Guadeloupe 2008 Home matchworn?
Local brand Awak came up with this interesting shirt. The right hand side only has a sleeve logo, but came in a variety of colours while the left is thoroughly colourful, utilising all the colours available to them from the badge. Quality generally isn’t great but it uses colour well and the island in the right-hand logo is a nice little touch. Not a shirt to drool over but a nice little bespoke shirt for a team who you’d expect a template design.
This particular design was used in 2008, in the Caribbean Cup. A 2-1 loss to Cuba was followed by a late winner in a 3-2 battle against Haiti. Haiti’s 1-0 win over Cuba meant that they needed at least a point and their 2-2 draw against Antigua and Barbuda sent them through on goals scored alone. They dropped 2-0 to Jamaica in the semi-finals but beat Cuba on penalties after a 0-0 draw in the 3rd place play-off to qualify for the 2009 Gold Cup.
That level of capability isn’t consistent for Guadeloupe, but they do have reasonable success under their belt. They went to all 3 Gold Cups across 2007-2011, finishing 4th in 2007. When they qualify, 3rd place seems to be their favourite position in the Caribbean, with 3 across 7 qualifications in the Caribbean Cup and 3rd in both CFU Championships they went to. A poor qualification put them in League C of the Nations League where they comfortably got promoted, guaranteeing them a play-off for a Gold Cup spot. Lastly, they played in all 3 Coupe de l’Outre-Mers, coming 3rd in each of them! I’m noticing a pattern here!
The women’s team has been much less active, with a preliminary round loss to Martinique in the 2000 Caribbean Cup and 2 losses in 2018 too. They’ve also taken part in 2018 CONCACAF Women’s championship qualifiers where Jamaica, Haiti and Martinique comfortably dealt with them without conceding. Men’s youth football has brought them some success, mainly recently, with the U20’s qualifying for 4 Championships, including the most recent two, and the U17s qualifying in 2019. In general, they’ve not performed well at the championships but have done reasonably in the region. The U15s have hovered between Division 1 and Division 2 but have some decent results under their belts. Women’s youth football hasn’t yet come to the island, with no participation to date.
In futsal they will debut at the next Championship, having come close in 2016 where they beat Sint Maarten and Jamaica but were edged by Trinidad and Tobago for the play-off spot, who then fell themselves to not qualify. Still, ranked at 13 in CONCACAF shows that they’re still a step above most of the confederation. Beach soccer has brought more success, with the island competing in the most recent three competitions, finishing 4th in 2017 and also reaching the knockout stages in 2019. Despite the fact that they’ve struggled against the most prominent nations, they’ve been the best from the Caribbean in each competition, except for going out a round earlier than the Bahamas in 2015.
Overall, Guadeloupe are in the ascendency at the moment, having fallen quite far from their high around 2010. Expect them to compete strongly for a spot at the 2021 Gold Cup, which would highlight their return to previous form.
Adam's National Shirt Collection 