#61 What is the Concacaf Nations League and why does it exist? Plus, a preview of Honduras ahead of their match with the USMNT
Soccer 101
TSS
4.9 • 853 Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2021
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week's episode, Taylor explains all you need to know about the Concacaf Nations League: what is it, how does it work, and why did it need to exist in the first place? Plus, the second half of the episode is a preview of the USMNT's opponent on Thursday night: Honduras. How will they line up, who are their key performers, and where will the main areas of opportunity be for the United States?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome everybody to soccer 101. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and on this episode, |
| 0:15.5 | we're going to take a look at the age-old question that has existed since pretty much the dawn of time. |
| 0:22.6 | What is the Conca Calf Nation's League? A bit of a disclaimer here. This episode is being released just after midnight on June |
| 0:27.7 | 3rd so that I can then say that later today, the U.S. men's national team will take on Honduras |
| 0:32.9 | in the semi-final of the Nations League. The winner will advance to the final on Sunday, where the winner |
| 0:38.3 | of Mexico's match against Costa Rica will be waiting. That's the very basic background of things |
| 0:43.6 | at time of recording, and we'll be talking a little more about Honduras, the USA's opponent, |
| 0:47.7 | later on in this episode. But first, let's get to the Nations League itself. What is it? Why does |
| 0:53.2 | it exist and how useful might it prove to be? |
| 0:56.5 | Well, we are still in our inaugural Nations League. |
| 0:59.4 | It's been going for quite some time. |
| 1:01.0 | COVID did not help make this thing shorter. |
| 1:03.8 | The inaugural Nations League featured 40 of the Confederations 41 teams. |
| 1:07.8 | Guatemala was suspended by FIFA in October of 2016, so they missed the eligibility |
| 1:12.4 | period to qualify. There was the deadline. They couldn't apply. So here we are. The format divided |
| 1:18.1 | those remaining 40 teams into three divisions, Group A, Group B, and Group C, not surprisingly. |
| 1:24.1 | The six teams that had participated in the final round of War Cup qualifying in |
| 1:27.8 | 2018 were automatically placed into the top tier, that would be Group A. That meant guaranteed |
| 1:32.5 | spots for Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, the United States, Panama, and Trinidad, and Tobago. |
| 1:37.5 | The remaining teams in the Confederation took part in a qualifying tournament that also doubled |
| 1:41.6 | as qualifiers for the 2021 Gold Cup, which is later this |
| 1:45.0 | summer, another competition later this summer. The top six finishers in that qualifying round |
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