The final round of CONCACAF Men's World Cup qualification starts soon. The confederation still has the traditional 3.5 slots, with the top three teams in the final round advancing directly to the World Cup and the 4th place side going to the inter-confederation playoff for a second chance at glory. But something looks very different about the Hex this time around. It doesn't exist! Of course, as we all know by now, the Hex is dead and has been replaced by its bigger and meaner cousin, the Octo.
An exciting time for football in the region, for sure. After all, we've been blessed with an extra four rounds of matches in this final, dramatic conclusion to qualification that is quite frankly the premier CONCACAF international tournament. The Gold Cup is beautiful and fun in its' own way, but the Hex has always been the real proving grounds where the big boys separate themselves from the rest of the pack, and the Hex is where all the highest quality and most dramatic football on the men's circuit is played.
None of that will change with the Octo. The level of play in the region has increased to the point where there are legitimately eight teams that can compete at this level, and while the duopoly of Mexico and the US looks to be the strongest it has been for a long time, 3rd and 4th place are up for grabs for more or less everyone else in the field. Whoever you think is the weakest team (consensus is El Salvador or Panama) still can very much achieve 4th.
The upcoming international breaks are going to be an awful lot of fun. There will be good football, drama, heartbreak, jubilation; the good stuff. As always we hope for minimal virus related issues and that the teams and fans can play everything out as safely as possible, especially after the Gold Cup was marred by several outbreaks.
But in spite of my excitement for the Octo, I also feel a bit sad for the Hex. The Octo is bigger and better; an improvement over the original in every way, but it is not the Hex. The end of the Hex is the end of an important chapter in CONCACAF lore; a competition that fans of the region's strongest teams have come to love. If you're reading this you know how much the competition means to USA and Mexico fans, but it also means so much to Costa Ricans, who are immensely proud of the team's 2002 first place finish. Trinidad, Panama and Jamaica have fond memories of the Hex as the final test in their only successful World Cup qualification campaigns thus far. Even Canadian fans, who only experienced the final round one time, in the 1998 cycle, looked at the Hex with a sort of reverence.
It was the final challenge; the point where your mettle was really tested. Everyone in the region knew that outside of the World Cup itself (and the Confederations Cup, I suppose), games in the Hex were your toughest matches, period. The United States and Mexico could no longer hide behind the friendly
crowds and group assignments of the Gold Cup, but had to face the same
obstacles as the rest of the field. Every road trip was a mountain to climb, and every home match was a must-win. Mexico, the US, and Costa Rica (the only three teams that were in every Hex) combined for a grand total of 8 home defeats in 90 home matches throughout the competition's lifetime. Honduras' home record isn't far behind.
There was an aura and a mystique to it. Ultimately, there was no reward for winning it; only for finishing in the top half, and CONCACAF never really promoted the Hexagonal as anything more than an avenue for qualification, but the fans of those at the top came to care about it. Finishing first in the Hex meant you were the strongest team in the region, simply put. In that way, it was a kind of pure test of strength that is rarely seen in modern sports; you were competing not for a trophy, not for a higher seed in the knockout round, not for any tangible thing. You were only competing to be able to say you were the best.
Even the name has its own aura about it. In the English speaking world at least, the term "Hex" is almost never used in an official capacity. A search of CONCACAF's own website reveals a single result for "Hex." Instead, the competition is always referred to as the more proper Hexagonal or simply Fourth/Fifth Round of Qualification. But certainly from USA to Canada to Trinidad to Jamaica, it is the Hex. An affectionate fake name for a fake competition that was never supposed to be anything more than the last part of the qualification process. But the Hex took on a life of its' own.
Now aside from the fact that the Octo isn't nearly as catchy of a name and that it will likely be scrapped in 2026 when the qualification for CONCACAF is going to get all sorts of messed up, there is no reason to think any of this will change. There will be plenty of great moments over the course of the Octo that will earn their place in CONCACAF lore right alongside things the 2013 snow game and Panama's dramatic qualification in 2017.
But to evoke a slogan from a different CONCACAF tournament, the Hex was ours. It was organized by the confederation, but it was built by the fans into a different beast. It became the pinnacle of CONCACAF football because we made it that way. Long live the Hex.
