All-Caribbean affair on road to World Cup: Soca to meet Reggae again

IT will be a Caribbean showdown of epic proportions when the final round of Concacaf qualifiers for the Fifa 2026 World Cup kicks off in September, as the Soca Warriors have been drawn in group B with Bermuda, Curacao and familiar opposition Jamaica in the final round.

The Soca Warriors booked their spot in the final Concacaf round after a 2-1 loss to Costa Rica on June 10, and they got an arguably favourable grouping after being placed in pot three ahead of the June 12 draw.

Group A includes El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Suriname, while group C could be considered the group of death as it includes Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and a Costa Rican team which just topped their second-round qualifying group with the Soca Warriors. Costa Rica and Honduras were placed in pots one and two respectively, and coach Dwight Yorke and his technical staff would be happy to know that no competitive outings to Central America are on the horizon.

With the teams split into three groups of four, each team will play a total of six matches on a home-and-away basis from September to November. The 48-team 2026 World Cup is being jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico and the US, with spots available to as many as eight Concacaf teams based on the qualification format.

In the last qualifying round, the three group winners will qualify directly for the World Cup, while the two best second-placed teams will advance to a Fifa playoff tourney which will be held in March 2026.

Caribbean powerhouse Jamaica will start as favourites in group B, having topped their second-round group with a perfect 12 points as they saw off challenges from teams such as Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. TT and Jamaica should be quite familiar with each other's style of play, as they have met five times in the last 16 months, including three meetings since Yorke took charge of his home nation last November. The last of those meetings saw the Soca Warriors falling to a 3-2 loss at the Unity Cup last month, though both teams were not at full strength.

The teams also met at the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup, with the "Reggae Boyz" getting a facile 4-1 win as they eventually progressed to the semifinal stage of the competition.

TT will also do well not to take Curacao lightly, as the latter team topped their second-round group with a perfect record and also hammered Haiti 5-1 in their last group outing on June 10. The Curacao team is coached by experienced Dutch manager Dick Advocaat. In the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations Leage A campaign, TT got a last-gasp 1-0 win over Curacao at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo thanks to a Nathaniel James goal. In the return fixture, though, Curacao registered a 5-3 victory.

The group will be rounded off by Bermuda, who seized second spot behind Honduras in their second-round group after getting a 2-1 win away to Cuba on June 10.

In the interim, Yorke and his charges will put their focus on the June 14-July 6 Gold Cup, with their first game of the tournament scheduled for June 15 against the US.

Groupings for Concacaf's final round of 2026 World Cup qualifying: Group A: El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Suriname.

Group B: Bermuda, Curacao, Jamaica, TT.

Group C: Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua.