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Haiti will be a favorite to win the first round, where the selection A will be lined up against one of the Pot F teams: Anguilla, Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Guyana, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Turks & Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands. The population on each of these islands is in the order of tens of thousands, we should be able to defeat any of those islands, but thou shall not underestimate. The second round draw is the one we need to worry about.

In the second round, Haiti could be drawn against any of the 14 teams, in Pot A,B,C or D. Against teams like Mexico and the USA, there is very little room for error. Although the Selection A will not suffer from the personnel problems that the U-23 Olympic selection faced, when a key player gets injured or suspended, the new coach needs time to set up his team. Clavijo is a clever and proven coach, but it?s difficult to prepare any team in a matter of weeks. The coach is intrepidly trying to set up Friendly games against stronger teams like Paraguay in order to evaluate and form his selection.

The coach recognizes that his major handicap, is the very little time that he will have with the Selection A, before they enter the qualifying tournaments. Only a couple weeks after the American coach took the helm of the national selection of Haiti, He started a mini training camp, weeks later he flew 15 selected players in a training complex in Miami. In the past Haiti has gathered players in the last minute to enter a tournament, mainly because of budget uncertainties. Thus many considered the October training camps as an early start, when in fact, it was a late one.

Thus a favorable draw will give the coach more time to prepare his team, before he gets to the real test teams. Pot A and B teams have repeatedly defeated Haiti in the past, and Haiti has been inconsistent against Pot C teams. Many teams with higher FIFA World ranking than Haiti, consider our Grenadiers as a major threat. We are no longer underestimated, thus we lost the element of surprise. To rank the draws from best to worst, the teams can be divided in 4 groups:

Very best Draw:

Barbados, St. Vincent & The Grenadines or Belize

Next best Draw:

Guatemala, Nicaragua or El salvador

Trouble Draw(It depends):

Panama, Jamaica, Canada or Trinidad & Tobago

Speculation Draw (hold your breath):

Costa Rica, Honduras, USA or the very worst draw would be against Mexico.

Important Note: If Haiti gets drawn against Canada in the second round, the Home game must be played in Haiti, Stade Sylvio Cator, at 1:00 PM, 110 degree Fahrenheit . No Air conditioning in their locker rooms, only dirty fans blowing hot air. No ice available in the stadium, only warm CAMEP water. We need to have them melting. Playing them in 60 degree Fahrenheit weather in Florida, would be foolish.

This home field advantage method was suggested by Haitiwebs member and Haitian soccer fan, Cassa Boubou (see forum: Le football). We just added some spice to it.

Pot A: Costa Rica, Mexico, USA (Teams that qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup)

Pot B: Honduras, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago (Teams that reached the final round of CONCACAF qualification for 2002 FIFA World Cup)

Pot C: Barbados, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, St. Vincent & The Grenadines (Teams that reached the semifinal round of CONCACAF qualification for 2002 FIFA World Cup)

Pot D: Belize, Nicaragua (Remaining teams from Central America)

Pot E: Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, Suriname (Two remaining teams from North Zone and top eight from Caribbean from the FIFA World Cup Rankings through 22 October 2003)

Pot F: Anguilla, Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Guyana, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Turks & Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands (Remaining teams from the Caribbean Zone and from the bottom of FIFA World Cup Ranking through 22 October 2003)

By Panoramix Dec 3, 2003, 22:38