Early starters

While most of the world was taking a winter break, the year began with a shock 2-1 extra-time defeat for Trinidad and Tobago at home to Suriname in the Caribbean Cup qualifier 5^th place play-off group. The Central American Cup was hosted by Panama who opened with a goalless draw against Belize, giving them their only point of the tournament. The hosts went on to lose 1-0 to eventual winners Honduras before picking up a win by the same result against Costa Rica. The Costa Ricans had played disappointing goalless draws against El Salvador and Nicaragua.

The Africa Cup of Nations took place in Gabon where Ivory Coast took an early flight home after drawing 0-0 with Togo and suffering a 1-0 loss to Morocco in their group matches. Tunisia got no further that the quarter-final stage losing 2-0 to Burkina Faso who went on to finish 3^rd and DR Congo were also eliminated at that stage after a 2-1 defeat to Ghana who failed to reach the final after losing 2-0 to Cameroon. The Cameroonians overcame Egypt 2-1 in the final to life the cup and move up in the world rankings.