El Salvador at SurinameCosta Rica at Haiti
Trinidad and Tobago at United States of America
Jamaica at Honduras
Cuba at Guatemala
Canada at México (rain)
JAMAICA: "We can't afford to lose against Honduras. They're on home turf so they're the favourites, but we're only thinking about winning. I think it will be a great game and I'm very confident we can come away with a good result." Jamaica coach Rene Simoes.
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: The Trinidadians, led by head coach Francisco ‘Pacho' Maturana, will be without Dwight Yorke, who is returning to Sunderland. They will also have to overcome the disappointment of seeing three points become one at the death against Guatemala in Port of Spain. Keon Daniel opened the scoring late in the 84th minute, but the hosts switched off in stoppage time to concede an equaliser with virtually the last kick of the game.
"We will play our game and hope to get the three points. No game is easy and circumstances change, but you have to be ready and we will do our best to be ready for Wednesday," said Maturana, who will also be missing suspended USA-based defender Avery John. "Nothing is a guarantee in football, but I believe that we can achieve anything. We will need to rebound after a disappointing end to the game against Guatemala."Dwight Yorke's absence is a huge blow for the Warriors who were already without suspended midfielder Khaleem Hyland and left back Avery John, and injured regular captain and playmaker Aurtis Whitley.
Goal scorers:
El Salvador: Martin 2; Felter 12 OG (Suriname)
Costa Rica: Ruiz 12, 75; Alpizar 86
Haiti: Vubert 40
United States of America: Bradley 10; Dempsey 18; Ching 57
Honduras: Núñez 60; Guevara 73 PK
Guatemala: Ruiz 38, 55; M. Rodríguez 85; Contreraas 90+1
Cuba: Linares 25
México: Bravo 59; Márquez 73
Canada: Gerba 78
Guatemala went to Trinidad and Tobago looking to turn their third round in the right direction after an opening home loss. The match was a defensive struggle with neither team about to score until the climactic final ten minutes. Trinidad and Tobago struck first with a goal six minutes from time and the home crowd figured the Trinidadians were home free. A Guatemalan goal in the final minute, however, meant that the teams would share the glory. Trinidad and Tobago have four points in Group A, whereas Guatemala have one.
Trinidad and Tobago visited Group A underdogs Cuba with the hopes of grabbing the early group lead. Cuba had barely scraped by Antigua and Barbuda, so they had plenty of doubters to prove wrong. The Trinidadians opened the scoring in the first half, and took the 1-0 lead into the break. Trinidad and Tobago scored twice more before their substitute Kaleem Hyland was sent off for a red card five minutes after the third goal. Cuba only had time to pull one goal back, and they dropped their home opener 3-1.
The August schedule is pretty light, for it only contains Match Day 1 of CONCACAF's Third Round, as well as the opening UEFA qualifier. September is much more packed. All match times are local.
After the second round of North America's qualification cycle, ten of the top twelve seeds are still alive. The only exceptions are Panamá, who fell to El Salvador, and Guyana, who were ousted by Suriname. There is no need for a draw in CONCACAF as these semifinal groupings were determined in the Durban draw in November 2007.
Panamá took a 1-0 aggregate lead into San Salvador for the return match against El Salvador. Things were absolutely rosy for Panamá after a goal in the first quarter hour made the score 1-0. At that point, Panamá knew they would advance as long as they did not lose by more than one goal. When halftime struck, Panamá still had the 1-0 lead. With twenty minutes to play, El Salvador finally broke even, but 1-1 would not win the aggregate; only 3-1 would. In the eightieth minute, Panamá’s Cárlos Rivera grabbed his second yellow card and was ejected. On the ensuing penalty kick, El Salvador pushed the score to 2-1. If Panamá could just hold down the fort for ten more minutes despite being a man down, they would have advanced. It was not to be, however, as El Salvador scored with two minutes to go for a 3-1 victory. To add insult to elimination, Panamá left the field with only nine men after Adolfo Machado was shown the exit after a straight red. El Salvador advance to Round Three on a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Guatemala visited Saint Lucia with a 6-0 aggregate lead in hand. The Guatemalans pulled ahead 2-0 in the first half before Saint Lucia scored their only goal of the tie to make it 2-1 at the half. An extra goal at the end gave Guatemala a 3-1 victory and a spot in Round Three thanks to a 9-1 aggregate demolition.
Gambia went into Algeria with the lead in Group F and a two-point cushion over third-place Algeria. By the time the game was done, Algeria were on top of the group and had a one-point lead over both Gambia and Sénégal, who play Liberia on June 22. Algeria score once in the first half, and the 1-0 lead at the break held for the entirety of the second half, giving the Algerians a one-goal, shutout victory.
First-place Paraguay visited the high-altitude city of La Paz to take on the last-place Bolivians. Paraguay suffered their first loss of qualifying in a shocker. Bolivia had a 2-0 lead at the half, but may have felt their momentum turning after Paraguay made it 2-1 in the second half. Regardless, Bolivia answered quickly with two more goals to make it 4-1. Paraguay scored once more, but it was too little, too late, and Bolivia won 4-2 to move out of last-place and ahead of Perú. Much of the blame may lie with Paraguayan backup goaltender Aldo Bobadilla, who did not perform well in place of Justo Villar.
Cuba visited underdog Antigua and Barbuda in the last of the twelve Round Two matchups in North America, but Cuba knew better than to overlook their opponents considering what Bermuda had done to Trinidad and Tobago the day before. The Antiguans pulled out to a 1-0 lead within ten minutes, only to see it disappear the very next minute. The Antiguans grabbed a quick second goal as well, only to see the 2-1 lead disappear as soon as it came. The score was 2-2 at the half. Cuba took a 3-2 in the second half on to be equalized themselves by an Antiguan response. The Cubans grabbed a 4-3 win with a strike five minutes from the end of the game and gladly will return to Cuba with a lead in the aggregate and a handful of road goals.
"When you meet one of the so-called smaller teams, nothing is going to be given to you. You still have to go out there and beat them. Who knows, we could hit the crossbar eight times and they could have the game of their lives. We could find ourselves out of contention before the real competition even begins. This is soccer, and it's not played on paper." –Landon Donovan, United States of America
“We are calm; we have prepared well. We are in a good state especially with our attitude. We intend on arriving with our best level and achieve the result for which we are hoping.” –Juan Arango, Venezuelan striker
In the first match of the second round in North America, highly-favored Honduras come through in the rain at home to easily handle the Puerto Ricans. A 1-0 lead at the half only increased in the second half, and the much more experienced Hondurans put together a 4-0 thrashing of their opponents. The second and final leg between the sqauds will take place on June 14 in Puerto Rico, although Puerto Rico will be without the services of Marco Veléz, who picked up two yellows in the match and will be serving his suspension.
FIFA just confirmed a portion of the dates of fixtures in Africa, South America, North America, Oceania, and Asia. Here is my attempt to sort through them. This post will be updated when more match dates are finalized.
In the first of two matches today, the Bahamas faced the British Virgin Islands at home in Nassua for the second time in five days. Coming into the second leg with the aggregate tied at 1-1, the favored Bahamanians felt pressure to deliver a first round victory over their opponents. The Bahamas looked to be in great position to meet Jamaica in June after nabbing a two-goal lead before the hour. Even after British Virgin Islands' captain Anadale Williams knocked home a goal late in the second half, it appeared to be too little, too late. Suddenly, in the nintieth minute, Williams struck again and the final whistle came with the scored tied at 2-2.
Antigua and Barbuda went home to face Aruba with a comfortable 3-0 lead in the aggregate. The Antiguans did not do themselves any favors, however, by having two players ejected before the hour mark, including their captain George Dublin right before halftime. Schyan Jeffers also picked up a red card. If Aruba had any hope of scoring three goals, it increased exponentially with the two-man advantage. Unfortunately, the Arubans were unable to do anything to score and in fact gave up a goal with the huge advantage. They were lucky to surrender only one because Antiguan player Troy Simon missed a penalty kick during the match. Damien Farrell picked up two yellows after the eighty-fifth minute, including one in stoppage, and was also sent off. Antigua and Barbuda finished the game with only eight players yet came out with a 1-0 win as well. It is too bad that the Antiguans decided to be on their absolute worst behavior, because now three starting players are suspended for the first match against Cuba.
"There's no reason we can't get right at them in that second leg and get their fans on their backs." -Richard Pacquette of Dominica
The Netherlands Antilles took on favored yet perpetually-underachieving Nicaragua on the road in Diriamba. In what would end up being the theme in four of the six CONCACAF qualifiers, the unexpected wound up happening. After a long training trip to Brasil, Nicaragua figured to have a good chance to win. The Netherlands Antilles had other plans, though, and took an early goal to a 1-0 road win. They have a chance to knock out the mainlanders in the return match in Willemstad.
Before the first day of madness kicks of for FIFA World Cup qualifying in 2008, I would like to condense the schedule of the next two months into one list. All times are local.
"It would be a mistake for Bermuda to underestimate us. Our aim is to come back with all the points and build excitement ahead of the second leg and get people talking.” –Carl Brown, coach of the Cayman Islands
