Dominica

Dominica 2015-19 Home – Matchworn Javid George v ?, Nations League qualifiers

It is easy to dismiss this shirt as something fairly simple. You’ve got black and yellow colouring on the sleeve cuffs and collar to liven them up and two diagonal yellow stripes, one which almost cuts across the identically coloured numbers. Two things make this shirt though. Firstly, the angry parrot heat pressed in the top corner as a fantastic little detail. Secondly, the superb Dominican FA logo with the vast assortment of colours and the angry parrot in all its glory. All hail the angry parrot! Additionally, you also have the Lika logos and name are in a rubbery plastic, rather than printed or a sublimated, which is a nice little touch.

 Used across an extensive period of time, this design saw use in the Windward Islands Tournament, Caribbean Cup qualifiers, the end of 2018 World Cup qualifiers and the 2019-20 Nations League qualifiers. Wins over Sint Maarten and the Bahamas along with a draw against Suriname placed them firmly in League B, where they were drawn in a group with Suriname, Nicaragua and St Vincent & the Grenadines. they managed a solitary win in 6 matches to be relegated, showing that their qualification run was impressive.

Never one of CONCACAF’s heavier hitters, Dominica have traditionally been in the first one or two preliminary qualifying rounds for major tournaments. They’ve never played more than 4 matches in a single World Cup qualifying campaign, or won more than 1. He Gold Cup has provided little more joy. They came relatively close with the Nations League qualifiers, though their relegation from league B means they’re unlikely to readily repeat that. Otherwise they’ve struggled to reach the Caribbean Cup to even try and get to the Gold Cup. They managed to qualify twice, once in 1994 when the cancellation of the final matches saved them from missing out, and also in 1998. A 1-1 draw against Barbados is all they’ve managed to gain from these appearances.

Dominica’s women’s national side has been active as far back as 2000, with them taking part in all but 1 tournament that they could (they withdrew from the 2014 Caribbean Cup and therefore 2015 World Cup qualification). They’ve beaten St Vincent & the Grenadines along with the US Virgin Islands, but never managed to compete for a tournament spot at the CONCACAF Championship. Ranked near the bottom of CONCACAF, their results have not been spectacular. Occasionally inactive, the men’s youth teams have followed in the senior team’s footsteps. They’ve never been to a CONCACAF tournament and have struggled considerably in qualifiers. One distinctive bright spot comes from the 2019 U15 tournament where victories over Montserrat, Turks & Caicos Islands and Saint Martin led their draw against the BVIs o leave them off the top of their Division 3 group on goal difference alone. The women’s youth teams have been less active, with no U15 side and only a handful of positive results. The gap to the nations that have qualified for CONCACAF tournaments remains large.

Dominica haven’t yet tried out either futsal or beach soccer to date, like many of their Caribbean brethren.

Drawn in a 2022 qualifying group with Panama, Dominican Republic, Barbados and Anguilla, Dominica were not expected to escape the group. They did manage to beat Anguilla 3-0 and took a 1-1 draw with Barbados too. Respectable 2-1 and 1-0 losses to Panama and the Dominican Republic sent them out, but their performance was very reasonable. Something to build upon, perhaps?