From far-off America – the Caribbean coast – Haiti national team has traveled 11,000 kilometers to Sumgait to play a friendly match against Azerbaijan national team at the Mehdi Huseinov City Stadium.
To give an idea of this distant opponent representing a country with a population just over 1 million and an area three times smaller than ours, Idman.biz has reviewed Haiti's recent matches.
Let’s first take a brief look at Haiti’s football history. The national team won the CONCACAF Championship at home in 1973 and participated in the World Cup the following year. In the tournament held in Germany, the team lost to Italy (1:3), Poland (0:7), and Argentina (1:4) in the group stage.
As for Haiti's current form, the team is ranked 86th in the FIFA rankings, 31 spots ahead of Azerbaijan. Last year, they mostly defeated weaker opponents. In the World Cup qualifiers in the CONCACAF zone, Group D, they beat Barbados (ranked 177th) 3:1 and Saint Lucia (ranked 167th) 2:1. After 2 rounds, they are trailing the leader, Curaçao (ranked 91st), only by goal difference.
In the CONCACAF Nations League, League B, Haiti defeated Puerto Rico (ranked 157th) 4:1 and 3:0, Saint Martin (not in the FIFA rankings) 6:0 and 8:0, and Aruba (ranked 195th) 3:1 and 5:3. As a result, the team became the group winner and earned promotion to League A.
Azerbaijan will be the toughest opponent Haiti has faced in the last year.
The match is scheduled for March 22.
Vugar Mammadov
Idman.biz
