Curaçao in, Jamaica into play-off’s
Unlike the Scots, wow that was an incredible match, the Jamaican’s failed to win last night and move into the Intercontinental World Cup play-off’s instead.
Jamaican drew 0-0 in Kingston with the 171 square-mile island of Curaçao and it will be them that go onto next year’s finals.
On paper Jamaica should have made it through this group, but people underestimate the CONCACAF, where beyond the big three (which all automatically qualified) although the football and facilities can be substandard, most Caribbean and Central American nations are able to pick experienced players who play regularly in big leagues.
Curaçao are case in point, but their qualification is a wonderful achievement and replace Iceland as the smallest nation by population to qualify for a World Cup.
About 150,000 people live on the autonomous Netherlands island located 40 miles to the north of Venezuela. Willemstad is the pastel coloured capital and up until now the island was only known for it’s baseball players.
As I wrote the other day I have watched Curaçao develop into a force in Caribbean football, which has had a lot of influence from the Netherlands and particularly from people like Patrick Kluivert, who took over as manager in 2015, and has since seen Guus Hiddink, Kluivert agian and now Dick Advocaat take on the responsibilty.
As for Jamaica and its quad of Addicks they will have to navigate the play-off’s, which look tough on paper.
The Reggae Boys who were last at the World Cup in 1998 like the Scots, will need to beat New Caledonia or Bolivia in a semi final, and then either Iraq or DR Congo in the final to qualify for next year’s finals. All games are held as a mini-tournament in Mexico.
Last night only Kaheim Dixon played, coming on as a sub in the 58th minute, and he looked visibly upset at the end. I was hoping for a late introduction of TC but Steve McClaren didn’t put him on.
The game was chaotic to say the least and in the 2nd half Jamaica hit the woodwork twice and were then awarded a late penalty only to have it overturned by VAR.
Just like in 2008, Steve McClaren resigned immediately after his latest World Cup failure.
Curbs 14/1….
Hi CA, I saw this game too, whilst taking a holiday in the Caribbean during the international break, seemed an opportune time to get prepared for the UK winter. So i
am in favour of international breaks ! 😂
I have to say, thought Jamaica were not that impressive and the ball seemed to be lumped forward with a lot of regularity. Perhaps the playing surface did not advocate pass and move football. It was interesting to hear a large proportion of the Curacao were born in The Netherlands and plucked out of their Dutch leagues by Dick Advocaat who was apparently watching from his Dutch home.
TC can’t get this side and is a step behind Reid who plays left side forward. The introduction of big taller players showed McClaren’s tactical ambitions.
Dixon was emotional at the end, it’s a long road to WC finals now for Jamaica, on that showing you feel it’s a distant dream for the CAFC Jamaica trio. It’s back to Blighty tomorrow and then an early ko on Saturday.