Quite an upset overnight, but also not that surprising given recent performance, the USA will be competing for 3rd/4th place while Panama will be contesting the final against Mexico. But that's exactly what the FIFA ranking shows, it shows a more historical ranking rather than current form which is more short term.
So for the CONCACAF Nations League it's a bit simpler, as there's just semis, a 3rd/4th place playoff and a final. No real surprises here, but again, neither the United States nor Mexico are in top form recently, so certainly chances for Canada and even Panama to upset the balance. Here's the numbers:
In the upcoming September window four new tournaments will start. Here is the first simulation report in a series of four, regarding the CONCACAF Nations League 2024-2025, played until March next year.
The CONCACAF Nations League 2024-25 is the fourth edition of the CNL and will have the same format as the previous edition, played only a year ago:
- league A consists of 16 teams, with the top 4 (according to the CONCACAF ranking of March 2024: Mexico, USA, Panama and Canada) receiving a bye to the quarterfinals. The other 12 teams were drawn on May 6th in two groups of 6, where they will play 4 matches (2 home and 2 away) in a pre-determined schedule against some other group opponents. The numbers one and two from each group play the home-and-away quarter finals against one of the four top dogs in November. The quarter final winners qualify for the Final Four, to be played in March 2025.
- league B consists of 16 teams in 4 groups of 4. They will play a double round-robin against all other group opponents in the September, October and November windows.
- league C consists of the remaining 9 CONCACAF members. They will play in 3 groups of 3 in a double round-robin, with 3 match days in each of the September and October windows.
The matches per FIFA window in leagues B and C will be played in centralized venues to minimize the chance of travelling problems in the Caribbean region.
The upcoming September window starts a new edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. It will be the third edition and follows only one year after the previous one. It is used as qualification tournament for the Copa America 2024, the South American continental final tournament, which is in 2024 co-organized by CONCACAF (and hosted in the USA) and will be expanded to 16 teams, the 10 from CONMEBOL and 6 CONCACAF teams. It is still not clear if this is a one-off co-operation or the first of a real Americas Cup. Time will tell.
The second edition of the CONCACAF Nations League starts in this June window. All 41 CONCACAF-members participate and are drawn in three leagues:
There are 4 match days in June and 2 in March next year. The four group winners in league A qualify for the Final Four in June 2023.
There is also promotion/relegation between the leagues: the winners of the groups in leagues B and C are promoted while the numbers last in each group in league A and B relegate. The draw of the groups was in April and seeded based on the CONCACAF ranking.
Forced by the COVID-19 pandemic CONCACAF has adjusted their initially proposed qualification format for the World Cup to the following process:
This crowded schedule can only be realised because the June window contains 4 MD's and the September, October, January and March windows will contain 3 MD's each.
