The new dates for St Vincent and the Grenadines Senior Men’s Football team – Vincy Heat’s matches in the first round of the World Cup Qualifiers, have been announced by CONCACAF.
Lodged in Group C, Vincy Heat will now meet Curacao in Curacao on the 25th March, and will host the British Virgin Islands here on 30th March.
Vincy Heat’s next fixture is set for 4th June against Guatemala in Guatemala, before returning home to host Cuba here at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, on 8th June.
The fixtures were previous scheduled to take place in the same order last October and November.
The matches were deferred because of the threats of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The First Round pits the teams ranked 6th to 35th on the CONCACAF list.
The six Groups each comprise five teams with the teams playing each other once – two home matches and two away matches.
Group A consists of El Salvador, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Montserrat, and the US Virgin Islands, Canada, Suriname, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Aruba are locked in Group B. Curacao, Guatemala, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Cuba and the British Virgin Islands do battle in Group C.
In Group D are Panama, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Dominica and Anguilla, with Group E composed of Haiti, Nicaragua, Belize, St Lucia and Turks and Caicos Islands.
Group F is made up of Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis, Guyana, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.
Only the winners of each of the (six) groups will go forward to the Second Round, which will see Group A winner taking on the winner of Group F the Group B winner facing the winner of Group E; and the winners of Group C and Group D squaring off.
The three Second Round winners will join the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras and Jamaica to make up the Third Round, which will be played on a Round Robin Home and Away basis.
The top three will punch tickets to the Word Cup Finals in Qatar 2022, while the fourth place will engage in a Continental Play Off, for a possible fourth spot for CONCACAF.