PANAMA CITY.- Seven selections from the CONCACAF They will fight on Tuesday for three direct tickets for the North America World Cup 2026, on the last day of a tie that could end in “tragedy” for Costa Ricathe Central American team with the most World Cup appearances.
Surinam, Panama, Jamaica, Curacao, Honduras, Haiti and Costa Rica They will look for a direct pass to the biggest football event. Two of these teams will be out of the race on Tuesday and will join those already eliminated Guatemala, El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and Nicaragua.
The CONCACAF qualifying round grants three tickets to the group leaders and two places, to the two best runners-up, for an intercontinental play-off.
It will be the end of a qualifier that filled the fans of more modest teams with enthusiasm, who saw in the absence of Mexico, USA and Canada -already classified by being hosts- a historic opportunity to attend the World Cup.
“I hope Panama qualifies, it is a desire that all Panamanians share, it would be a great advance for our football,” Adrián Cedeño, a 33-year-old Panamanian lawyer, told AFP.
Suriname for its first World Cup
In Group A, Suriname and Panama, tied for the lead, are playing for the ticket. The Caribbeans visit Guatemala and the Canaleros receive last-place El Salvador.
Suriname starts with the advantage of having 3 more goals than Panama, which to qualify must wait for a blow from its rival in Guatemala, with nothing at stake, or beat El Salvador to discount the goal difference.
Led by former Ajax Amsterdam goalkeeper Stanley Menzo, and with a host of players trained in the Netherlands, Suriname has not known defeat in this tie.
Being able to qualify for the World Cup “is a gift for the country,” Menzo said.
Panama, which aspires to its second World Cup participation despite having a semi-professional league, will play supported by its fans, who fear that Suriname will be favored by a hypothetical lack of intensity from Guatemala.
The players “know the enthusiasm that an entire country has to qualify for this World Cup,” said Panamanian coach Thomas Christiansen, who does not “doubt” that Guatemala is risking its image by “letting it win.”
Drama in Costa Rica
In Group C, Honduras, Haiti and Costa Rica aspire to glory. Hondurans and Haitians lead the group with 8 points, followed by the Ticos with six units.
The drama will take place in San José, where Costa Rica hosts Honduras in the Central American classic. The locals only have to win if they don’t want to watch the World Cup on television, after six participations, the last three consecutive.
“The team works, the boys have a great will to do things,” but “it is a strong, difficult moment, we did not expect to be in this circumstance,” acknowledged the Costa Rica coach, the Mexican Miguel Herrera.
The duel is expected to be tense, in front of fans that still have memories of Brazil 2014, where Costa Rica surprised by leaving England, Italy and Greece behind and reaching the quarterfinals.
With a victory, and unless Haiti wins at home against Nicaragua, Honduras would be in its fourth World Cup.
However, its coach, Colombian Reinaldo Rueda, denounced insults and degrading “offenses” by Honduran fans dissatisfied with the team.
“It’s the game of our lives,” declared Honduran midfielder Devron García.
Jamaica or Curacao
In Group B, Curacao will qualify for the World Cup for the first time if it wins in Jamaica, which it only needs to beat to return almost three decades later to a World Cup, after France 1998.
Curacao arrives with 11 points and Jamaica with 10. The “Reggae Boyz”, who lost the lead on the previous date, start with the advantage of playing in front of their fans, in Kingston.
However, Curacao arrives undefeated and has already defeated the Jamaicans in the qualifying round.
