The Spice Boys of Grenada have never really found themselves among Concacaf’s elite. They’ve never made the final round of World Cup qualifying and have made the Gold Cup just twice, in 2009 and 2011. They certainly lack the reputation of the Caribbean’s top sides like Jamaica and Trinidad.
But in these turbulent times, with a new cycle of World Cup Qualifying on the near horizon, Grenada may finally be poised to make a big splash. Concacaf’s new World Cup Qualification format sees the Hex expanded to eight teams and rebranded as the Octo, meaning it’s now just a tiny bit easier for dreamers like Grenada to get in. The new format has also thrust the bottom 30 teams directly into a four match group stage that will immediately narrow the field to just six teams, three of which will join the top five who automatically qualified to the Octo via their FIFA ranking.
The Spice Boys were among the most impressive teams in the Nations League B last cycle, going undefeated in six matches and finishing with 14 points. Jamal Charles, already a budding star for the national team, really came into his own during the campaign, tallying 6 goals and dominating throughout. The highlight of Charles' hot run came in the final match, when his team needed all three of his goals to edge out Belize.
And the draw for that group stage I mentioned? It was quite frankly about as good Grenada could have hoped for. Being placed in Pot 3 seemed disastrous but the Boys ended up with one of the more well balanced groups in the field. El Salvador are always a threat and will be itching to set the record straight after being denied a Hex place by the format change, Antigua are talented and looking to bounce back after a poor Nations League run (albeit in a tough group), Montserrat are the upstart darlings and the US Virgin Islands proved very difficult to put away for their League C opponents.
With just four matches to be played and little room for error, smaller sides have a real chance to shake things up. A draw with El Salvador, if Grenada can take care of everyone else, may very well be all it takes to top the group. When La Selecta host the Spice Boys in the first match on October 8th, the normally imposing crowd at the Estadio Cuscatlán will, presumably (and hopefully for safety reasons) be greatly diminished or nonexistent, making life a heck of a lot easier for the visitors. With no return fixture, it’s the most important game of the group. If this team plays at the level they did last fall, I expect them to win the other three games, especially considering Montserrat will likely be lacking more than a few overseas based players.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, but hopefully when October rolls around we actually do get to see these matches safely played, and if you like underdogs in World Cup Qualifying (and we all do), there are perhaps no minnows with as good of a shot as Grenada right now. If they could topple El Salvador, they'll get a date with the Group F winner (likely Trinidad or Guyana) for a place in the Octo. Who's to say they can't get that far? I certainly wouldn't count them out.
