Haiti plays the Dominican Republic on Thursday, October 1, at 8 p.m. ET at a sold-out Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo, in a Concacaf Nations League match that carries far more than three points.

Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica each began matchday three of Group A with six points, and only the top two teams advance to the quarterfinals. The Grenadiers beat Trinidad and Tobago 3-2 and Costa Rica 2-0 under new coach David Badía. The Dominicans beat Nicaragua 3-2 and Trinidad and Tobago 2-1.

“We are very excited and focused. We want to deliver a victory,” Haiti captain Carlens Arcus said.

The two senior national teams last met in 2013, when the Dominican Republic won 3-1.

The rivalry reaches well beyond football. The two countries share the island of Hispaniola and a relationship marked by deep historical wounds, economic interdependence, disputes over migration and the Massacre River canal, and the treatment of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. The match also falls days before the anniversary of the October 1937 Parsley Massacre, when thousands of Haitians were killed under dictator Rafael Trujillo.