:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50681995/usa-today-9304381.0.jpg)
Jamaica hosts Haiti in a match of no great importance to anyone but the teams contesting it. Both teams are eliminated from CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. Haiti will perhaps be encouraged by a campaign that saw the team concede just four goals in five games to date. Les Grenadiers have not been pushovers, but they have also failed to score a single goal so far in qualifying.
Jamaica has also had problems scoring goals - just two in its five games in this qualifying group to date - as well as preventing them. The Reggae Boyz have conceded eight in this qualifying round so far.
Those issues have sunk Jamaica's World Cup qualifying campaign. They have probably sunk coach Winfried Schafer's tenure in charge of the Reggae Boyz too. As unexpectedly glorious as the run to the 2015 Gold Cup final might have been, dropping out of World Cup qualifying with a game to spare in the penultimate round is shockingly below the standard Schafer was appointed to meet.
Jamaica had an embarrassing time in the Hexagonal tournament that sent CONCACAF's representatives to the 2014 World Cup - but at least it got that far. The Reggae Boyz have regressed by the standard implied by the World Cup qualifying cycle, and now get an extra year or so to tool up for trying to make the 2022 competition.
If this is Schafer's last game in charge of Jamaica, it will at least have some significance. As it stands, it is a meaningless playoff for third place (Haiti could top the Reggae Boyz in the standings with a two-goal win) in a group where only the top two are celebrated.
Given there is little to play for beyond pride, Schafer may choose to hand caps to some of the less-experienced players in his squad, such as Rosario Hariott, Real Salt Lake's Omar Holness, or Bethlehem Steel's Cory Burke. Haiti was forced to turn the page on the squad it has been developing by a slew of injuries and withdrawals: six players got debuts against Costa Rica last week. Head coach Patrice Neveu will have little choice but to give further opportunity to his mostly untested roster.
World Soccer Talk thinks the game will be online, but the published schedules aren't promising. This might be a game to be followed on Twitter.
Update: Sorry to have doubted you, WST.
.@CONCACAF #WCQs are also back today and these are the matches we'll be streaming on https://t.co/IyHKmavGAu pic.twitter.com/NU1ljHZl6B
— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) September 6, 2016