What does the national soccer team need to qualify for the 2019 Gold Cup?

The National Soccer Team will be out of the 2019 Gold Cup in the last match of the Nations League. The CONCACAF disciplinary committee changed Barbados’ 2-2 draw against Guyana to a loss for the former for improper formation of Hallam Hope and Krystian Pearce, star offensive players, on Sept. 6.

Read also: Soccer National Team names six new players in first call-up of 2019

The national team was ranked 10th in the Nations League, but this choice by the disciplinary committee took it out of the top 10, which will be the qualifiers for the 2019 Gold Cup in numerous U.S. locations.

The national team dropped to 11th place with six points, along with nine other teams, including Guyana, which moved from 21st to eighth place by having the second best goals scored in this group that will define the places for the 2019 Gold Cup in March.
They define everything

Bermuda (11 goals scored), Guyana (10), St. Kitts (10), Dominican Republic (7), Nicaragua (6), French Guiana (5), Belize (4), El Salvador (3) and Montserrat (2) are the other nine teams that in March will either celebrate their categorization or cry to be left out of CONCACAF’s most important tournament.

The Blue and Whites are still depending on themselves to make it to the Gold Cup. The Nicaraguan team closes against Barbados, a squad that could be demoralized on March 24 due to the sanction and may be without Hope and Pearce.

A victory for the Nicaraguan team, which seems possible due to the circumstances of the opponent and is considered attainable since they are in 23rd position out of 34 teams, gives them high chances of being among the top 10 because the other 4 teams that are facing them have complicated matches and at least one of them has a high chance of losing.

Supposedly, of the 4 teams facing the Blue and White, San Cristobal is the one that will present a practical opponent when they face Suriman (23rd ranked) on March 23 in Paramaribo. The other three teams will have tough games against opponents with the same ratio of points (6). Bermuda (7 position) visits Dominican Republic (10) on March 24, a day before Guyana (8) hosts Belize (13). Between them, some of them could take points off each other and become complicated.
Discarded

The first six places in the CONCACAF Nations League will complete League A with the last qualifiers from the last Hexagonal.

The national team has minimal chances of making this group because it will need a surprising combination of results that will allow it to surpass the five teams that are in front of it, including one with nine points.

Honduran teams will not qualify directly to the CONCACAF Champions League for the moment.

Concacaf announced today the new format to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League for teams from Central America, Canada and the Caribbean that will be implemented for the 2019 edition that will begin in July 2019.

In the release, Concacaf states that as of the date, teams from Central America, Canada and The Caribbean are only going to be able to play in the Champions League-where the clubs from Mexico, and MLS are- having to play before in the Concacaf League whose first two editions were won by Olimpia (2017) and Club Sport Herediano (2018).

The 2017-18 Clausura champion Marathon CD after defeating Motagua in penalty kicks, is going to go down in history as the last Honduran team that was able to qualify directly to the Concacaf Champions League when Concacaf communicated a new format.

Until the most recent edition, which was contested by Motagua of Honduras and Herediano of Costa Rica, the second and third best placed teams in the local competitions of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama; the two top teams from Nicaragua; the champion of Belize and the second and third place teams from the CFU Club Championship and the winner of the playoff between the fourth place team from the Caribbean and the champion of the Concacaf Caribbean Club Shield participated for a total of 16 teams.

From this point on, a total of 12 teams from Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Caribbean with lower scores in their respective leagues will play a preliminary round of direct elimination from which the top 10 will advance to the round of 16 where the 1st and 2nd place teams from Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras, the most relevant from El Salvador and Guatemala and Nicaragua plus the second place team from the Caribbean Club Championship will advance to fill the 22.

Concacaf clarifies that the top five Central American associations will have three representatives, but this could change according to the development of the teams in the rivalry.

Simultaneously, the winner of the Caribbean Club Championship will qualify directly for the Concacaf League, as will the winner of Canada’s new professional league.

How will they qualify for the Scotiabank SCCL CONCACAF Champions League?

The Concacaf League champion and the top five (6) will qualify to the Concacaf Champions League to join the MLS and Liga MX teams, which will increase the number of competitors to 32 between the Concacaf League and the Champions League.
New format to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League (SCL)

Preliminary Round (The 12 teams with the lowest score according to locality in the general table, the top 10 will advance to the round of 16 of the Concacaf League.

  • Belize (1)
  • Canada (2)
  • El Salvador (2) and (3)
  • Nicaragua (2)
  • Guatemala (2) (3)
  • Costa Rica (2)
  • Honduras (3)
  • Caribbean Club Shield (4) or Concacaf Cup Shield winner
  • Panama (3)

Round of 16: (10 teams with the highest regular season score plus the Caribbean Champion will play directly in the Round of 16 of the Concacaf League (SCL))

  • Costa Rica (1) (2)
  • Panama (1) (2)
  • Honduras (1) (2)
  • El Salvador (1)
  • Guatemala (1)
  • Nicaragua (1)
  • Caribbean Club Championship (2)

When will the playoffs to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League be played?

The preliminary round (12 teams with the lowest scores in their own tournaments, will start direct playoffs in July 2019.
The round of 16, the top 10 from the preliminary round and the top 10 from Central America, Panama, the Caribbean champion and Canada, are going to play the round of 16 in August.
Quarterfinals will be in September
Semifinals in October
Final in November, where the new champion and the top five in the overall standings will qualify for the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League will be announced.

Jerry Palacios to Belizean soccer

The Honduran striker Jerry Palacios, will return to foreign soccer, having been confirmed as the new player of the Belmopan Bandits of the first division of Belize.

Aged 37, Palacios will seek with his soccer to consolidate his position in the attacking region of the Belizean club.

Palacios will be the fourth Catracho of the Belmopán Bandits, as there are already Georgie Welcome, Rony Flores and Kevin Guevara.

With his arrival to the “Bandits”, the Catracho striker will play in his fourteenth professional team, having previously played for Olimpia, Motagua, Marathón, Vida, Hangzhou Greentown (China), Hunan Billows (China), Platense, Alajuelense (Costa Rica), ATM FA (Malaysia), Platense, Real Sociedad and Real de Minas.