October 5 – Curaçao, with a 1-1 draw at Trinidad and Tobago, clinched top spot in the Concacaf Nations League 1, Group A, and qualified for the quarter-finals to be played in November.
Haiti secured second place on goal difference, despite losing 2-0 to a Costa Rican side that had disappointed earlier in the tournament.
Luke Phillip scored first for Trinidad in the 39th minute, but Jordi Paulina maintained Curaçao’s unbeaten record with the equalizer in the 61st minute.
It was a miserable international window for Trinidad, who managed just one point from their three games and looked horribly out of their depth at times.
The Haitians were behind the Ticos after only 6′ of a goal by Carlos Mora. Andrey Soto doubled the lead in the 21st minute.
This drew them level on points with island rivals Dominican Republic who were a goal away in Nicaragua in the 53rd minute, but they came back to win 2-1 with goals from Heinz Mörschel from the penalty spot in the 54th minute and Lucas Bretón in the 66th minute. Still it wasn’t enough to overhaul Haiti’s superior goal difference.
Curaçao and Haiti will next face one of the four pre-seeded nations – Mexico, USA, Canada and Panama – in a two-legged quarter-final in November. The winners of the quarterfinals will advance to the final four to be played at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in March.
The four quarter-final winners will qualify for the 2027 Gold Cup, while the four losers will have another chance to qualify for the Gold Cup through preliminary qualifiers. The Dominican Republic and Costa Rica have also booked a place in the preliminary rounds of the Gold Cup.
All to play in Group B tonight
Any of the six teams in Group B could qualify for the quarter-finals with just four points separating Suriname at the top and El Salvador at the bottom.
In the third round, Jamaica returned to the competition with a 2-0 away win against El Salvador through two goals from Javon East in the 39th and 64th minutes.
Jamaica have another game away from Central America in the final round, facing Honduras.
Honduras has had a rollercoaster group. After losing to Suriname at home, they beat Jamaica away before losing to Martinique 2-1 at Stade Municipal Pierre-Aliker in Fort-de-France, Martinique.
Honduras scored first in the 8th minute through Erick Puerto, before Jonathan Varane equalized in the 40th minute and Jonathan Mexique scored a spectacular winner just two minutes from time.
Martinque hosts El Salvador next.
Guatemala won what could turn out to be a crucial point, taking them to 4th and third place in the table, with a 0-0 draw with leaders Suriname (7 points) at Dr. go Franklin Essed Stadium in Paramaribo, Suriname.
Guatemala hosts Suriname at home tonight in what is a winner-takes-all tie.
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