Gold Cup playoff between Haiti and Nicaragua set for March

CONCACAF has announced the dates for the playoff that will decide the final berth at the 2017 Gold Cup. Haiti and Nicaragua will play a home-and-away series on March 24 and March 28, with the winner advancing to the summer tournament. On February 3 at 12:00 pm, Eastern, CONCACAF will stage a live draw to determine the order of the playoff games. The draw will be streamed on CONCACAF's Facebook page.

Haiti and Nicaragua qualified for the Gold Cup playoff by finishing fifth in their respective regional tournaments (Caribbean Cup and Copa Centroamericana). The March dates for the last round of Gold Cup qualifiers are within a FIFA window for international matches, so both teams will be able to call up players with the expectation that their clubs will release them for the games.

The New York Red Bulls' Derrick Etienne was part of the Haiti team that won qualification for the Gold Cup playoff. If selected for the matches against Nicaragua, he would miss RBNY's MLS regular-season game against Real Salt Lake on March 25.