Sunday, September 7, 2008

The more things change...

Remember 2005 and the CONCACAF hexagonal? That seems like ancient history in many ways as players and coaches and uniforms and seemingly everything has changed.

Yet, 2009 is promising to look a lot like 2005.

Consider Saturday's results:
Group 1: The US won and sits on six points atop the group. Trinidad tied and is second on four points.

Group 2: Mexico won and sits on six points. Honduras also won and is in second with three points.

Group 3: Costa Rica won and sits on six points. El Salvador won and is in second with three points.

Yawn.

If results hold, the final six will look like this:

United States
Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico
Honduras
Costa Rica
El Salvador

In 2005, the final six were:

United States
Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico
Guatemala
Costa Rica
Panama

So with all the evolution and progress and development and moving forward and all that, we get Honduras and El Salvador in place of Guatemala and Panama. Not exactly a big surprise there, and not much difference there. Two Central American teams in place of two Central American teams. Of course, Honduras and Guatemala are quite different, but in general terms they are similar. Both teams can be dangerous but can also be fragile. For that matter, El Salvador and Panama are alike. Not much will be expected from them, and if El Salvador can finish in fifth place next year, that alone will be a surprise.

It just seems that no matter how things play out in CONCACAF, the same teams are on top. Which begs the question, why even bother with the semifinal round? Why force teams like Mexico and the US and Costa Rica to play 18 games, really to play eight extra games when we all know they will all reach the Hex anyway?

6 comments:

Frank Macomber said...

I was really hoping Canada would sack up and at least make it to the Hex.

CACuzcatlan said...

Canada has too much talent to fall out like that. Lack of a good coach? I'm not too familiar with their situation, but I know a lot of Canadian soccer fans absolutely hate the CSA.

Anonymous said...

Canada??? Please...

Where are all the Mexico haters that predicted their demise???

Sven knows what he is doing.

BBSC

starinyourfire said...

canada has the talent, as do honduras i think it will play out between them two for the final spot.

Mexico is gelling up with Sven's tactics pretty smoothly, i think he can do some damage with his team if he so pleases to.

Anonymous said...

the real test for el tri will be when it has to play outside mexico... two wins at azteca, against the powerful honduran and jamaica squads... great, but hardly impressive... we'll see how sven does at that point.

for my money, the canadians are a huge disappointment. same old story: two games at home, one point. i would say this team is done. the canadians couldn't beat jamaica at home and jamaica looked awful, completely out of arguments, in mexico.

the canadian coach is dale mitchell, who played in the 86 world cup, i believe.

saludos, d

Anonymous said...

I'm not trumpeting Mexico as a world power or anything.

I've seen every team play in Concacaf. But you have to figure if they beat Canada that will be 9 points, basically all they would need are a draw or two on the road.

Sven does give them a seriousness the bafoons of the past haven't.

BBSC