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WCAD 3-12: CONCACAF WCQ Preview with Jon Arnold
78 Plays1 year ago
Jon Arnold of Getting CONCACAF'd joins Austin and Amit for a detailed breakdown of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying. The guys break the contenders into tiers, discuss the big storylines, before closing with a look at the games to watch this week (and how to watch them :/).
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Transcript
World Cup Qualifiers Kickoff
00:00:01
Speaker
We've taken our break, we've rested up, but it is now time for World Cup After Dark to go into high gear. We're ready. This is our time, summer 24, ready to go.
00:00:13
Speaker
We have a full calendar of international football coming up by my calculation. And I feel pretty confident in my calculation. And I also feel like there's not many people who have actually done this calculation. We are due for 118 World Cup qualifying matches between June 5th and 11th. In that time period, we have the second round of CONCACAF kicking off.
00:00:35
Speaker
We have the last matchdays from the god-awful Asian second round of qualification. I know you for one will be happy to see the other side of that part of the tournament. And we have a double matchday with plenty of stakes in Africa. And then once that wraps up, we have two of the most major-est of major tournaments in international football with the Euro and the Copa America.
Major Tournaments on the Horizon
00:00:55
Speaker
It's time to sit back and enjoy international football from all walks of international football.
00:01:00
Speaker
couldn't have said it better. This is the summer to do it after two years out from the World Cup. And it's going to be the best looks we get at a lot of these teams in the tournaments and then some big qualifying as well. So it's been a long club season, but it's time to put the international hat on for a few months. And that's what we love to do.
00:01:20
Speaker
It's like the old Rob Lowe meme with the NFL hat, right? That's you. You're putting on the international football. I don't know what the logo of the international football is. That fits in with the Rob Lowe meme. So there you go.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So what can you expect from world cup after dark over the
Coverage Plans for Qualifiers and Tournaments
00:01:38
Speaker
next coming one? As I said, we're back. We took a little break. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but we've got a lot coming up for you on today's show. We are going to take a high level look at cognitive cap world cup qualifying, which kicks off in earnest in this window.
00:01:51
Speaker
Amit and I will be back for an Asia Africa preview that will go out to our patrons on our Patreon page. Amit and I will be back to recap World Cup qualifying and then we're going to dig into major international tournament mode. We're going to preview the U.S. men's national team. We'll preview Club America from a carnival perspective.
00:02:10
Speaker
We'll preview Copa America from a CONCACAF perspective. We'll preview the UEFA Euro. We'll talk you through both of those major tournaments, Euro and Copa America. It's going to be a busy time of it, but I know that you and I are particularly both looking forward to it and ready for what's to come.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yes, we are. I'm very excited for the two tournaments. Qualifying, I'm getting there. But I think that's the other part of what we do is to get ready for the World Cup. We want to be the experts in all these teams that we don't even know that much about yet. That's why we're watching to learn.
00:02:43
Speaker
Yeah, you got to follow the story from start to finish, right? You get the whole picture and then that's the fun part. Again, we mentioned that Africa Asia World Cup qualifying preview will go out to our Patreon subscribers. If you want to become one of our patrons, patreon.com slash WCAD, $3
Exclusive Content and Social Media
00:03:00
Speaker
a month.
00:03:00
Speaker
You get access to exclusive shows. You get access to the World Cup qualifying spreadsheet, which I put a big amount of work into this week. It is all updated and loaded in for these June windows and any written content that Amit and I produce. And we are very pleased to be joined on today's show as we preview CONCACAP World Cup qualifying.
00:03:20
Speaker
By one of our beloved patrons, a man who loves himself the spreadsheet, it is getting CONCACAF's John Arnold. John, very great to have you back on the show. We're looking forward to it. Can you just tell the listeners how great my spreadsheet is? That's really the only reason I had you. Yeah, it's a good spreadsheet. I've actually been here the whole time, listener. I didn't just come in. I was listening to the intro, but I was just being quiet.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a real-life patron and I think that it was cool that I won the contest to come on the show and talk CONCACAF as well. So glad to be here. Glad my name got drawn out of the hat and ready to talk CONCACAF.
00:03:54
Speaker
$3 a month at this point with the type of coffee that you drink, that's less than a coffee, right, John? Absolutely. Are you kidding me, man? I saw a TikTok, I'm on TikTok now, make sure you follow John Reynolds FC. I saw a TikTok where a guy was in Luxembourg complaining about how expensive the coffee was and I was like, actually, that's kind of, uh-oh.
00:04:15
Speaker
And Dallas, Texas, where I live is not an expensive place to live. Look, I'll drink a black coffee, but I'm also drinking some fancy stuff, so I can certainly afford to do a fast and do the $3 a month for the patient.
00:04:29
Speaker
There you go. What's your iced coffee at these days? I know you're a big iced coffee guy. We're trying to save some money and we're going with the Costco cold brew so that we can splurge on the weekends and get our nice coffee on the weekends. You need to be functional, get the caffeine in as efficient as possible on the weekdays. So there you have it.
00:04:50
Speaker
John, as we said that, swig the coffee. There you go. I love it. All right. So we're going to talk about World Cup qualifying, John.
CONCACAF Qualification Process
00:04:59
Speaker
This is, I think,
00:05:01
Speaker
All the world, all the confederations have very interesting World Cup qualifying. But to take a kind of 30,000 foot view of CONCACAF, here's what you have. You have three of the four best teams in this confederation. The United States, Mexico, and Canada don't participate in qualifying because they've already qualified for the World Cup as hosts. That means that of the six spots that CONCACAF, excuse me, gets to the World Cup, three of those are already taken. And so that means that the rest of the teams are finding it out for three direct spots in the World Cup,
00:05:29
Speaker
and two spots the international playoff. The format we're looking at here, we already had a playoff round with the four lowest ranked teams in CONCACAF. Congratulations to the British Virgin Islands and Gila for winning both of those ties and advancing to what is now two sets of group stages.
00:05:47
Speaker
In the first group stage, you have six groups of five teams. They will play a single round robin. That means just four matches total with the top two from each group advancing to what will then be three groups of four. So 12 teams total with the top team in each group going to the World Cup and then the top two of the three second place teams, the intercontinental playoff. John, what do you make of the format? It kind of feels like it's almost CONCACAF Nations League induced in its brevity.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think like that the Nations League and sort of like what I would call the separation of teams since the pandemic maybe I think plays a lot of a role in this you know CONCACAF has leaned probably too heavily on the CONCACAF rankings on the FIFA rankings and sort of trying to
00:06:33
Speaker
split the baby to use a biblical metaphor in making the big teams happy and also making the tiny teams happy. The tiny teams, of course, would make up the bulk of the confederation and therefore have, in a lot of ways, the biggest say in the one member association, one vote setups, but also know where their bread is buttered and that's in the United States and to some extent in Mexico and Canada. So I think in some ways you look and you say, well, the format, look,
00:07:02
Speaker
It's complicated, but it kind of has to be, I think, because you don't want to just do, okay, Anguilla versus Costa Rica. What's going to happen? Tune in and Costa Rica advances when they win 22-0. But at the same time, I think it's worth giving these smaller nations a bit of a chance and sort of having more games than they've had in the past where a lot of times these teams would play two games and be done.
00:07:26
Speaker
So I think it's OK. I think it's fine. And as we'll get into talking about the games that are coming up in June, while the margin for error is actually somewhat slim because there are only four games. It's not the home at home for these first set of games.
00:07:42
Speaker
The teams that deserve to be at the World Cup should be able to take care of business against the other teams in that group. So I think ultimately you get a good solution where there's a couple of games. It goes on a really long time. So teams can prepare for games, have camps, have friendly matches. All these things are positive and it sounds basic to fans of Brazil, Argentina, England, even the US.
00:08:06
Speaker
But that's not a given in this region that these teams will be seeing action consistently. So I think it does a lot of things right. Amit, you and I, we're big format, guys. What do you make of the format? Yeah, I think John did a really good job of describing why it is the way it is. The little teams are happy. They have a big say.
00:08:26
Speaker
big teams and three of them aren't even here are protected. So it gives everyone a chance. I think this, you know, only four games, no home and home is a little chaotic. And so the smaller teams can kind of talk themselves into small window, you could do something. But at the same time, the gulf between them and the top teams is big enough that yes, in four games, they should all get through.
00:08:49
Speaker
And to a different extent, all the different continental federations are trying to get their best teams in, and they do it in different ways. Asia is pretty easy for the top teams to get through. Africa is, they have a lot of
00:09:06
Speaker
Matches to do so it's a lot of matches in the group But it's a lot more chaotic between the middle and top teams Europe is a lot of chaos because there's so many teams and you see that when a team like Italy doesn't make it and there's Just so many good teams. Some of the good teams don't make it So this one I think is is a good balance overall good like John said it's you know, it's a little drawn out I think it's fine and this is very unique without the top three in different years it just always looks different and you get that
00:09:36
Speaker
beautiful hex which is like to me the the best part now it's not that anymore you'll have an octagon great this is okay I'm okay with it it's not like the best but at the end of the day the top three or four teams should all get through have some tests have a lot of experience and every other team is gonna get more matches than they did in the past so kind of what John started from everyone's a little happy with that yeah I think
00:10:05
Speaker
When we think of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying, you mentioned it right a bit, it's the hex, right? Like that's the history of what CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying is. It was obviously Octagon in 2022. And this format, John, doesn't give us that. And I don't think there's as much of a loss because as we said, the top three teams aren't here, right? So you're not missing out on a US-Mexico match competitively. You're not missing out on perhaps a budding rivalry between the US and Canada with the whole Jesse Marsh situation and all that.
00:10:33
Speaker
but you're also probably not going to get the top teams in the confederation or at least the ones that are left duking it out head for head to head for a spot in the world cup i think there's there's a bit of a loss without that sort of mess yeah yeah and i think that's where the oh sorry i mean i think that's where the nation's league kind of comes into play right where you say okay well you have this final four where we're going to play us mexico basically every year if they make it to the final
00:10:57
Speaker
and or the semi-final whatever and and that's where you sort of see these top matches coming and of course like with the expansion of the World Cup in general that's it's necessary right like if you're gonna qualify when the when CONCACAF isn't hosting the World Cup you're gonna have a massive amounts of slots do you really need a game where it's like
00:11:17
Speaker
Oh, you guys are Mexico might eliminate each other. No, they weren't aren't they unless something went really, really wrong. And so I think, you know, the other thing that I would mention, Austin, going into these games is that when I talk to people around the region, managers, sporting directors, etc.
00:11:34
Speaker
There's a real, real enthusiasm for a lot of these countries because they don't have to play the US or Mexico. And even though, OK, there are, quote unquote, fewer spots, know there aren't because they can make the playoff and still get in. They can make the World Cup automatically by virtue of their group's performances in the next round.
00:11:54
Speaker
And they don't have to deal with these teams that are always hogging the spots, essentially. So with the expansion of the world cup, you know, it's something that I think definitely remains to be seen if it produces a good or bad or better or worse tournament 2026. I have my theory, but I do think that it's going to produce, it's going to get teams that have never really realistically dreamed of making the world cup.
00:12:20
Speaker
at least on the border and maybe even making the World Cup. So I think like in the region, when you talk about teams like Curaรงao, when you talk about teams like Guatemala, when you talk about teams like the Dominican Republic, these are teams that have like, I would say a little pie in the sky hopes of making the World Cup, but then you start to look and you're like,
00:12:44
Speaker
Maybe that could do it, right? And I think that's what makes, not just the format, but this sort of, this edition of World Cup Qualification in CONCACAF intriguing. Yeah, I was just gonna hop in and say the top teams, it feels like, should kind of get through their groups, the three. Maybe we'll see some drama there. But to John's point, there is a realistic chance for a lot of different nations to talk themselves into a chance. The Intercontinental playoffs is gonna have two spots. And just given what we know about all the different regions,
00:13:13
Speaker
These are winnable games. Anything can happen in those games. A lot of flawed teams. So I'm with you, I think, that they've done a decent job giving these teams a hope. And this isn't the podcast that talk about the big format for 26. But for these teams, that is a huge different window of opportunity that just didn't exist before. And in that, for them, this is very exciting.
00:13:40
Speaker
You and I talked this week a minute, we were just chatting and we brought up the Intercontinental Playoff and we just kind of gamed it out in our heads. When you look at the teams that are going to be at that Intercontinental Playoff, it's going to be the... I don't know how much money we have in the marketing budget, but we should probably get a little sponsorship deal going with Viva because it's going to be those types of teams. We're not talking about an Intercontinental Playoff where
00:14:02
Speaker
I don't know, the Netherlands are showing up like these are going to be probably for the most part teams that have never made a World Cup, playing it out for a spot to make the World Cup. And as John said, it's that next tier of CONCACAF teams, right? The teams that usually are making up the numbers at the Gold Cup.
00:14:17
Speaker
the Curaรงao's, the El Salvador's, the Nicaragua, those sorts of teams who are now looking and saying, all right, if everything goes really, really well, maybe we pip a spot, we go directly to the World Cup. If we have a perfect campaign, if everything goes really well. If everything doesn't go really well, we can still circle like, hey, we can absolutely make an intercontinental playoff. And when you get to the intercontinental playoff and you look, and on the other side of the equation is Bahrain or the second place team from Oceania, Papua New Guinea,
00:14:47
Speaker
All right, we could probably take care of that, too. Like, we've seen how bad the Intercontinental playoff team from South American could be. Kurosaka could absolutely take Chile on the right day. So I think this format creates a ton of opportunity. That was a funny face from John, because he didn't believe that one. And that's an interesting one. But I do think that range of teams, kind of from 60 to 100, are going to have a swinging shot no matter what against the teams they will see. So it's time to talk about those teams. That was a great pilot preview. Go ahead.
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, so we love our tiers. We're big tier guys, because there's no point in putting a one, two, three on things, but you can do a little dotted line and say these teams are generally similar. When you look at where CONCACAF is at the tiers, heading into this set of World Cup qualifying, it feels like there are, you've got the three host teams who are probably in a tier with also maybe Panama, based on recent performance from Panama. I think it's fair to say there's a top tier of four right now in CONCACAF.
00:15:44
Speaker
But when you look at the teams that will be participating in World Cup qualifying here, it feels like there is a top tier of Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica.
Top Contenders for World Cup Spots
00:15:52
Speaker
And when you look at the FIFA rankings, and I mean, we're pretty big defenders of the FIFA rankings just as a tool to generally know how good or bad a team is in international football. Like, I'm not going to rely on the FIFA rankings to tell me who's going to win the match or anything like that. But I think it does a pretty good job of sorting out who is better than who as a general principle.
00:16:10
Speaker
When you look at the current FIFA rankings for CONCAP, the teams participating in qualifying, Panama's 45th, Costa Rica's 52nd, Jamaica's 55th, and then there's a massive gap to El Salvador in 81st. These are the three teams that going into this World Cup qualification cycle, John, should be the teams that make the World Cup directly, right? Yeah, definitely. He says yes. I said yes, sorry. I was fumbling with the, I got a notification. I was trying to turn the mic off, or on.
00:16:39
Speaker
Yes, those three teams absolutely should expect to make the World Cup. I think that when you look at the recent results, when you look at who's winning the Nations League quarterfinals, when you look at who's putting young players in Europe, or in Jamaica's case, drawing from the base of Jamaican players, eligible players who are playing in Europe already,
00:16:59
Speaker
those three countries are head and shoulders above the rest right now. You know, look, Costa Rica has been in like a weird transitional moment for the last eight years, it feels like. And yet they still were able to win the playoff last time around, make it to the World Cup. And now I think are hitting a good sort of like stride as in their generational refresh has been overdue for years and years and years. So they're the ones that I would say is like almost the team where you're like a little quote unquote worried from that three, but I'm also not worried.
00:17:30
Speaker
You got a new manager and he calls in Manfred Ugalde. Ugalde is a great player. He scores goals. Like it's not that complicated in a lot of ways in some of these matches. So those three, look, don't start packing, don't book your ticket, but the expectation has to be to make it. But maybe start the visa application process. Yeah, it sounds like you need to. Luckily those countries are mostly okay, but like, I mean, we'll get to them like logistically.
00:17:58
Speaker
Haiti, if they make it, the US Department of State's going to have to earn their keep, I guess. The way they can do this pretty easily is they finish in the top two out of five, and then they have to win their group of four. There's just a lot of matches where that should
00:18:19
Speaker
It's hard to imagine, maybe one of them could have a little bit of drama is the way I kind of see it. And even then, it'd be tough to see a second place team pushing them to beat them in the next round of qualification.
00:18:33
Speaker
Well, so when you game it out, we would assume that for the third round, the draw will be based again on FIFA rankings, which will keep these three teams apart. They'll all be in the first pot. They'll be the seeded teams in their group. They'll have to win their group to go through. You're probably looking at, in this first phase, you're probably not getting tested. You can try all you want. And maybe you come up with a game or two where, OK, maybe they drop points. But it's going to be really hard to not finish in the first two for these teams in this first group stage.
00:18:59
Speaker
When you then look at the group where they have to win their group, again, then the margin of error becomes a bit bigger because you're getting home and home matchups. You're playing six matches total, and you will feel like you are probably favored in three of the home matches, one of the away matches, and feel pretty good about your chances about getting at least a point in the other away matches. So it will take a lot, I guess is my big overarching point here, for one of these teams to slip up hard enough to miss the World Cup outright or to not get the direct spot into the World Cup.
00:19:27
Speaker
It's going to take a strong performance from someone behind them, which is also the equation here, right? Like we've seen this in it where, okay, so the big team stumbles. Somebody still has to rise up and take advantage of it. Right. And I think it's interesting to talk about those teams next, but I wanted to ask John a little bit about Panama. Like they seem like they're doing really well trajectory wise and Canada is a little weak. I know that's not exactly
00:19:48
Speaker
this qualifying thing. But could you explain a little bit on what's gone so well for them from a high level perspective that the players, I think you said well, are going to good places? It's been really nice development.
00:20:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think that after making the 2018 World Cup for the first World Cup that Panama had made in 2018, you had this generation of legends, right? You had Blas Perez, you had Luis Tejada, you had Jaime Pinedo and Gabriel Gomez, and I'm listing a lot of guys because there were a lot of guys in that team over 30.
00:20:23
Speaker
And you knew they were going to phase out and that that was kind of their high watermark and they're, they're kind of like big celebratory moment was the world cup. And it's like, okay, what happens next? And I think the Panamanian league has a lot of issues, but they've done enough sort of like providing a pathway for young players to then leave that there have been a lot of players who want to play, who want to move to the next level then.
00:20:44
Speaker
You talk about the actual national team program where Thomas Christensen probably gets fired if he's in the majority of other national team programs in the region because he doesn't get to the 2022 World Cup, doesn't get back to the World Cup. And yet I think there was an understanding in Panama of sort of the job that he was given in the position that Panama is in.
00:21:04
Speaker
which is not the US or Mexico or Colombia or something like that. And so now when I've spoken with Thomas Christensen, he wants players who are playing abroad in kind of what you would call mid-tier leagues to go to top leagues. That's the next step, right? You have a lot of guys in the smaller South American leagues, a lot of guys in the smaller mid-tier leagues in Europe, and that's good enough right now to be one of these kind of like next teams in CONCACAF
00:21:34
Speaker
Well, you know, you look at like Jose Cordova moving to Rangers. He's only 22. He plays in Bulgaria right now. Okay, Scotland's going to be a better move for him and obviously put him in the potential shop window for a big, big league. You have Michael Amir-Mobillo, who wasn't even able to play the nation's league because of injury, who's playing in league one. And as you start to get more and more of these players, similar to what happened with the United States men's national team,
00:21:57
Speaker
it seems going to get better when you have that coaching, that level of competition, etc. So I think the continuity of Christiansen and the willingness to sort of be ready to replace that next generation has really served Panama well. And right with Jamaica, I would say establish them and then next year and like funny enough, Costa Rica had been that team for so long where you were like, oh, they're top three in CONCACAF, maybe even top two in 2014, 15, 16, 7, 18. Now I say,
00:22:25
Speaker
They're definitely top six, but they're definitely sixth, right? Totally. That could change. But I think Panama has jumped into that fourth place spot and then Jamaica right there as well. Sure.
00:22:36
Speaker
Yeah. What have you seen from Jamaica? They're kind of the, the one of these three teams that we haven't talked about in depth. Jamaica has always been a really interesting case because, um, and John, you can speak to this. They've always had access to players who have, you know, Jamaican heritage playing in England, but the question has always been, will those players actually up and commit to play for Jamaican commit to come and play these matches on a regular level? And it kind of feels like there's been a bit of a shift in that in recent years. And a lot of those names, you know, there was always those graphics that would fly around ahead of it, like,
00:23:05
Speaker
Oh, if Jamaica could call in all the players who are eligible for Jamaica. Oh, look how good they'd be. It feels like some of those names are finally starting to suit up for the reggae boys and they've had success because... Yeah, definitely. I think Kaimr Haugramson, the manager, Icelandic manager, who people will remember from coaching Iceland, I think he has a lot to do with it, just kind of putting structure in place.
00:23:26
Speaker
You know, I think so many times when you'd see those graphics or even when players would commit, then they would run into some sort of Federation hurdle and it wasn't always clear and it was being spoken about in whispers. And unfortunately for Jamaica, that's happening still. There was a very weirdly contested presidential election for the Federation, the incumbent president won. So you say like, oh, is there a shift coming? You know, we've seen the Jamaica women's team frustrated with administration. It seems like most of them are back in the most recent roster they called.
00:23:56
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, Jamaica, so many times it's not like Lucy pulls the football away from Charlie Brown. It's like Charlie Brown is holding the football and pulling it away from himself, right? Like it's there for them to kick. But instead of kicking the field goal, they're like, ah, we're running a fake at the last second. They get tackled by the line of scrimmage. Sorry to our non-American football metaphor, understanding listeners.
00:24:18
Speaker
But I think that the fact that how groups and has things moving is explained this process and has been pretty clear where I think his message the federation is basically been. If this doesn't happen I will leave and you will not have a good foreign coach you know I think has been enough to kind of carry.
00:24:35
Speaker
carry the momentum that Jamaica needs and success breeds success in this situation where like if a guy commits to play for Jamaica and Jamaica wins and makes the World Cup, well now a guy who might have been tempted to play for England says, oh, I can go to the World Cup in 2026 instead of trying to wait around and hope that I had called up for the England roster for 2030 or what have you, that calculation becomes much easier, right?
00:24:59
Speaker
I think the biggest challenge that Helghamsen has is to keep it fun and to keep it light because you're starting to see some of those cracks reemerge, the stuff that we've seen in the past. And when I've done pieces on diaspora teams, Curaรงao, Suriname, a lot of the thing is that you have to make it fun. Why would a guy sacrifice his only time off during the year, the international break or the summer, cross the Atlantic Ocean and play for a country that I'm sure he, you know,
00:25:28
Speaker
varying levels of but like everyone feels some pride and some tie for and is happy to be able to you know represent the shirt of the country of their grandpa or grandma or whoever
00:25:37
Speaker
But if it's not fun, why would you do that, right? If you're gonna have more fun in Dubai for two weeks and then going back to your club training program, what's the point? And so if Jamaica doesn't keep that light atmosphere, keep it fun, keep winning games, it'll fall apart again. And that's why you look and you say, you know, on paper, they should waltz to the World Cup, or I guess a more Jamaican dance than a waltz, but you know, they should be able to boogie over there. But if something goes wrong, it could all go downhill quite quickly.
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like all it kind of takes is...
00:26:11
Speaker
Like John said, those cracks kind of start to form. One guy says, I'm not going. The Federation pays for the wrong ticket and sends a guy. And then the next thing you know, Jamaica's kind of back to square one. And they're slugging it out kind of even-handedly with these teams that are kind of behind them. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. There's just a little bit of unknown opportunity for chaos. And there are a lot of windows for those later rounds. And as John said, it's hard
00:26:39
Speaker
for them to keep committing to each window when maybe things slip a little bit. You don't want to use the analogies almost like self implosion. If they can get out of their own way, they'll be fine. But yes, they have to just make sure they can roll out their best or decent enough teams every time.
00:27:00
Speaker
So if we move on from those three teams who we all think are in agreement that are the favorites to make the World Cup and also probably won't be challenged at a super high level here in this initial group stage, we move to kind of the next tier of teams. And it feels like there are six teams who are in the FIFA ranking ranked from 81st to 108, who you would expect to be the six teams that are probably fighting it out for those two playoff spots and the teams most likely to challenge for a direct spot to the World Cup. And those teams
00:27:27
Speaker
are Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Curaรงao, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guatemala. It's a big eclectic mix of teams in there, John. Who do you think of those six are kind of best positioned to take advantage of a slip-up from those top three, or should feel most confident about making the playoffs?
00:27:45
Speaker
Yeah, I would circle Honduras and Guatemala. I think that Honduras for sure, when I look at their qualification group, I feel like they have the best group. As far as the big seeded teams, I think they'll have the easiest path. I think Cuba might jump up and get the...
00:28:01
Speaker
the second spot, but I think that they should be able to get through qualification well. And they're a team that I think can benefit from the time. Reynaldo Rueda is the manager. I was able to get a little sense of Honduras at the CONCAF Nations League playoff. What the hell was it called? Copa America playoff.
00:28:19
Speaker
They played Costa Rica and I was at the game. They were missing like 15 players because of injuries, because of suspensions, because of various things. And it seemed like there was a massive level of expectation that Honduras would make Copa America, which I never really thought was in the cards because Costa Rica is a better team and had many more healthy players. And they played okay, right? So I think that Honduras is a team that with Reda,
00:28:43
Speaker
once again, back, you know, getting the country to the World Cup more than a decade ago now. But having that understanding of the Honduran football setup, the love and I think just being a smart, savvy coach, plus the fact that Honduras does have a fair player pool, I think will mean that they are a team that also can dream of a spot or that that intercontinental playoff spot.
00:29:07
Speaker
And the other is Guatemala, because I think with Luis Fernando Tena, they've been building a nice project. I did a piece last summer about this YouTuber who finds hundreds of Guatemala eligible players. Like it sounds silly to say that like, oh, maybe that could help. But like, I mean, they're playing those guys in the Gold Cup and they were doing pretty well in the Gold Cup. So I think that they're another one that could potentially surprise when you combine sort of the strength of their domestic football.
00:29:35
Speaker
I perceive them on the up, even though they're not going to be winning the Copa Centro Americana anytime soon. Like, you're not going to see Melissa Paolo and Carmen Casiones win the thing, I don't think, but I think you combine their player pool with the domestic football strengthening and the number of young players, you know, the success they've had sometimes at youth tournaments. I think those are the two teams I circle. You know, some of the others, I think, have too many questions around them to really
00:30:00
Speaker
you know, think that they'll seriously challenge.
Challengers in the Qualifiers
00:30:02
Speaker
I definitely think that, you know, that again, like not to pump the FIFA rankings, but those are the teams that you look at and you say, yeah, these are probably right with those three teams that we already talked about. These are the teams that are in that category of dreamers, you know, that really think they could make it. I think the others have deficiencies turned out to bagel.
00:30:21
Speaker
Livy Garcia, really fantastic attacker. Who comes after him? Who scores goals if he's not on? They already have a very defensive minded style of play. Maybe they'll complicate life for teams in the group stage. They complicated life for the US and the Copa and the concave nations in the quarterfinals.
00:30:38
Speaker
But I'm not so sure that they have the talent necessary to really take that next step. El Salvador is sort of in the same place. We've seen them play high-level teams and not win. They had a really, really difficult 2023, Ugo Perez. I feel like they've played Argentina like 12 times in the last two years. Yeah, everybody, man. And the thing is, at a certain point, I think those games are good. Even before the Gold Cup, they went to Japan and Korea.
00:31:01
Speaker
played some of the best Asian teams, but they got smoked. And I think that can also be demoralizing sometimes when you keep losing those games and like, it's good. And it gives those players, you know, the potential to go forward. But, and you know, like you look at some of the other teams in that mix, Haiti, too many questions. I don't, I don't know what to expect. You're trying to figure out the player pool from the diaspora. You can't play at home right now. That's a big disadvantage, right? And then Curaรงao, same with the talent pool. You've got Dick Advocate as a manager. That's fun.
00:31:30
Speaker
That's interesting. But, you know, they tried the goose hitting thing and that didn't work out. So I think that you can find, you can find, you can find old Dutch managers and maybe it's successful to a point, but I do, I do wonders. Louis von Holl available? Can we get Louis von Holl? Like it's good for them, for the ambition and trying to figure out how to move things forward. Because, you know, I think I visited Curaรงao and when they, Remco B. Centini was sort of starting this idea and that was, uh,
00:32:00
Speaker
2019. So and it had been going for a little bit, but like you have this dream, you have this clear goal. I just, I'm not sure that they can get enough players to commit enough players that are good enough to commit to get over the hump. So yeah, anyway, a long answer to say I circle on do this in Guatemala as the potential, I guess, playoff teams at this point, right?
00:32:22
Speaker
Yeah, I, you know, it felt like El Salvador had so much momentum heading into this cycle. And then I think you kind of described, it's kind of fallen off a little bit, maybe too much, not ambition, but getting too big, too fast. I don't know. And then I would just, you know, I know you talked about Guatemala, but I was a little surprised to hear them ahead of a bunch of those other teams. You know, if you could point to one or two things like why
00:32:48
Speaker
What makes them a little better? I know you talked about what they did well. Does the other teams all have too many questions, you think?
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think for Guatemala, I just think that they've had, so they've had Luis Fernando Tena, who, you know, Olympic success coach, coach that understands kind of like, you know, the football in this region, and they've been able to convert some of those Guatemala eligible players into Guatemala players, which I think is key. So I think that when you look at like how they've been able to establish an idea that they understand what Tena is asking for with the player pool,
00:33:24
Speaker
to me that just puts Guadamal a little ahead. El Salvador, I'm not even so sure that grew too fast. I just think that they really did explore their player pool and have done a fantastic job with scouting, with identifying players.
00:33:38
Speaker
But when it comes to actually getting the results on the field, I just think that talent is still not quite there. And some of the players, they've lied on in the past or either not playing for the national team or aren't currently at the level necessary to play for the national team. So it seemed like they were in ascendancy, but I think they've taken a bit of a step back. You know, things in the domestic league are a little weird right now too. So I think that generally,
00:34:03
Speaker
They should compete, right? They absolutely should. But to me, I don't have them as one of the favorites right now, even though they've been on that same kind of trajectory as maybe Honduras or what I'm all around right now. I would just I you know, Honduras obviously did well in Nations League kind of in the swing earlier, any chance you'd pick them as the best candidate to maybe push a team kind of depends.
00:34:27
Speaker
who they were in a group with, they could maybe try, you know, be good enough to, to push a team for first or is it they're good, but not that good. No, I think they could compete. I think they could compete, but I think you saw against Costa Rica, it just, you know, the other, the other month, like.
00:34:43
Speaker
the player pool, if everyone, if everything goes right, if everyone's healthy, if everyone is not suspended, if, if, if, if, and when you, when you start to put those, those labels on the teams, I think is when you start to say, maybe I'm trying to talk myself into something that I, that I shouldn't be talking myself into. I do think like it's funny because I think it's both true that like, it's easy to put too much stock into a manager and the leader of a national team and sort of, uh,
00:35:10
Speaker
you know, like overemphasize what a manager can do versus what the players can do. But it's also true that it matters. And Rayla is such a respected figure in Honduras with so much experience, not just in CONCACAF, but in the Americas as a whole. I think when you look at him to me, he's sort of an X factor. But is that enough of an X factor to jump these teams like Jamaica, where the player pool is a bunch of dudes playing in the Premier League and the championship and a couple other top leagues in Europe.
00:35:37
Speaker
No, what about Panama a team that's had the same idea for more than a cycle Same manager and the players are starting to excel In some of these top leagues where on do this has a couple guys that you can point to certainly in Scotland we spot him But you know Albert Albert at least great news that he's returning to he's gonna try and play football again He's gonna try and play football again after after being in a coma after this serious serious moment but like
00:36:02
Speaker
If he could contribute to, if he can get on the field for a professional team again, it's a miracle, man. I mean, this guy was in a coma. So, you know, like he's a key, key player who they're not going to have, they're likely not going to have. You hope they do. That'd be amazing. Right. You start to look at some of the deficiencies in the onboarding team and you start to see, ah, you know what? Maybe this isn't.
00:36:22
Speaker
a team that's quite at the level of those peers. So I have a hard time seeing them jump up, but I do think that they're a team that will contend, especially because once they start playing regularly at home again, their stadiums are getting remodeled right now. There's been a big national push to improve facilities. I think it'll still be a very tough place to play. And so when you start to have these consistent home games, I do think that they'll be in it till one of the last few days.
00:36:50
Speaker
But I have a hard time seeing them get over the hump against some of these teams. All right, so we've mentioned nine teams so far, kind of more in-depth. There's 21 other teams. John, can you break them all down? 21? Just go in. No. A two-prong question here for you. Of the teams that we haven't touched on yet,
00:37:09
Speaker
Part one, who are the teams that you think could surprise and have a good result here? And also part two, which kind of maybe plays more to the stuff that you like to do, the stuff that you do, what are the stories that you're looking for in this World Cup qualification? It's not a team that's going to go in advance or make the next round or anything, but give us a fun story or two from some of these other teams that we should have an
Emerging Football Nations
00:37:30
Speaker
eye on.
00:37:30
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I think it might sound kind of, I don't know, maybe not biased, but I'm going to pick two countries that are quite similar when we're talking about other teams that could surprise. It's the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I think that both of them have done a really nice job with recruitment. Dominican Republic, first of all, there's always been this idea of, well, hey, think about how many Dominican dudes are based in Spain and are eligible.
00:37:55
Speaker
Mariano played for the Dominican Republic in a friendly match and then was like, nah, I want to stay eligible for Spain. Now with Marcelo Novelles leading the team with Dominican Republic qualified for the Olympics, it seems like he's in the fold. We already have seen Junior Diaz play like this is a team that is going to be
00:38:21
Speaker
a lot better junior FURPO, not junior DSO, I don't know where I am. Yeah, like there's a lot of guys who are going to join up. And I think that that's pretty significant, right? Not only that, but when you talk about this Olympic generation that is done well at a lower level,
00:38:40
Speaker
Uh, those are big things. So I think the Dominican is a team to watch out for. They're in a really tough group, but by that same token, if you pull off an upset against Jamaica in the very first game, then all of a sudden you're really announcing yourself as a contender for the world cup. The other is Puerto Rico. I think that Dave Saracen actually should get a lot of love for what he started there when you talk about the improvement.
00:39:02
Speaker
how much Puerto Rico looked to young players in the U.S.L. Championship and other levels of the U.S. system, and now have started to expand their scouting a little more international. Two of the guys who have committed are already sort of known quantities, but Jeremy de Leon,
00:39:17
Speaker
in the Real Madrid system. And Leandro Antonetti, who plays in the lower divisions in Spain, both of them are ready for these qualification games. Both of them are ready to keep playing for Puerto Rico at the senior level. They've done stuff at the youth level before. It gives them an attacking dimension that I don't know that they've had. When you look at some of the past results, you say, ah, well, what are they going to do in the middle? What are they going to do at the back? There's definitely still fair questions, and they're not bringing in players
00:39:47
Speaker
at the same level as the Dominican Republic, where you're talking about guys who have careers in the top divisions in Europe, but you are talking about guys who project to have that. And so in a lot of ways, I think Puerto Rico, you know, their goal maybe shouldn't be the World Cup, but you look at a Gold Cup, something they haven't really done before. Okay, that could be something very achievable that you're not going to achieve through World Cup qualification, but you might be able to achieve it through Nations League. So I think when you look at recent results, they're a team that's definitely right there.
00:40:17
Speaker
I'm going to have it. And you look at their group, they're in a group with El Salvador and Suriname. That's a pretty accessible group. Puerto Rico can probably play with El Salvador if they need to. Like, like, right. Like it's not a group that, that, that appears to be that complicated or appears to be out of reach. I guess. Yeah, maybe there's some good, there's some good players that Suriname is actually bringing on. I didn't buy that a minute. Did you hear that? It was like, I think that, I think that when you talk about like, you know, we're still in a situation that I kind of like,
00:40:47
Speaker
I don't feel a certain way about it, but I think that it can be a little complicated where we're talking about a lot of countries that it's like, you're going to get better if you convince guys that wish they were playing for a different national team to play for your national team. So obviously, Jamaica draws from England. Suriname and Curaรงao draw from the Netherlands.
00:41:06
Speaker
Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic are starting to draw from Spain. That's fine. The U.S. draws from a million places. Mexico has nationalized players. Canada is drawing from a million places. And as you guys know from doing all the work that you do,
00:41:21
Speaker
Like there are countries in Asia that are doing this. There are countries in Africa that are do African countries have to do that because you've got to get those guys who came up in these league academies. I would love to see a future where we say, wow, it's great that this one or two guys are eligible, but actually we have a better midfielder that we produced in this Puerto Rican academy.
00:41:40
Speaker
That's not where we're at right now. Oh, it'd be great to say, you know, Suriname football comes onto my radar whenever their vice president plays in actual league matches and is, and the vice president is in his sixties, right? So like that's not a country that right now is producing players who you're like, ah, yeah, if they're on the field, they're definitely going to be world cup contenders. That's a little unfair because there's some guys from Robin who there's some guys from some of these other clubs in Suriname who are going on to great things.
00:42:07
Speaker
But they often get overshadowed by either the weirder stories or just the fact that there's other guys who were raised in the Netherlands who came up in whatever academy it is, IX, PSV, Fionord. And you say, well, obviously, they got better coaching. They got better education about soccer, about nutrition, about how you have to be a professional, about mentality, all these different things. My dream is to one day see CONCACAF countries putting that into players and that the best coaching education in the region here in the world is right here in the CONCACAF region.
00:42:37
Speaker
I think it's achievable in some places, in the US, in Mexico, even in a place like Puerto Rico where you say you have the resources of the US, you could dedicate money and time to this, maybe it's possible. But right now, it's not where we're at. So all that to say, I think Suriname, the players that they're convincing to play for them right now,
00:42:56
Speaker
Vison, the goalkeeper, who's I think going to start for them, like he's committed. They got a big defensive midfielder commit here in the last couple of days. Like their squad is just getting a lot better in a faster way than Puerto Rico's is getting better when you say all this young dude who's in the Real Madrid system and maybe one day he's playing in the in the UEFA Champions League or La Liga.
00:43:15
Speaker
It's just a different level. So I think, yes, in some ways, the group is not. It's in some ways winnable. But at the same time, there's going to be more hurdles there than I think you were putting on the track.
00:43:31
Speaker
Sure. No, no, no, fair. You know more about this than I do. Any of the storylines that you're looking forward to, some of maybe the lower tier teams that have something fun that listeners should look out for here in this first round? Yeah, you know, I mentioned how the group is a little weak when I'm looking at, well, I look at group A and group C is somewhat like weak groups as a group where like, oh, could a team, could one of these minnows like come up and surprise?
00:43:55
Speaker
And in Group C, you've got Haiti and Curaรงao as the kind of favorite teams. And you've got St. Lucia sitting as the third-seated team. Stern John, a legend in CONCACAF, by any respect, is coaching that team. And they had a really good Nations League campaign. They struggled a little bit against Waterloo.
00:44:14
Speaker
Okay, that's fine. They're good. And they open against Haiti on a neutral site because Haiti has to play a neutral sites. And they actually then play their next game, St Lucia does in the same place and in the wildly turf, I think it's called in Barbados. So they play Aruba. So
00:44:31
Speaker
I think they're going to be in one place. They're going to be, they're going to be able to kind of bring a camp together to bring some players and their coach by a legend. I think that could be a fun one where, and they too are pulling from the diaspora, not at the same levels as a Jamaica or a Suriname, but like there's guys from, I think the championship and some of the other, um, English levels who they're either courting or already in part of the mix guys from league one. So I think St. Lucia is a fun story to keep an eye on as a team that like,
00:44:59
Speaker
Could they actually compete? Could they jump up here? Maybe, because, you know, with Haiti, not sure what to expect. They got a new manager, Sebastian Mignier, who had some success in Africa. It was most recently on, I think, Rigobert Song's Cameroon staff. Sometimes they've seemed really good. Sometimes they seem bad. So I don't know what to expect from Haiti. I thought they looked good under Calderon, the kind of placeholder manager, but they could get got just because of the fact that
00:45:29
Speaker
You can't play at home. You don't have that sort of home base. And unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's changing anytime soon. So I'm looking at St. Lucia and we'll have some player stories as well that'll get told on the newsletter as I start to get in touch with guys that have stories that are worth telling. Amit, you got anything you want to point out, any of the groups that we haven't talked about here that you'd like to have a look at? No.
00:45:55
Speaker
I'm not going to give anything better. You got the expert. You got the expert sit at your side. You can't just go get got. I thought Montserrat John had a decent enough qualification cycle last time around, right? Like they didn't advance or anything, but they acquitted themselves fairly well.
00:46:16
Speaker
I think second place in that group D, Nicaragua, Guyana, Montserrat, Belize, again with the favorite Panama side. Are they perhaps a team that we could look at and could perhaps sneak through to the next round by finishing second here? Yeah, and again, you're talking about a team that's like leveraged its resources to bring in different players. Lee Boyer managing the team, Lyle Taylor captaining the team. These are guys who have experience, you know, they played
00:46:42
Speaker
a couple matches even since they're official matches, which isn't necessarily the case for every team in the region. So I think you have a team that kind of understands logistically what it means to quote unquote do things the right way and absolutely is punched above their weight. When you talk about the population, the volcano that moved a lot of the population off of the island, but
00:47:04
Speaker
I was going to say has benefited. I don't think there's any real benefit, but maybe has benefited specifically the national team when you talk about how many guys again are in those English academies that could potentially be swayed to play for Montserrat. So yeah, I think that that's another team that could jump up and surprise kind of in that like St Lucia bracket where you're like, probably not going to happen, but it's possible that they do something interesting.
00:47:28
Speaker
You know that that group is pretty fascinating because you look in like all the teams after Panama who I think is kind of the overwhelming favorite Seemed to be in this like transitional moment Nicaragua didn't you know got kicked out of the gold cup because of fielding a number of players who are not eligible and
00:47:43
Speaker
Now they're eligible and they've been playing matches, you know that they went to peru for friendly and had a decent decent showing They played a friendly than a home. They've got a you know, in fantastic figure Oh a manager who knows the region knows international football well, so like they could compete Iana could compete like that's a that's it to me. That one's a very open group And yeah, I think Montserrat has like the right mix of manager and players to maybe make things interesting, too
00:48:09
Speaker
Belize will probably finish last. Sorry, Belize. Sorry. I don't think you guys have been enough. But maybe, you know, maybe. But I think like, you know, just when you talk about the player pool and guys who are eligible, it looks like Nicaragua, Montserrat, Iana are all kind of right there in the mix to compete for that slot.
00:48:29
Speaker
Anytime a mate, you get the multiple ineligible players. You know, there's a good story there. It reminds me of the old Timor Lesh qualification today, where they're just like, oh, he just filled in seven Brazilians. Apparently, he can't do that. I don't know. What are you going to say? Didn't seem as brazen in Nicaragua, but at the same time, they were frustrated that they got penalized. And I was like, what are you talking about? The guys who found to be ineligible, some of them had dozens of caps. I think one was the second most all-time player for Nicaragua. And it turns out, like,
00:48:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah, you guys could not naturalize this guy under under the rules, right? Like it was just kind of crazy where it was like how many games that some of these guys had played and it was like, oh, yeah, like you probably shouldn't definitely shouldn't have been on the roster.
00:49:19
Speaker
Let's close out with this, John, as we look at the games that we have coming up here in this June window again.
Qualification Process and Viewing Challenges
00:49:24
Speaker
It's a weird qualification because I believe there's a concatenations league cycle sandwiched in between, right? So we play two games here in June.
00:49:32
Speaker
And then the other two games caught next year. Is there a Nations League stuck in between these two sort of sets of World Cup qualifiers? So because of that... You had to be worried. I thought you meant there was a game in June that was like a World Cup qualifier, then there was Nations League and then there was more qualifiers. And I was like, I'm not prepared for that. Yes, that is correct. It goes June and then break, break, break, break, break, break, break. And then next year we will have more qualifiers.
00:49:55
Speaker
So let's look at some of the games that kind of catch your eye in June. Let's start with the number one question that I hope you'll get. Where can I watch these games, John? Yeah, man. I think it's a bit of a Wild West. Some people are hoping that the games are on Paramount Plus in the United States. I'm hoping that. That'd be great. But unlike the Nations League, where all the games are on CONCACAP's rights partners, Paramount Plus and the Univision app VIX,
00:50:22
Speaker
I say it with disdain, because it's not great. These are not, from my understanding, produced by CONCACAF. It's a FIFA competition. So that leads us to say, maybe the games will be on FIFA Plus. I think, and I hope I'm wrong, we're going to be stream hunting. I think there's going to be national broadcasts that get picked up by, oh, this national broadcaster is putting it on Facebook. This broadcaster is putting it on YouTube. This broadcaster.
00:50:51
Speaker
is actually just a fan sitting in the crowds, but there's 300 people watching and three of them are us. That's where I think we are.
00:51:03
Speaker
That's a plug for the spreadsheet, is what that is. Because you know who does that stream hunting? I do that stream hunting, and then I dump it in the spreadsheet for all of you to enjoy and click those lovely links. All right, so what games are you looking forward to here in this window? I believe the way the format works here, we have the top teams in the group will be facing the three seed, if you will, to use that in air quotes. The number five team in the group
00:51:28
Speaker
are facing the two seed. I should have done this research beforehand. Sorry, this is a very good podcasting. There's interesting matches is my point. Yes, there are interesting matches, he says, saving Austin.
Highlight Matches to Watch
00:51:42
Speaker
My top one, no doubt, is Thursday. It's at 7.30 Eastern time, Thursday, June 6, Jamaica hosts the Dominican Republic.
00:51:50
Speaker
Again, the Dominican Republic has commitments from some of these players who are recognizable names who have played in Spain, in England, in other top leagues. And Jamaica always has recognizable names and has sort of been putting results together quite regularly. I think that
00:52:05
Speaker
Jamaica at home will feel an urgency that maybe other teams in World Cup qualification starting this round don't feel. When you look at the teams that we talked about, we said Jamaica, Panama, and Costa Rica are the big contenders. Costa Rica opens their home against St. Kitts and Nevis, a plucky team, a team that's achieved a lot, a team that is probably not going to be as strong as the Dominican Republic.
00:52:27
Speaker
And Panama, they open, checks notes, checks notes. See, we can all do this where we're trying to frantically find. Panama opens against Guyana. So it's definitely the hardest opener for any of these teams. That's my first game on spotlighting. Second game is also Thursday night. So settle in, get your popcorn for a double header. 10.30 PM Eastern time on June 6, El Salvador, host Puerto Rico. El Salvador typically has a good atmosphere.
00:52:55
Speaker
I think they're gonna need it to get past a Puerto Rico team that again has some exciting young players, has a base of a lot of guys who play in the US and some of the lower division with the help of some guys who are based in Spain, a random dude in Italy and one or two in Germany. So you've got some guys who have played in big leagues and I think are gonna be quite interesting there as well.
00:53:19
Speaker
And then the last one is one that you circled, Austin, June 5th, 10 p.m. Eastern at the National Stadium in Managua. Nicaragua hosts Montserrat. We talked about both those teams. And that's a game that I think will go a long way toward deciding, yeah, is this group competitive or not? Because if Nicaragua puts the, you know, puts a smashing on them, then you say, oh, okay, they are the second place team. My respect, sorry, I was wrong, for doubting.
00:53:47
Speaker
But but I'm not sure I think that that'll be an interesting one as well Mid did you hear the the 10 30 p.m. Eastern time time window, you know what? Those are those are office hours That's my that's my time to watch the the cock a calf after dark quite literally. So there we go. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean Pac-12 is dead. So Yeah, now we're now our confederations now the longest running
00:54:12
Speaker
still running after dark promising weird stuff sporting. I know they're trying to get it. Like I saw that it's like, oh yeah, it's big 10 after dark Rutgers versus USC. I'm not buying that. Give me Nicaragua Moncera, baby. There we go. Any of the games that stand out to you, I feel like we kind of touched on the big ones, but anything else you want to mention here? No, I think those are all the good ones, at least in this window that I'll say kind of hit on. Yeah. Sure.
00:54:42
Speaker
Okay. All right. A big thank you, John, to you for joining us here on the World Club After Dark podcast. We made a better episode because of your presence on it. I know you have the Getting CONCACAP newsletter. I'm a subscriber of that. Love the Getting CONCACAP newsletter. Always an exciting moment when that pops up in my inbox. Is there anything else you'd like to plug here to our millions and millions of listeners before you head off? Yeah, I'm on TikTok. If you're on TikTok, I'm better than a lot of the stuff that's on there, although
00:55:09
Speaker
You know, it's a John Arnold FC. So check that out. I guess this is what we're doing now. He says very clean. Check out the newsletter. I'm going to try and revamp it a little bit. It's been, you know, it's still rolling along. It's a passion project for sure. But I think there's going to be a new energy behind that.
00:55:32
Speaker
So yeah, I think if you've made it this far in this type of podcast, you're the type of person that would love the newsletter getting CONCACAF. So make sure you check that out. And if you go premium and pay, that helps me. Like I tried to get to a Jamaican Dominican Republican person. That didn't quite happen. But you and some of your closest friends subscribing to the pay tier could help that happen in the future. So here's my blog.
00:55:53
Speaker
There you go. There you go. That's as good of a plug as you could hope for. Send John to Jamaica. That's it for us this time on the World Cup After Dark podcast. Again, if you like what we do, we would appreciate it if you rate, review, and subscribe and all those fun buttons and numbers and stars you can press. And if you'd like to support us more materially, patreon.com slash WCAD, $3 a month, you get access to that beloved World Cup qualification spreadsheet, which will have all the streams as I find them as well as the actual broadcast.
00:56:22
Speaker
for FIFA Plus for the African stuff. And again, access to exclusive episodes and any of the written content we do. Amit and I will be back for a Patreon exclusive episode previewing what's to come in Africa and Asia. Thank you once again to John and that's all for us. Thanks for listening.