General - CONCACAF Nations League

[jtpc]

2 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Yes.

and also yes, I assume as follows:

September:
Matchday 1: A vs B
Matchday 2: A vs C

October:
Matchday 3: B vs C
Matchday 4: B vs A

November:
Matchday 5: C vs A
Matchday 6: C vs B

 

Now, you can of course play a friendly on the matchdays where you do not have a game.

Now CONCACAF will likely not allow us to be "C" in our group unless we host both games at BC Place (The possibility of cold and snow! - November in Canada *gasp*).

Being "B" and hosting two games in October would be terrible because we want that to be the window where preferably we play only one Nations League game (away) and don't even play a friendly. Why? Because we want to send a top U23 squad to Costa Rica. Ideally 1996's and older only for the senior team so no:

Davies
Pantemis
Busti
Brault-Guillard
Cornelius
Godinho
Miller
Millar
Fraser
David
Tabla
And guys listed here http://www.canadasoccer.com/canada-announces-squad-for-concacaf-men-s-under-20-championship-p160421
and here http://www.canadasoccer.com/canada-announces-squad-for-the-concacaf-men-s-under-20-championship-p161897

 

That leaves us wanting to be team "A"; two home friendlies in September. 

 

 

 

I'm not sure how they will allocate who is A, B, and C in each group, but if it's pot 1 teams taking the A position in each group, pot 2 teams taking the B position, and pot 3 taking the C position, that seems like it would be least desirable considering we're a pot 2 team.

Edited March 26, 2019 by jtpc

[jtpc]

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 8:29 PM, jtpc said:

Assuming Nicaragua doesn't pull off something incredible, I think these will be the pots for Wednesday's League A draw. November 2018 CONCACAF ranking in brackets:

Pot 1 - Mexico (1), USA (2), Costa Rica (3), Honduras (4)
Pot 2 - Panama (5), Canada (7), Haiti (10), Trinidad and Tobago (11)
Pot 3 - Martinique (12), Cuba (13), Curaçao (15), Bermuda (23) 

I wouldn't mind at all if Honduras or Panama had to play Martinique in their CNL group stage. Since we have both of them in our sights as we move up the FIFA rankings, let one of them (or both of them if they're in the same group) play 2 matches with a non-FIFA member that don't earn you any ranking points. Would help us close the gap even faster. ?

Edited March 26, 2019 by jtpc

[BuzzAndSting]

15 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

September:
Matchday 1: A vs B
Matchday 2: A vs C

October:
Matchday 3: B vs C
Matchday 4: B vs A

November:
Matchday 5: C vs A
Matchday 6: C vs B

Being "B" and hosting two games in October would be terrible because we want that to be the window where preferably we play only one Nations League game (away) and don't even play a friendly. Why? Because we want to send a top U23 squad to Costa Rica. Ideally 1996's and older only for the senior team so no:

This article indicates we will be "B" if they follow a predetermined schedule, which I can't find.

All three draws will begin by randomly selecting a team from Pot 1 and placing them in Group A of their respective league. The draws will continue by selecting the remaining teams from Pot 1 and positioning them into Groups B, C and D in sequential order. The same procedure will be done for the remaining pots.

Edited March 26, 2019 by BuzzAndSting

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

50 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

This article indicates we will be "B" if they follow a predetermined schedule, which I can't find.

All three draws will begin by randomly selecting a team from Pot 1 and placing them in Group A of their respective league. The draws will continue by selecting the remaining teams from Pot 1 and positioning them into Groups B, C and D in sequential order. The same procedure will be done for the remaining pots.

Hmmm...that assumes all of Panama, Canada, Haiti and T&T will be "B".  I suspect that won't be true.

In true CONCACAF fashion I suspect there will be an aspect that won't be entirely random: the schedule.

My guess is that it is a real draw but the schedule itself will be negotiated by the teams involved. 

For example, Haiti, like many teams in the Caribbean, will likely want to play at home in November (better weather, less chance of a hurricane).

I suspect the USA and Mexico will schedule things around when they can get big name friendlies on the 2 matchdays where they are not playing.

[BuzzAndSting]

12 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Hmmm...that assumes all of Panama, Canada, Haiti and T&T will be "B".  I suspect that won't be true.

In true CONCACAF fashion I suspect there will be an aspect that won't be entirely random: the schedule.

My guess is that it is a real draw but the schedule itself will be negotiated by the teams involved. 

For example, Haiti, like many teams in the Caribbean, will likely want to play at home in November (better weather, less chance of a hurricane).

I suspect the USA and Mexico will schedule things around when they can get big name friendlies on the 2 matchdays where they are not playing.

I now fear that as well. At first I assumed it would be a schedule similar to the WC, with teams drawn into predetermined groups and schedules but the more I think about the more I think you're right and Concacaf is going to Concacaf this.

[Kent]

6 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Hmmm...that assumes all of Panama, Canada, Haiti and T&T will be "B".  I suspect that won't be true.

This article claims the same pots. https://canpl.ca/article/concacaf-nations-league-draw-explained-what-awaits-canmnt

[BuzzAndSting]

56 minutes ago, Kent said:

This article claims the same pots. https://canpl.ca/article/concacaf-nations-league-draw-explained-what-awaits-canmnt

We weren’t questioning the contents of the pots but whether or not Concacaf would use the WC style and slot the selected teams into existing schedules or whether they will select the groups via the already discussed draw and then develop a random schedule based on whatever makes sense for some teams, i.e. USA and Mexico.

Edited March 27, 2019 by BuzzAndSting

[shamrock]

I just hope we can avoid Mexico. 

[gator]

Does anyone know what time the draw is and whether it will be streamed?

[BuzzAndSting]

33 minutes ago, gator said:

Does anyone know what time the draw is and whether it will be streamed?

I think it’s 10pm EST.

[rob.notenboom]

 

[Alex]

So who does everybody want? If we get Bermuda or Cuba, while we would most likely get 6 points, so will the pot 1 team. Part of me wants Honduras so we can finally go down there and spank them. Another part of me wants the US, for the exact same reason lol. I feel like because there’s only 4 games it will come down to whether or not we can get an away result vs the pot 1 team. 

[dyslexic nam]

6 minutes ago, Alex said:

So who does everybody want? If we get Bermuda or Cuba, while we would most likely get 6 points, so will the pot 1 team. Part of me wants Honduras so we can finally go down there and spank them. Another part of me wants the US, for the exact same reason lol. I feel like because there’s only 4 games it will come down to whether or not we can get an away result vs the pot 1 team. 

+1.  One way or another, we need to exorcise this particular demon - and our current crop of players seems best equipped to do it.  Its not like playing any of the other Pot 1 teams on their turf will be easy. 

Really, the main thing in Pot 1 is to avoid Mexico.  Preference would be Honduras or CR, but I wouldn't freak out about the US.  In some ways it would be nice to peg our current squad against theirs.  In Pot 3, Curacao would be my last choice just in case they are a banana peel for some team, but other than that the teams don't worry me. 

 

[Stryker911]

My preference would be US and Bermuda. Almost guaranteed 6 points against Bermuda and the games against the US would be alot of fun. As long as we avoid Mexico and Curacao. I think Curacao is actually better than T&T and Haiti.

[BuzzAndSting]

2 hours ago, gator said:

Does anyone know what time the draw is and whether it will be streamed?

Stream will be here

https://www.concacafnationsleague.com/en/video/official-draw-2019-concacaf-nations-league?sf209985243=1

[shamrock]

Honduras and Curacao. 

1. Get them demons off our back.

2. Strongest team in pot 3 that might be able to get something from them as well. 

[Grizzly]

8 minutes ago, shamrock said:

Honduras and Curacao. 

1. Get them demons off our back.

2. Strongest team in pot 3 that might be able to get something from them as well. 

Yes I agree. The important competition is WCQ. I would like to play the teams that would best prepare us for that. The teams we need to beat and have always struggled against are teams like Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica so those are the types of teams I would like to get even if it is harder to advance.

[michaeltfc91]

Pot A I would like to see USA, but just hoping to avoid Mexico

Pot C Just please avoid Martinique, I want to win FIFA points ... Definitely prefer Bermuda the most for pot C

[Corazon]

Anyone but Mexico.  Tata Martino hasn't missed a beat since taking over the team.  They just made two South American teams look silly with essentially two completely different squads.  Mind you this is not the Chile from past years, nor is Paraguay anything special at this point.  Still very impressive. (Side note: Did anyone see that tackle by Almiron last night.  Horrible!)

Not going to beat the dead horse here about the importance of friendlies but I would like to point out positives in what Mexico was able to do this past week.  In two friendlies against strong opposition they started 21 different players over the 2 games with only Edson starting both games in central midfield, likely only because Herrera stayed in Europe finalizing his European passport (who is moving to Atletico next year).

Overall Mexico had 26 different players play in their friendlies with half a dozen players playing in both games.  I don't expect Canada to do this before the Gold Cup because there has to be some cohesion built among the core players before the tournament but going forward I hope to see this kind of practice for Canada friendlies.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Corazon

[nfitz]

3 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

I think it’s 10pm EST.

I'm pretty sure it's 10pm EDT not 10pm EST.

It's 7 pm local time isn't it ... and Nevada is on PDT currently.  Or is it on MST like Arizona? Though either way, that's a 3-hour difference to EDT rather than the 2-hour difference to EST.

[Shway]

@Corazon

Great points. More friendlies. We have to be able to rotate the squad while balancing cohesion. 

Cant wait to see (well I hope) what friendlies we schedule. 

[BuzzAndSting]

15 minutes ago, nfitz said:

I'm pretty sure it's 10pm EDT not 10pm EST.

It's 7 pm local time isn't it ... and Nevada is on PDT currently.  Or is it on MST like Arizona? Though either way, that's a 3-hour difference to EDT rather than the 2-hour difference to EST.

You’re correct 

[jtpc]

The worst combo for me is Mexico and Martinique. You'd be lucky not to lose both against Mexico and even if you won both against Martinique, you'd still end up with no ranking points as Martinique isn't a FIFA member.

If we avoid Mexico, I don't mind any of the other 3 choices. I wouldn't mind seeing how we fare against the US. If we want experience with an away game in Central America before it really matters in WCQ, Honduras or CR fit the bill. If we want to close the FIFA ranking gap faster between us and Panama/Honduras, I'm hoping one of them gets Martinique so that they play 2 pointless matches with a non-FIFA member. We've taken that no-point hit twice in the last few years (French Guiana 2017 Gold Cup, French Guiana a couple days ago), so let someone else who we're close to catching in the rankings have a turn with that. ?

Edited March 27, 2019 by jtpc

[Shway]

Let's be real. Its bring on anyone except Mexico. 

[Guest]

Honestly i’d welcome Curacao in our group. I really want our team to be challenged prior to WCQs.