Monday 7th April saw the draw for the 2024/25 version on the CONCACAF Nations League and Montserrat, the perennial League B participants, were drawn against El Salvador, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Bonaire. Montserrat is now up to Pot 2 in the rankings, among the second-ranked teams in the League, but the draw still had a familiar feel to it. It is good to see a couple of new opponents, but El Salvador is all too familiar. Montserrat lost at home to El Salvador in the Nations League qualifying tournament in 2018, was defeated by them home and away in League B in 2019, and managed a draw during the COVID-19 World Cup qualifying tournament, relocated to Curaçao in 2021. Now they have two more attempts to get past them.
The games will be played in September, October, and November this year, but the format is slightly different this time. All the games in each international window will be played in the same venue, with Montserrat hosting in October. All four teams are due to play two games each in Montserrat during that month. The intention is to reduce traveling times within each international window, but hosting four international football teams and their media is a big undertaking. It would be a huge event for Montserrat if the MFA could pull it off, but it may be beyond the capacity of the island’s infrastructure. We will see.
The team finishing top will qualify for League A. No announcement has yet been made regarding qualification for the 2025 Gold Cup. If League B teams are eligible to qualify then it is likely that this will be restricted to group winners. Again, we shall see.
Craig Brewin’s Blog 