Home field advantage – Another way to look at CONCACAF teams in WCQ

Estadio Azteca, Mexico - Thin, smoggy air, and an intimidating venue for away teams

Soccer fans and pundits have analyzed the CONCACAF qualifying performances to near death, but have we all missed the point?

Of the eighteen Round 4 World Cup qualifying matches in CONCACAF (so far), how many matches have home teams lost?

Only 1

In fact, home teams have lost just once and drawn an additional 3 times. Fourteen of the eighteen matches have been won by the home team, whomever that team happened to be.

If that’s the case, is your national team really better than the other national teams who have also won their home games? How superior is your play if you haven’t won away?

Still given that 3 teams will qualify directly into the World Cup, and an additional team will have the opportunity to win a spot, it gives us insight on who will, and won’t get knocked out.

But all it will take to change the order of things and upset your expectations is to lose at home.

Games where the home team didn’t win

In this view of qualifying, the USA’s shocking performance in El Salvador stands out as a high note (the US drew away).

T&T Hasely Crawford Stadium is a fine place for visiting teams to play a match

Trinidad and Tobago, at the bottom of thte table, was part of the 3 other home advantage aberrations.  Perhaps T&T is a better team than their record, but doesn’t have a strong home field advantage.   Hasely Crawford Stadium, at sea level and with steel drums playing in the background, is perhaps not the challenge for an away team that Estadio Azteca with it’s thin air and huge hostile crowd is.

Trinidad & Tobago and the United States both drew El Salvador 2-2 in El Salvador.

Costa Rica, on the other hand, is the only team to win an away game, so far; and it was at T&T’s expense.