Nations League the only threatening teams in there are us Canadians, Jamaica, Haiti and probably El Savador. Cuba I don't really know enough about them to determine if they will be a threat.

[Jith12]

2 minutes ago, Tg11 said:

Looking at the Nations League the only threatening teams in there are us Canadians, Jamaica, Haiti and probably El Savador. Cuba I don't really know enough about them to determine if they will be a threat.

A bunch of their players defected to the US the last time they came here to play a WCQ. So in general, they are more of a threat to national security than our Nations League hopes. But now that I have said that they'll probably go on a run and qualify...

[Guest Tg11]

Cuba qualifying for the 2019 Gold Cup definitely will happen I think. Since the CONCACAF Nations League plays into the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup I think Jamaica, Canada, Haiti, Cuba and El Salvador will qualify. Which leaves 5 more spots since the Gold Cup is now a 16 team tournament and the Hex participants from last cycle are already qualified. So who do you think the other 5 teams will be?

[Keegan]

We’ve been given the best draw as usual - hopefully we don’t screw it up as usual. 

There are some interesting match ups for sure and definitely more than a few chances for Pot A teams to lose.  El Salvador has a tough draw playing Bermuda away and Jamaica at home and will surely drop points.  Haiti away to Nicaragua (who beat them last time) and at home to Cuba.  We are lucky to play our last match at home - though it would have been nice to face a FIFA nation.  

St Kitts away will be our toughest challenge I think.  We drew there in 2011 and if you look at their roster it’s about conference level.  Atiba Harris and a championship midfielder in their ranks so they’ll put out a few decent players. 

 

[Guest Tg11]

7 minutes ago, Keegan said:

We’ve been given the best draw as usual - hopefully we don’t screw it up as usual. 

There are some interesting match ups for sure and definitely more than a few chances for Pot A teams to lose.  El Salvador has a tough draw playing Bermuda away and Jamaica at home and will surely drop points.  Haiti away to Nicaragua (who beat them last time) and at home to Cuba.  We are lucky to play our last match at home - though it would have been nice to face a FIFA nation.  

St Kitts away will be our toughest challenge I think.  We drew there in 2011 and if you look at their roster it’s about conference level.  Atiba Harris and a championship midfielder in their ranks so they’ll put out a few decent players. 

 

I mean I know about our matches against St Kitts and Dominica but then who do we face after that? Does anyone have the full schedule for Canada's games for Nations League?

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

 

9 minutes ago, Tg11 said:

I mean I know about our matches against St Kitts and Dominica but then who do we face after that? Does anyone have the full schedule for Canada's games for Nations League?

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/05/30/canada-learn-schedule-details-concacaf-nations-league-qualifiers

[Guest Tg11]

2 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

 

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/05/30/canada-learn-schedule-details-concacaf-nations-league-qualifiers

Thanks for that and seeing our schedule our games against US Virgin Islands, Dominica, St Kitts and French Guiana in my opinion these easily are winnable games. I will be shocked if Canada loses any of them.

[Sébastien]

3 hours ago, Keegan said:

We’ve been given the best draw as usual - hopefully we don’t screw it up as usual. 

There are some interesting match ups for sure and definitely more than a few chances for Pot A teams to lose.  El Salvador has a tough draw playing Bermuda away and Jamaica at home and will surely drop points.  Haiti away to Nicaragua (who beat them last time) and at home to Cuba.  We are lucky to play our last match at home - though it would have been nice to face a FIFA nation.  

St Kitts away will be our toughest challenge I think.  We drew there in 2011 and if you look at their roster it’s about conference level.  Atiba Harris and a championship midfielder in their ranks so they’ll put out a few decent players. 

 

Agreed. The away-match against St. Kitts could end up being tricky. Isn't their field also a pretty awful cricket pitch? Or am I confusing it with St. Lucia? That being said, anything less than three points with a dominant performance should be an enormous disappointment, especially in this weird format where goals for/against could end up counting for a whole lot.

I am happy we're playing at home against French Guiana. As is usually the case with them or Guadeloupe, I have no idea of their competition level.

Very interested to see who ends up making the top-6 for this. But in future years, it won't be that easy to not get relegated to the B League. Just one off-match could quickly place you last in your group.

[Guest Tg11]

Top 6 will be Jamaica, Canada, El Salvador, Haiti, Cuba and Guatemala if they are in 

[SkuseisLoose]

I could completely see curaçao sneak into league A. They play Grenada, USVI, Guadeloupe and Antigua and Barbuda 

[mrstepp817]

Might be a dumb question but I haven't seen it....does appearing in a Nations league match cap tie a player?? I would think so but just dont want to assume

[Sébastien]

1 hour ago, SkuseisLoose said:

I could completely see curaçao sneak into league A. They play Grenada, USVI, Guadeloupe and Antigua and Barbuda 

Though Guadeloupe, traditionally, is nowhere near a walk in the park...

[Sébastien]

9 minutes ago, mrstepp817 said:

Might be a dumb question but I haven't seen it....does appearing in a Nations league match cap tie a player?? I would think so but just dont want to assume

It will as much as the Gold Cup I would venture.

[Kent]

I can’t remember if it was me or someone else on this forum, but I think someone crunched some numbers and it’s basically impossible for 6 or more teams to win all 4 games. I t(ink it might have been me, and it wasn’t a definitive proof, but I checked scenarios for teams that could reasonably hope to win their 4 games.

So I am quite confident that if we win all 4 games, goal differential won’t matter at all. If we draw a game or lose a game, goal difference will probably become very important.

[Keegan]

43 minutes ago, Kent said:

I can’t remember if it was me or someone else on this forum, but I think someone crunched some numbers and it’s basically impossible for 6 or more teams to win all 4 games. I t(ink it might have been me, and it wasn’t a definitive proof, but I checked scenarios for teams that could reasonably hope to win their 4 games.

So I am quite confident that if we win all 4 games, goal differential won’t matter at all. If we draw a game or lose a game, goal difference will probably become very important.

Each team from our pot plays 1 team from pots A, B, C and D.  So eventually you'll have 4 match ups of A v A, so only 4 teams could win all 4 games from pot A.  However, this doesn't mean that a team from pot B couldn't win all 4 games as well, for instance - Curacao could win all 4 games from pot B, while not disturbing anyone of the 4 winners from Pot A.  Nicaragua, Bermuda and Guyana could as well from pot B.. so that is 8 right there at least and that is where I stop.  

The chances of that happening are obviously pretty low but better safe than sorry. 

Edited July 12, 2018 by Keegan

[maplebanana]

7 hours ago, mrstepp817 said:

Might be a dumb question but I haven't seen it....does appearing in a Nations league match cap tie a player?? I would think so but just dont want to assume

I'm fairly certain it does, since it is an official FIFA match. But, this would not be the case for the game against French Guiana, which is not an official member of FIFA (but is a full member of CONCACAF). There was a situation like this years ago (I think 2011 Gold Cup), where we played Guadelupe in Borjan's first non-friendly, and I was nervous because it meant he *still* wasn't cap-tied until the next game.

[Keegan]

3 hours ago, maplebanana said:

I'm fairly certain it does, since it is an official FIFA match. But, this would not be the case for the game against French Guiana, which is not an official member of FIFA (but is a full member of CONCACAF). There was a situation like this years ago (I think 2011 Gold Cup), where we played Guadelupe in Borjan's first non-friendly, and I was nervous because it meant he *still* wasn't cap-tied until the next game.

Borjan was cap tied vs Guadeloupe and Davies was cap tied vs French Guiana.  Makes no difference as long as it’s official. 

[SpursFlu]

I'm calling a dark horse, at least to make the Gold Cup... Dominican Republic. In a couple years their domestic league has become the best in the Caribbean 

[Guest Tg11]

10 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

I'm calling a dark horse, at least to make the Gold Cup... Dominican Republic. In a couple years their domestic league has become the best in the Caribbean 

Dominican Republic at best have been a minnow here in CONCACAF and now you are saying that they are gonna qualify for the 2019 Gold Cup? I doubt it very much

[deschamp86]

3 minutes ago, Tg11 said:

Dominican Republic at best have been a minnow here in CONCACAF and now you are saying that they are gonna qualify for the 2019 Gold Cup? I doubt it very much

dark horse

ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/

noun

1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.

   "a dark-horse candidate"

[SpursFlu]

6 minutes ago, deschamp86 said:

dark horse

ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/

noun

1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.

   "a dark-horse candidate"

Thank you.. you've re established my faith in humanity with 1 simple copy and paste

[Guest Tg11]

8 minutes ago, deschamp86 said:

dark horse

ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/

noun

1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.

   "a dark-horse candidate"

Even so yeah they are a relative unknown but for years they have more or less been whipping boys in CONCACAF so why should it be any different now? I bet you they will not be in the Gold Cup next summer in fact I will guaran damn tee it.

[SkuseisLoose]

4 minutes ago, Tg11 said:

Even so yeah they are a relative unknown but for years they have more or less been whipping boys in CONCACAF so why should it be any different now? I bet you they will not be in the Gold Cup next summer in fact I will guaran damn tee it.

dark horse

ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/

noun

1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.
   "a dark-horse candidate"

[deschamp86]

5 minutes ago, Tg11 said:

Even so yeah they are a relative unknown but for years they have more or less been whipping boys in CONCACAF so why should it be any different now? I bet you they will not be in the Gold Cup next summer in fact I will guaran damn tee it.

If any of your predictions come true I guaran damn tee I am done

32 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

I'm calling a dark horse, at least to make the Gold Cup... Dominican Republic. In a couple years their domestic league has become the best in the Caribbean