CONCACAF - Central America - Recent posts
Viewing all posts which authors have tagged ‘CONCACAF - Central America’.
You can also subscribe to this tag's feed.
It's been a very long time since I had anything to write about Belizean soccer beyond the power
struggle in the national federation. But the newly formed Premier League of Belize elected a
chairman earlier this month, and a new league season is on the horizon. The new season starts next
weekend (4-5 February) with twelve clubs split into two geographical zones.
It's been a while since I've written on the Central American playoff scene, but all of the
champions have been decided with the exception of Belize. Below is a summary of who won what: Costa
Rica: Alajuelense won their third consecutive league title, and their 27th overall, by defeating
Herediano 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate draw in the final series.
Well into the playoff phase in Central America's domestic leagues, as two leagues approach the
finals and a new champion has been crowned in Panama. Here's a summary of what happened over the
past seven days: BELIZE ??? COSTA RICA Alajuelense and Herediano will meet in the final of the
Invierno tournament.
A roundup of action from around Central America, as all of the leagues are now in playoff stage.
BELIZE I have no idea what's happening in Belize. COSTA RICA Alajuelense scored an important
victory in the Invierno playoffs with a 1-0 first leg victory at Saprissa. The Purple Monsters has
to play almost 50 minutes with ten men after Jairo Arrieta was sent off in the 43rd minute.
Not much time for lots of prose, since I'm on my way to bed and will be out of town for a few days.
But I did want to put out the results and upcoming schedules for the playoff action throughout
Central America. BELIZE None COSTA RICA The Invierno playoffs start on Sunday with the first leg of
the semifinals.
Panamanian football players have been able to make inroads in South American clubs in recent years.
Not just Colombia, which has been a natural destination for historical reasons, but also Southern
Cone countries such as Argentina or Chile. Yesterday it was reported that Chepo FC's midfielder
Aníbal Godoy will play for Argentina's Godoy Cruz on a loan deal that will run through the rest of
the Argentine domestic season.
Honduras national team coach Luís Suárez has had a personal blog since June on which he writes
about his experiences with the Honduran team and shares his viewpoints on coaching and leadership.
I particularly like his post on the type of football that he likes and doesn't like. If you
understand Spanish, it will be worth your time reading the posts and even if you don't, he uses
fairly standard Spanish so a machine translation would be sufficient.
It's been a very long time since I've done this, so here is a long-overdue look at action around
the Central American leagues. Despite the international calendar, several leagues were in action
over the weekend. BELIZE I have not been able to find anything on the Belizean leagues; it's not
clear if the teams in the Belizean Premier Football League have agreed on a tournament format.
Tomorrow a high-ranking delegation of FIFA, CONCACAF, and UNCAF officials will arrive in Belize to
mediate the ongoing conflict between the national government and the Football Federation of Belize.
The delegation is composed on officials from Central America but wearing different hats. Rafael
Salguero of Guatemala is on the FIFA Executive Committee, Ariel Alvarado of Guatemala represents
the CONCACAF ExCo, and Rafael Tinoco is the UNCAF president.
FIFA's Emergency Committee has temporarily lifted the suspension of Belize's football federation
until 15 August, which will allow the second leg of their preliminary round match against
Montserrat to go forward. FIFA suspended the FFB from international competition after the Belizean
government ruled that the FFB was no longer authorized to represent the country in international
competitions and then refused to offer security arrangements for the second leg match in Belize.
Real Estelí returned to the CONCACAF Champions League for the first time in three editions with an
aggregate victory over Walter Ferretí in the Clausura final. Estelí had lost the first leg 1-0,
but won the return leg 3-1 (the deciding goal a free kick with two minutes to go) to win the title
3-1 on aggregate.
This weekend was truly Championship Weekend throughout Central America's football leagues. Four
champions were crowned on Saturday and Sunday, and the final series of another league championship
kicked off. Here is a roundup: BELIZE COSTA RICA Alajuelense completed a short tournament double
last night as they defeated San Carlos 1-0 in the second leg of the Verano final, thus winning the
finals series 2-0 on aggregate.
Playoff action continues throughout the region as league finals start in Costa Rica and Honduras
and finalists are decided everywhere else. Here is a roundup of Central American action: BELIZE
Events have turned even more bizarre and ad-hoc in Belize's BPFL Cup. In the previous roundup, the
competition committee had decided to scrap the triple round-robin format (which was three-quarters
complete) and proceed straight to a semifinal two-leg series.
Celtic and Honduras left back Emilio Izaguirre has had an excellent debut season in Europe, and
today he received the Scottish Premier League Player of the Year award to go along with his Player
of the Year designation from the Scottish Professional Footballers Association. Izaguirre has won
effusive praise from his coaching staff at Celtic and he will almost certainly end up on the
transfer target lists of some very big clubs in Europe.
Playoffs in Central America approach the finals, and relegation battles are settled as well in
Panama and Guatemala. Here is a recap of the latest from the Central American leagues: BELIZE A
simply bizarre end to the BPFL Cup in Belize, which was supposed to be a league cup competition
among the teams in the Belize Premier Football League.
CONCACAF Champions League action has sucked up most of my attention this week, so now it's time for
me to focus on action from around Central America. Down to the final four in Costa Rica and
Honduras, and closing in on the playoffs just about everywhere else. Here is a roundup: BELIZE The
league season in Belize is complete.
Jorge Vergara, the Mexican businessman who owns Mexican giants Chivas de Guadalajara, sold his
majority interest in Costa Rica's Saprissa to a group of local businessmen. The sale was completed
yesterday and confirmed today at the club's official website. Vergara owned 67% of the club, which
he turned over to the consortium called Purple Horizon (Horizonte Morado) that is led by Juan
Carlos Rojas, Édgar Zurcher, Alberto Raven, and René Picado.
With the leagues around Central America approaching the playoff stage, it's a good time to do a
roundup of action from around the area. BELIZE The Belizean Premier League finished a couple of
months ago. Belize Defence Force won their third championship by defeating Toledo Ambassadors 4-2
on aggregate in the two-legged final.
Last weekend was the final matchday of the Costa Rican Verano tournament, and the quarterfinal
pairings are now confirmed. Here they are with finishing position in parentheses: (A1) Saprissa -
(B4) Santos (A3) Cartaginés - (B2) San Carlos (B1) Alajuelense - (A4) Pérez Zeledón (B2) Limón
- (B3) Herediano Recall that Barrio México (ex Libería Mía) were relegated due to financial
irregularities earlier in the season, and Herediano were docked points.
Saprissa opened ticket sales for Tuesday's second leg of the CCL semifinal series against Real Salt
Lake. Down 0-2 on aggregate, the Purple Monsters want a full house so they're offering a 2x1 deal
-- two entries for the price of one, provided that the person buying the ticket comes to the match
wearing a Saprissa shirt.
Argentina's friendly against Costa Rica -- a no-mess, no-fuss 0-0 draw -- was controversial for
many reasons. First, Lionel Messi, who was the main draw for the public attending the second of the
curtain-raising events at Estadio Nacional, did not play. That decision drew whistles and catcalls
from the audience throughout the match.
After over two years of construction, Costa Rica's newly renovated Estadio Nacional officially
opened for play last night. The first match was between the host nation and China, the stadium's
benefactor. The US$80 million stadium is even more impressive than it appears on TV, with a hotel,
an indoor track, administrative offices for over 20 national sports federations, and an expo hall.
It looks like Honduras' long search for a new national team manager might be over. News reports
within Colombia and Honduras are saying that Luís Suárez has been offered the position of
Honduras' national team manager. According to sports daily Diez, Suárez has the contract in his
hands and the federation is hoping to introduce him to the media on Tuesday.
Most people would say that CD Saprissa's artificial turf gives them a significant home advantage.
But Saprissa's stadium has always been intimidating to visiting teams in the days when it still had
a grass surface. Assuming everything else equal, how significant is the difference in match results
from the grass pitch and artificial pitch eras?
The Andy Najar saga has been moving along for the better part of a year ever since he emerged as DC
United's best youth prospect -- will he decide to play for Honduras, or for the USA? It has been
reported at various times that he would play for the country of his birth, only to have those
reports denied days later.
Other than the announcement of allocations for the 2014 World Cup among the confederations, the big
news to come out of FIFA was the announcement of hosts for the age-level World Cups. In a historic
selection for Central America, Costa Rica has been awarded the right to host the 2014 Women's U-17
World Cup.
This news has been brewing for several weeks in Costa Rica, but the final decision is still quite a
shock. The Costa Rican league has expelled Barrio México from the top flight and heavily penalized
Herediano for failing to meet financial obligations to players and other creditors. Barrio México
is the name of the team that took the place of Liberia Mía in the Primera División, who had gone
from a Costa Rican league title and appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League to a voluntary
demotion to the Segunda.
In 1993, Georgia Tech basketball coach Bobby Cremins was on the shortlist of candidates for the
head coaching position at the University of South Carolina. After much speculation over whether he
would take the job, he appeared at a news conference in South Carolina to confirm that he would
accept the position.
Georgie Welcome will play the next six months for AS Monaco as part of a loan agreement between the
French Ligue 1 club and Honduras' Motagua. Monaco has an option to buy Welcome outright for a
three-year deal. Welcome has trialled for European clubs during the summer after the World Cup, but
no European clubs were willing to take the jump until the winter transfer period.
The Copa Centroamericana final between Costa Rica and Honduras played out in similar fashion to
their group match at the start of the tournament, but this time with a Honduras win. Costa Rica
were actually the better team for significant periods of both matches, but couldn't convert their
dominance into goals.
Honduras won their third Central American title by defeating Costa Rica 2-1 in Panama City tonight.
The Catrachos' two goals were scored by two of the three Martínez players in the team -- Walter
early in the first half, Emil early in the second. Marcos Urena pulled one back for Costa Rica, who
had a man sent off in the second half.
Guatemala avenged its shocking loss to Nicaragua two years ago with a 2-1victory to advance to the
CONCACAF Gold Cup. Nicaragua took the lead midway through the first half, but Guatemala coach Ever
Almeida made a change by bringing on Gregory Ruíz a couple of minutes after the Nicaraguan goal.
It proved to be inspired as Ruíz scored the equalizer less then five minutes later, and then
another round of substitutions in the second half led to the winner, scored by Manuel León halfway
through the second half.
Honduras clinched their spot in this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup by defeating Guatemala 3-1.
Motagua's Jorge Claros scored the winner in the closing stages of the first half, and the insurance
goal in the final minute of the match. Guatemala will face Nicaragua, who drew 1-1 with Belize to
clinch third place in Group A on goal difference.
El Salvador, Panama, and Costa Rica have confirmed their places at this summer's Gold Cup. El
Salvador and Panama won comfortable victories against the minnows of Central America -- the
Salvadorans beat Belize 5-2 in the opening match, and Panama defeated Nicaragua 2-0. The local
papers criticized Panama for not converting their superiority into more goals, which was the same
problem that they had against Belize.
There is a new president of Panama's football association. His name is Pedro Chaluja, a director of
Árabe Unido, who defeated Lucas Alemán 13-7 in the election held today. Chaluja will hold the
post for four years, succeeding Ariel Alvarado, who was FEPAFUT president for eight years. Already
Chaluja has moved to unify the different factions in the federation by offering Alvarado the
general secretary post.
Very distressing news from Nicaragua as the national federation there has banned Armando Collado
from all soccer-related activities indefinitely due to allegations of match-fixing. The 25-year-old
defender, who spent some time with Real Estelí and currently plays for Alianza in El Salvador, has
been charged with helping to throw matches by ensuring that an exact score was achieved.
The 2011 Copa Centroamericana starts tomorrow in Panama, as the seven teams of UNCAF battle for the
five Central American berths to the CONCACAF Gold Cup this summer. Two groups -- one four teams
(Panama, El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua) and the other three (Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica) --
staging three tripleheaders over four days in one stadium.
