While football fans and those who refer to themselves as fans believe Trinidad and Tobago should consistently qualify for FIFA World Cups, should be beating teams like Haiti and Martinique consistently, competing head to head with the likes of Mexico and United States and even dominating Jamaica because of what the 1989 Strike achieved or didn’t achieve, the exploits of former stars such as Gally Cummings, Steve David, Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy among others or the mere belief that we have so much talent, there is something else that needs to be realised and respected.
Qualification for Qatar 2022 just got harder and could prove to be among this country’s most difficult Qualifying campaigns. How so? Just ask Haiti and Curacao and not to forget what teams like Canada, El Salvador, Honduras and even Panama are capable of on a good day. We haven’t even mentioned the traditional top three – Mexico, Costa Rica and USA. Yes the USA, even though we managed to keep them out last time around.
Over the past four to five World Cup campaigns, we’ve been easily thinking of T&T and Jamaica as the two Caribbean teams that would represent in the “Hex”. At least one or the other. Hold up! Not so fast. While the format may be different and the draw could present different possibilities, when you consider what Curacao and Haiti are now capable of and the fact that they have shown the ability to perform on a big stage, we’ve got to take stock and take note of everything that is happening in the region and the rapid progress taking place.
With Nations League A and Concacaf World Cup qualifying for Qatar 2022 on the horizon, Haiti is ready to make even more history in the region.
“This defeat is disappointing but it has been a successful tournament for us. I hope in September we can start new. We must work harder to prove to everyone that Haiti was and can stay at this level in the future,” concluded Haitian coach Marc Collat following his team’s slim 1-0 defeat Mexico in the Gold Cup quarter-finals. Les Grenadiers proved to be the revelation of the tournament, completing a perfect group stage campaign with three wins.
Curacao used their 2017 Gold Cup experience as a lesson for future football success. While losing all three games, conceding six goals and scoring none themselves, may look bad on the surface, the situation was not so bleak when you take the broader picture into account. Curaçao was in every game during the Gold Cup and had plenty of scoring chances to beat Jamaica and El Salvador.
Thesefootballtimes stated, “To understand the level of this accomplishment for Curaçao, one must take a look at the previous edition of the competition in 2014. Under the helm of manager Etienne Siliee, Curaçao lost every game in Jamaica to finish bottom of their group. A 3-2 defeat to eventual runners-up Trinidad & Tobago, another 3-2 loss to Cuba and a 4-1 loss to French Guiana closed out their tournament.”
Three years later they won the 2017 Caribbean title, beating Jamaica in the Final. This win saw their FIFA ranking rise up to an all-time high 68th, and yet just three years earlier, before Patrick Kluivert’s arrival as the team's coach, the nation had slumped to their all-time low of 183rd.
The flurry of success built on the foundations of the football philosophy of Kluivert will aid in their player development and recruitment or has already. Curaçao has opened the eyes of some Dutch players with family roots on the island. There’ll be more players who will view the national team as a legitimate opportunity to play international football rather than waiting for a call up from the Netherlands.
For Concacaf nations, the stakes largely rest on a six-team group dubbed “The Hex”. The top three nations automatically advance to the World Cup, while the fourth-place team faces a country from another confederation in a home and away playoff.
“It’s great for those six teams in the Hex … but how about the other ones?” Concacaf President Victor Montagliani added. Surely the likes of Curacao, Haiti and even Guyana intend to make it harder for the ones that are usually expected to make it. Time is probably the most coveted resource for many FIFA member countries and confederations, especially when the international calendar tries to balance international friendlies, World Cup qualifiers and inter-confederation events like the Concacaf Gold Cup, Nations League and Copa America.
FIFA has 13 windows for international matches between the qualification draw in July and the World Cup group stage draw in April 2022. Aside from timing the qualifiers, Concacaf wants to balance the level of competition as well. That can be tricky given how countries that routinely qualify for The Hex are typically exempt from playing smaller nations that aren’t able to invest as much into soccer infrastructure or play as many games. That could change. Not that T&T has to fear anything. It's just that there a few more things that we must consider this time around.
Editor's Note
Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Media. He is a former FIFA Media Officer at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He is also currently a CONCACAF Competitions Media Officer and has travelled extensively, experiencing and learning from different cultures and lifestyles because of sport and media over the past 20 years. He is also a certified media trainer for athletes and a member of the FIFA/CIES Sport Management cohort.