Let’s face it: When one thinks of the Dominican Republic and sports, the immediate thing that comes to mind is baseball. Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero… You get the picture.

But in the last several years, soccer has become a tour de force in the Caribbean nation. In both 2018 and 2019, a team from the Dominican Republic was the sole Caribbean representative in the Concacaf Champions League. And with one week left in 2019-20 Concacaf Nations League qualifying, the Dominican Republic is 10th in the table and poised to clinch a berth in the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup.

A victory at home on March 24 against Bermuda could well do the trick—assuming they are not passed by another winning team with a better goal difference—and it would be the start of a celebration for long-time soccer advocates in the country.

“Making the Gold Cup would be a dream come true after fighting and sacrificing so much for this sport in the country,” said Jonathan Faña, a 31-year-old midfielder who has played with four different Dominican teams and is the national team’s leader in caps (45) and goals (24). “Reaching the Gold Cup would be like reaching the World Cup for us.”

If there is one pivotal moment that points toward the emergence of Dominican football, it was the establishment of the country’s first professional league in 2015. It provided the platform for players to play competitive matches at the domestic and international level, paving the way for Cibao FC and Atletico Pantoja’s respective qualifications for the 2018 and 2019 CCLs by virtue of winning the Caribbean Club Championship.

It has also provided the necessary fuel for development within the national team setup.

“The biggest change has been the changes to coaching staffs and the working methods, lodging, nutrition and professional treatment from the FEDOFUTBOL [Dominican Football Federation] officials,” said Atlético Pantoja director Fernando Rodriguez. “Everything has taken a big turn, and adding to that is all the support for the national team from the fans.”

For long-time followers of soccer in Concacaf, the rise of the Dominican Republic should sound familiar.

Twenty years ago, Panamanian soccer found itself in a similar situation. An unstable league yielded few opportunities for players to develop, meaning the national team suffered as a whole. For years in international play, Panama was viewed as an easy three points, but the formation of a fully functioning professional league laid the groundwork for a golden generation of players, culminating in qualification for the 2018 World Cup, which would have been an unthinkable accomplishment in 1998.

There is no reason why the same cannot happen in the Dominican Republic.

“In our region, Panama have won the respect and admiration for being an example of growth and in reaching clear and firm objectives with a working team committed to achieving goals,” Rodriguez said. “Panama showed that it can be done. The determination with which Panama set out at both the professional league and federation levels showed that they had the leadership to take charge of Panamanian football and put it on a World Cup stage. Now, people take note of Panamanian football and I think soon people will begin to take note of Dominican football.”

But there is also a sense that this great effort to forward the game in the Dominican Republic has come later than it should have. For players like Faña, who was not called for the three previous Nations League matches, the talent has always been there, but the help hasn’t.

“The only difference is the treatment that the national team is receiving,” he said. “In regards to the actual football, I don’t think there’s a difference. It may be that in previous years there existed better football and better footballers. The Republic has always had football, what we never obtained was a place that maybe we deserved to have in the Caribbean at the international level.”

Looking ahead though, it’s hard not to be optimistic. Not only has the Dominican league emerged as a force in the Caribbean and broken up the two-nation dominance long held by the leagues in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, but now players are receiving opportunities to play abroad, evidenced by last November’s call-up list which featured seven players who play in Europe.

Then there is, of course, Mariano Diaz, the Spanish-born forward for Real Madrid whose mother is Dominican. After playing a friendly for the Dominican Republic in 2013, Mariano elected to represent Spain at the international level. While the Real starlet is one that slipped through the Dominican Republic’s fingers, he is an example of what kind of talent is bubbling at the surface.

And for a country that has excelled in the hardball arena, the prospect of replicating success in the world’s biggest sport has everyone in the Dominican Republic feeling optimistic about the future.

“We experience that passion when the Dominican Republic was crowned champion of the World Baseball Classic in 2013 when they finished undefeated and surprised the world. That same passion is what we want to experience in football,” said Rodriguez.

A top-10 finish in Nations League qualifying and a Gold Cup berth will be the first step to doing just that.

Arch Bell is a freelance soccer writer who lives in Austin, Texas, and covers all things Concacaf. Follow him on Twitter.