Jamaica vs T&T showdown set for League ‘A’ group play

MIAMI, Florida (CMC):

Caribbean Football Union (CFU) powerhouses Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago will renew their long-standing rivalry in a spicy Concacaf Nations League match-up after they were drawn in Group B of the top division, League 'A', for the 2024-25 tournament.

Concacaf, the confederation for North, Central American and Caribbean football, released the dates and full details of the tournament after the official draw for the group stage of the tournament took place on Monday in the American city of Miami.

This will be the fourth edition of the tournament, which will feature the confederation's 41 senior men's national teams and will be played during the international match windows of September, October, and November this year, and the final four being played next March.

The tournament will continue to be played in a three-league format, with the teams distributed in the leagues in keeping with 2023-24 results.

The draw did not include three-time defending champions United States, neither Mexico, Canada, nor Panama. They d were exempt because they occupy the top four spots in the rankings of the confederation and were consequently seeded in the same positions for League 'A', and directly entered for the quarter-finals, which take place between November 11 and 19.

The Reggae Boyz, as the Jamaicans are known, the CFU No. 1 team, finished third in the 2023-24 tournament after a first-half rocket from Dexter Lembikisa fired them to a 1-0 victory against Panama in March this year at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in the American city of Arlington.

The Soca Warriors, as T&T are known, the CFU No. 5 team, reached the quarter-finals in the 2023-24 tournament, where they lost a home-and-away series against the Americans 4-2.

Concacaf has brought in the Swiss-style league system for the group stage in League 'A', and the Boyz and the Warriors will be two of the 12 teams that will play in two groups of six teams.

The Boyz and the Warriors will play alongside fellow CFU teams Cuba and French Guiana, as well as Central American teams Honduras and Nicaragua in Group B, while Group A features Central American teams Costa Rica and Guatemala, and the CFU quartet of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Suriname, and Guyana.

After the group stage in September and October this year, the top two finishers in each group will advance to the quarter-finals, where they will join the four top-ranked League 'A' teams and play in a home-and-away format, with the aggregate score winner in each match-up advancing to the finals.

The quarter-final pairings will feature Canada vs the best first-place finisher from the group stage, Panama vs the next best first-place finisher, the United States vs the best second-place finisher, and Mexico vs the next best second-place finisher.