Mexico and the United States are the biggest contenders to win a ticket among the three live tickets that will be at stake in the extensive octagonal Concacaf World Cup-2022 qualifier that begins this Thursday and ends on March 30.
The ‘easier’ rival and Amado Guevara’s bet on the start of Honduras in the octagonal
In addition to the three direct tickets in the running, the fourth selected from the octagonal can aspire to a pass in an intercontinental playoff.
Originally, this World Cup tie would have been played as hexagonal, a system established prior to the France-1998 World Cup, but due to the alteration of dates due to the covid-19 pandemic, Concacaf adopted an octagonal.
In this way, the decisive stage of the World Cup tie will increase from 30 games to 54 that will be played in 14 days. The first will be held on September 2 with the following pairings: Canada-Honduras, Panama-Costa Rica, Mexico-Jamaica and El Salvador-United States.
Then the triple FIFA Date will be completed with two more days, on Sunday 5 and Wednesday 8.
– Canada-Honduras –
The first match of the octagonal will be played at BMO Field in Toronto at 6:05 p.m., between the Canadian team, which has not qualified for a World Cup since Mexico-1986, and the Honduras team that hopes to return after absent in Russia-2018.
In the last Gold Cup, Honduras stayed in the quarterfinals while Canada reached the semifinals and took a quality leap in their game under the command of Englishman John Herdman who took over in 2018.
“Canada is a team with very fast players, with very versatile strategies,” analyzed Fabián Coito, Honduras coach since 2019. “We have to limit the physical and tactical; we have to be strong defensively and prevent them from recovering the ball to attack and I’d do keeping the ball. ”
– Panama-Costa Rica –
At 7:05 p.m., the Rommel Fernández stadium will be the scene of a duel between Central American teams, Panama, who will seek to return to the World Cup to improve the role they played in their debut in Russia-2018, and Costa Rica , which is going for its third consecutive ranking and sixth in its history.
The Panamanian ‘Red Tide’ is led by the Spanish-Danish coach Thomas Christiansen who just completed his first year at the helm of the canal team, while the ‘Sele’ began a new process in June 2021 with the Colombian strategist Luis Fernando Suárez, who has the experience of having qualified two teams for World Cups: Ecuador to Germany-2006 and Honduras to Brazil-2014.
“On offense I have no doubts that we are going to be fine, but if we want to be good on defensive matters, it is also required that we be organized and well placed,” said Christiansen, facing the game against Costa Rica.
– Mexico-Jamaica –
The teams of Mexico and Jamaica will meet at the Azteca stadium in Mexico City at 8:00 pm. This match will be played behind closed doors as a FIFA sanction for the homophobic shouts of the Mexican team to rival goalkeepers.
Since serving a FIFA punishment that prevented him from going to Italy-1990, Mexico has attended all the World Cups since the United States-1994 and now under the command of technical director Gerardo Martino will seek to make amends after losing the finals of the Liga de Nations and the Gold Cup.
The last legionnaire arrived: Rigoberto Rivas joins the Honduras National Team in Toronto
Jamaica, led by Theodore Whitmore, has only attended the World Cup in France-1998 and the road to Qatar-2022 will begin with numerous and sensitive absences due to the Premier League’s restriction on releasing players as a preventive measure against COVID-19 infections.
– El Salvador-United States –
The first day of the octagonal will be completed at the Cuscatlán stadium in San Salvador at 8:05 p.m. with the match between El Salvador, which has not classified since Spain-1982, and the United States, which was absent in Russia-2018 after seven consecutive World Cup appearances.
The US team, led by Gregg Berhalter, will be presented as the team to beat after having won the Nations League and Gold Cup titles. The Salvadoran representative will try to reaffirm the good game he showed last July when he reached the quarterfinals. final of the Gold Cup.
“Important steps were taken in the Gold Cup, but we did not do such great things, the objective of this octagonal is to leave a good image, and the best way to start is by playing well,” said Hugo Pérez, coach of El Salvador.
FIRST DAY OF ELIMINATORY
-Canada vs Honduras (6:05 PM)
-Panama vs Costa Rica (7:05 PM)
-Mexico vs Jamaica (8:00 PM)
-El Salvador vs USA (8:05 PM)
You can follow it by: TEN.HN
* In Honduras, TVC, TUDN and TV Azteca broadcast *
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