This kicks off tomorrow, a 16-team tournament being hosted in 3 countries. Some of the teams competing (Martinique, Cuba, Curacao, Bermuda) sound like they should be in for some terrible drubbings in this, but in fact in recent editions the supposed minnows have given the giants of the region a good game. Will the American OTFers be bringing us commentary on this (it's unlikely to be on free to air on any UK channels I'd have thought).
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If we had a "Pointless" style game to name all the CONCACAF members I'd feel all smartypants for remembering Martinique or Curacao, but I still wouldn't manage to complete the set.
Perhaps the world's least known international football team is ... (steel drum roll) - Bonaire.
(They aren't in the Gold Cup, sadly). -
Some Games at least are being shown live on Freesports (Freeview channel 64)Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View PostComment
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Canada about to ko against Martinique in front of about fifty people (I'm not kidding) at the Rose Bowl. This shouldn't be close but with the CMNT you can never be sure.Comment
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Big chance for Martinque, great cross strikers couldn't make contact a yard out. Martinique with a number of players from the French and Spanish leagues. They're not chopped liver.Comment
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"Agricultural" is too restrained a term for some of the tackles flying in here. Two cards so far with, I'm sure, more to come. Martinique are keying on Alphonso Davies who's required extensive treatment twice.Comment
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1-0 Canada. J. David after a monster giveaway.Comment
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HT. Canada lucky to be ahead. Sloppy defending gifted Martinique several good chances, any one of which they could have converted.Comment
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2-0 A second from 19 year-old Jonathan David. Another giveaway with a cool finish.Comment
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3-0 Junior Hoillett, from a wonderful cross by PhonzieComment
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4-0 Scott Arfield on 65 minutes. I think we might win this now.Comment
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I wonder if the Rose Bowl filled up for the second game of the double header, Mexico - Cuba. That did end up as the anticipated drubbing, Mexico were ahead from their first attack and went on to win 7-0.Comment
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Today's is a similar double header in San Jose - Haiti play Bermuda before hosts Costa Rica play Nicaragua. I presume this is a deliberate ploy by CONCACAF to maximise what local ticket sales could be made in the group stages, given the understandably small number of travelling supporters expected?Comment
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The attendance for the second match in LA was 65,527. This kind of "double-header" strategy is reasonably common in this region, particularly when less popular teams are matched against each other.
That said, it is important to keep in mind that the key drivers for attendance here are expatriates and second and third generation fans, rather than travelling supporters.Comment
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Bermuda's official population (2017) was 65,441 so this double header produced a rare instance of an international attendance being greater than the population of one of the tournament participants, according to official stats.
Haiti v Bermuda is the first Gold Cup match ever played in Costa Rica.
Would be interesting to see how many Haitian ex-pats would pay to watch their side in Miami- Ft Lauderdale, their biggest community in the US.Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 16-06-2019, 23:21.Comment
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40000+ for Haiti v USA in Miami Gold Cup games has happened before I believe.
The most workmanlike of 4-0's over Guyana tonight, paired with Panama 2-0 T&T. Which for us was the 700th ever international, and the second goal was the 1000th scored.Last edited by jefe; 19-06-2019, 04:42.Comment
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In the match dubbed (in my house at least) "the battle of the islands I've been to on holiday" Martinique beat Cuba 3-0.Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 20-06-2019, 08:06.Comment
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Jeez, it's been 40+ years since I went to Martinique as a youngster. My abiding memory was that it was very expensive.
Woke stupidly early this morning in The Land of the Midnight Sun (ie, Edinburgh) and caught the last half hour of Mexico/Canada on my mobile. Looked to be a decent-ish match.Comment
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Everything was expensive compared to sterling 40 years ago (though the Franc wasn't great shakes, either)Comment
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Bermuda gave Costa Rica a surprisingly good game in a deserted stadium in Texas and are a little unfortunate to be out, having lost just 2-1 in both their matches. Their better chances last night fell to Reggie Lambe of Cambridge United.Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 21-06-2019, 06:45.Comment
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Curacao beat Honduras 1-0 last night, to eliminate them. They'll need a similar result against Jamaica in LA to progress, but it's still a great result for them. Fans of Southampton, Everton and Stoke might recall their captain, defender Cuco Martina, and their goalscorer Leandro Bacuna plays for Cardiff.
Brief highlights here (it's almost all Honduras - in blue - attacking)
https://youtu.be/lPK1S6i-V5A
Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 22-06-2019, 06:45.Comment
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Watched USA 6-0 Trinidad&Tobago on Saturday and the first half of Canada 7-0 Cuba yesterday.
Most exciting bit of the former was making my usual, extremely tenuous, Hayes connection to the televised match: having seen Dennis Lawrence play for Wrexham in the FA Cup at Church Road in 2004 for some reason meant I was rooting for Trinidad, so it was disappointing to see them collapse in the second half. The US were the better side, as the scoreline suggests, but T&T had two great chances (at 0-0 and again at 1-0) that were wasted, and once the second American goal went in, they just seemed to gradually give up.
Huge sections of the stadium in Charlotte were empty for the Canada match (although the ground did fill up for the Mexico match that followed, there were nearly 60,000 in by the time that kicked off), so there was no crowd noise to counteract the thunderous booms of the PA system, or cover up the players' shouting to one another on the pitch. Canada quickly worked out how to get round the Cuban defence - play it wide to Junior Hoilett, let him trundle past either full-back and whip a cross in for one of the centre-forwards to tuck away. Two players bagged hat-tricks and Cavallini also spooned a dreadful penalty over the bar just before half-time. It was 5-0 at the break, so I guess Canada eased up in the second period and will face Costa Rica or Haiti in the quarter-final.
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4-0 at the break - Canada scored three in the second half, most of which I saw. But they didn't really ease up and should have had at least three more.
(Obviously we were working shifts on that match.)Comment
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I didn't watch it, but notice that Canada fielded several subs, and played Alphonso Davies at full back. Which was certainly kind to Cuba.
Martinique gave Mexico a bit of scare until the last quarter of an hour.Comment
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Haiti beat Costa Rica in a bit of a shock and will face Canada in the last eight. Costa Rica still qualify but now face Mexico a game earlier than expected.Comment
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