T&T men’s senior team will know who they will face at the Concacaf Gold Cup and the Concacaf Nations League soon.
The Confederation announced Thursday that the groups and the full schedule for the 15th edition of the Confederation’s Gold Cup will be unveiled in Los Angeles, on April 10. The head coaches of the 16 participating national teams, as well as Concacaf executives and legends of the game, are scheduled to be in attendance. The 2019 edition is set to be the biggest in its history.
To date, six of the 16 national teams have qualified for the tournament, those being the countries that participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Hexagonal qualifier round: T&T, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and the United States. The other 10 nations will qualify for the Gold Cup via the Concacaf Nations League Qualifier, with the final round taking place during the March FIFA match fixtures.
T&T’s best-ever finish came in 2000 when the Bertille St Clair-coached finished third, losing 1-0 to eventual winners Canada in the semi-finals. T&T reached the quarterfinals in 2013 and 2015.
Concacaf also announced on Wednesday that the Concacaf National League draw will be held at The Chelsea Theater in Las Vegas, will take place on March 27. Having advanced to the Concacaf hexagonal stage of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, T&T was pre-seeded in League A alongside the United States, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras.
The group stage for the competition, which continues its qualification phase from March 21-24, will be played from September-November. The Final Championship is set for 2020.
Countries from the Qualifying Phase will be ranked from 1-34, based on points earned, goal difference and a series of additional tiebreaker criteria to determine placement into Leagues A, B and C of the inaugural Concacaf Nations League. Canada is currently third, behind Curacao and Haiti heading into their final qualifying match against French Guiana on March 24.
The 41 participating teams will be allocated in the pots according to the League they have qualified for as well as by the Concacaf Ranking as of November 2018.
Concacaf has also confirmed details of its 34th Ordinary Congress, to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 28. The Congress, which is constituted by Concacaf’s Member Associations, will take place at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Concacaf president and FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani will preside over the Congress, which will count with the participation of all 41 Concacaf member associations and the Concacaf Council. FIFA president Gianni Infantino and guests from the international football community will be in attendance.