He did it. The Guatemalan team defeated Suriname 1-0 with a goal in added time and secured its ticket to the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Nations League.
The agonizing score for Guatemala came in the 96th minute with a long-distance shot from the left foot by Matthew Evans, who plays for Wacker Innsbruck in the second division of Austrian soccer.
Evans’ great goal for the Chapín team allows them to qualify for the next phase of the competition in first place in group B of the “Nations League 2026” with 7 points (and a 6-goal difference in favor), after the 1-1 draw between Jamaica and Honduras.
The Guatemalan squad, successfully led by Mexican Luis Fernando Tena, took advantage of Richonell Margaret’s expulsion in the 62nd minute, allegedly for confronting fans at the El Trébol stadium in Guatemala City. Due to this, and alleged racist insults from the stands, the game was stopped for several minutes.
After Margaret’s expulsion, the local team took control of the match, although they had no clear scoring options until Evans beat goalkeeper Etienne Vaessen, Suriname’s goalkeeper, with his shot.
It was precisely Vaessen who had the clearest opportunity to equalize the score for Suriname in the last minute of the game (112), when he went on the attack and headed in a corner kick.
However, his counterpart in Guatemala, the agile goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen, drowned out Suriname’s goal cry with a shocking dive at the far post.
With the victory, Guatemala adds 7 points in the table of this regional competition, since last Friday they had tied without goals in Suriname and a week ago they beat El Salvador 6-0.
That is why, with a better goal difference (+6), they ensured to advance, already surpassing Suriname, which also scored 7 points (+1) and finished in third place.
Suriname’s classification depended on the final score between Jamaica and Honduras, who faced each other in the Central American country and tied 1-1, with which the Jamaicans finished in second place with 7 points (+2), on the last date of group B of the Concacaf tournament, which distributes four direct tickets to the 2027 Gold Cup.
The two best teams from each group (A and B) of Concacaf advance to the quarterfinals of the Nations League, to which Panama, Mexico, the United States and Canada are already classified as the best countries in the regional ranking.
