It started with smiles and ended in tears.
An expanded World Cup. The big boys — the U.S., Mexico and Canada — out of the way as hosts. This, surely, was the chance.
Honduras brought back the manager who took it to the 2010 World Cup. Costa Rica was certain generational change would take it to soccer’s biggest tournament for the sixth time in the last seven renditions. Guatemala started planning in late 2021, bringing on a coach who had won Olympic gold.
On the final night, none of those Central American nations would make it through, with Panama the only Central American country qualified. Even the playoff places went to Jamaica and Suriname.
This is not how it was supposed to go.
This was going to be Central America’s World Cup. With 48 teams qualifying for the first time ever, the three hosts taken out of the equation, and with three spots plus two playoff places, the soccer-crazed region had a real opportunity to put multiple teams in a World Cup as it did in the 2014 and 2018 tournaments. Instead, just one of a potential eight teams from Concacaf are from the sub-region.
Too often in Central America, any loss gets termed a ‘fracaso’ – or at least coaches and players get asked the question. Was it a failure? Typically, it’s overblown, with sensational news outlets trying to rile up fans. This? It’s a fracaso and a half — not just because of how things ended Tuesday, with the Ticos and Catrachos playing out a scoreless draw that condemned them both to the couch in the summer of 2026, but because of the opportunities they had during the final round that they let go.
Honduras doesn’t have to think back too hard to its biggest slip-up, having fallen 2-0 to an already-eliminated Nicaragua team in Managua. Players pondered what it would be like to clinch classification on the penultimate day, but instead of securing a place, they fell to a defeat.
The alarm bells had been ringing. In June, Honduras went to the Cayman Islands and emerged with a 1-0 win over a country known for being more adept with finances than football, thanks to an 86th-minute own goal. And the Gold Cup campaign started with a 6-0 drubbing from Canada, though the alarm bells were switched off when the squad rebounded and made a charge to the semifinals of that tournament.
After the defeat to Nicaragua, a win was needed Tuesday, but with forwards Anthony Lozano and Rigoberto Rivas missing because of injuries suffered with their clubs in November, no breakthrough was found. For a moment, Honduras was gifted a breakthrough by a Central American rival. Guatemala went up 3-0 on Suriname, knocking the Natio from the final playoff place and putting Honduras through. But a stoppage-time own goal by a Guatemala center back shifted things back. Honduras’ journey was over.
“Sorry, but I think it’s a tough moment,” Honduras manager Reinaldo Rueda said after breaking into tears before his first news conference answer. “Today, soccer has taught us a lesson about humility.”
His Costa Rica counterpart, bombastic Mexican manager Miguel Herrera, also expressed sadness and pain but insisted on taking time to analyze what went wrong and turning in a report to the federation.
The explanations he did give, “We were missing goals and didn’t win the games we had to win,” will come up short with Costa Rica fans who had cheered their team at five of the last six men’s World Cups.
Herrera leaned on far too many of the players they had seen during those previous tournaments — heroes of the 2014 run that is now more than a decade ago. His final squad included eight players over 30, and the trio of goalkeeper Keylor Navas, defender Kendall Waston and midfielder Celso Borges are all over 37 — though Honduras’ average age was slightly higher at 29.7 compared to 28.3.
Whoever takes over for these coaches will be fighting similar battles. The next generation of players is coming through, but the clubs in both countries are falling short of developing players ready to go to MLS or to strong European leagues. Those who do fit that bill are loaded down by fans’ hefty expectations.
The absence of some of the favorites and the usual suspects means places for a few shock teams. Curaçao, an island country with a population of around 155,000, had never made it to the World Cup but put together a fantastic qualification cycle that meant it went to Kingston on Tuesday knowing it needed only a draw. Without legendary manager Dick Advocaat, who returned to the Netherlands for family reasons before the finale, Curaçao played for the win instead of the draw. With his teammates unable to put the ball into the net, Curaçao goalkeeper Eloy Room kept a clean sheet, but The Blue Wave had their hearts in their mouths in the 95th and final minute of stoppage time when the referee whistled for a Jamaica penalty. The VAR suggested the referee have a second look, which showed Curaçao winger Jeremy Antonisse had cleanly won the ball in the box. The minnows had swallowed up the big fish in the Caribbean, and Curaçao is off to the World Cup.
Curaçao’s qualification sparked scenes of delight. (Ricardo Makyn / AFP)
They’ll have Caribbean company, with their long-term guests also finding success. Haiti used Curaçao as its neutral site during the final round, since it hasn’t been able to play a home match for years. Manager Sébastine Migné has never been able to set foot in the country because of the gang violence that has paralyzed the nation. Several players he fielded this cycle had never played a game there, either. They expressed hope that achieving Haiti’s first men’s World Cup qualification since 1974 would serve as a moment to unite the country and push for peace. The Provisional Electoral Council put out a statement citing the unity and resilience of the team, and scenes of wild celebrations and fans shooting off fireworks in Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haitien and Les Cayes hint at a positive start.
Rather than the usual suspects joining the North American hosts at the World Cup, then, it will be many new faces, a pair playing for the first time in most of their players’ and fans’ lifetimes — plus Panama clinching a return after missing out on 2022 but keeping its manager around and reaping the reward.
It turns out that the expanded tournament and the absence of the region’s giants were the chance, just not for some of the teams who took their opportunity for granted and failed to show up on the field. It may be a case for the bigger World Cup field, and it definitely should be a warning for those big countries who will be back in the muck on the road to 2030. In Concacaf, anything can happen. More and more teams are taking that to heart and leaving with a smile on their faces.
