FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – The road to the Concacaf Gold Cup starts for six Caribbean Football Union teams when the first round of the preliminary stage kicks off on Friday in the United States.
This round features Suriname, Martinique, Curacao, and Grenada, the four teams that finished third in League A of the Concacaf Nations League; Guadeloupe, Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda, and French Guiana, the four teams that finished second in League B; and St Maarten, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, and Puerto Rico, the four teams that finished first in League C.
Six of the 12 teams will take to the field at the DRV PNK Stadium for the single elimination matches meaning that it is win or go home every time a team takes to the field.
The opening match will bring together the Concacaf 19th ranked Guadeloupeans and 20th ranked Antiguans in a contest between two sides with plenty of recent history before 12th ranked Gold Cup regulars Martinique meet 24th ranked debutants St Lucia, and 14th ranked Curacao square off with 21st ranked St Kitts & Nevis in a clash between two sides with a penchant for the dramatic.
The day’s opener between the two closely ranked sides is expected to be a crack because the two teams were a part of Group A in the Nations League B cycle and finished with nine points each.
Antigua & Barbuda, affectionately known as the Benna Boyz, also won both head-to-head matches 1-0, and they will be hoping they could be fortunate for a third time to redress the imbalance in the head-to-head that the Gwada Boyz lead 4-2.
The Antiguans got into the preliminary stage fortuitously after Central American side Nicaragua were sanctioned for fielding an ineligible player in eight matches, including against Trinidad & Tobago, whose protest was upheld.
T&T was elevated to direct qualification for the group stage, and the Benna Boyz by virtue of being the team with the highest points overall in League B not to have qualified replaced the Soca Warriors.
Antigua & Barbuda are making their debut in the tournament, but Guadeloupe have appeared on four previous occasions, making the knockout round twice, including a run to the semi-finals 16 years ago.
On record, Martinique are highly favored against the St Lucians because they have become quite familiar with the tournament after they qualified for four of the previous five Gold Cups and have won matches at three of them.
In addition, the French side have won six of their nine matches against the St Lucians, and this will be a step up in class to what their opponents faced in the Nations League.
St Lucia will still take confidence from entering this stage of the tournament with a perfect 4-0 record in the Nations League and never trailing in any of the matches, and the majority of the Martinique squad have fewer than 10 caps.
In the final match of the day, this will be the first meeting between these two sides, and Dutch side appear to hold the edge.
Four years ago, they got into the knockout stages of the tournament and gave the United States a really tough game in the quarterfinals and that will provide them with the inspiration for another run.
St Kitts & Nevis, known as the Sugar Boyz, are coming into the tournament after an unbeaten run in the Nations League, and nine goals from eight different players giving proof that a match-winner could come from anywhere on the field.
