• 3 months ago
Transcript
00:00Well, let's talk about something that's very interesting, and I don't want to get sidetracked
00:07from football, but the immigration phenomenon that might be affecting this country.
00:12If you look at Guatemala, they have MLS, you know, familiar faces, such as Andres Herrera,
00:17Rubio Rubin, who's now playing in Mexico.
00:19We have Nicaragua, for example.
00:21I was looking at the roster.
00:22We have Jacob Montes, who's now playing for Botafogo.
00:24He was actually born in the U.S.
00:26They have Jaime Moreno, who was born in Venezuela, playing in Finland.
00:30You start looking at all these phenomenons, and, you know, it seems that even in Salvador,
00:33with guys like Eric Zabaleta, they lost Alex Roldan.
00:36It might be something interesting for some of these Central American countries.
00:39They can adopt this type of style moving on.
00:42And not just the Central American national teams.
00:45You can see Mexico.
00:46Mexico is taking players from the U.S. and having them play in Mexico.
00:50And I think it's something very positive for CONCACAF.
00:53I think that the fact that they can come here to the United States and take advantage
00:57of how the players are being developed, I think it's something that is going to help
01:01us grow.
01:02That is very interesting, because it's not only Mexico, it's not only Central America.
01:07How about the Caribbean?
01:08I mean, there's that half spot.
01:10Even if we say, OK, Panama is going to make it, Costa Rica is going to make it, Honduras
01:14is going to make it.
01:15How about teams like Jamaica, like Trinidad and Tobago, that have made it before?
01:19Suriname and Curaçao are two very interesting cases, Chiba, because they have that Dutch
01:24influence, obviously, being a form of territory and colonies of the Netherlands.
01:28And you look at the roster, a lot of these guys have played around Europe.
01:31You know, they don't have to go far, even from tours.
01:33I was looking, you know, some of our players in Turkey, they're touring over there.
01:38Players don't really have to travel far.
01:40You know, it's a huge advantage that they have compared to other Central American countries.
01:43Well, the reality is that football is growing, and it's growing in all the aspects.
01:47And it's good.
01:48It's good for Congo Cup, like I said before.
01:51I think that having teams from the Caribbean, having that type of talent, it's just, it's
01:57only going to make us better.
01:58I mean, I was looking at the rosters then again, and you see a lot of familiar faces.
02:02I mean, Curaçao has Leandro Bakuna, who used to play for Aston Villa.
02:05Their goalie, Eloy Roon, has been around for a long time.
02:08Their coach, like Nick Arbocat, who coached in Netherlands, who coached Belgium.
02:12I mean, and then Stanley Mansoor, a former Netherlands goalkeeper, is coaching Suriname.
02:16So yeah, Central America is there, but then again, I think some of these countries might
02:20have an advantage because where they're playing, Italy, the EPL, Eredivisie, etc.
02:25So it's going to be an interesting clash there.
02:26Of course, and like I said in my question in the beginning, do they really have a chance?

Recommended