Central America - Caribbean World Cup Qualifying

The Concacaf – Central American and Caribbean Confederation – qualifying matches are well underway, although you have probably only just heard about it as the USA have just entered the competition after comfortably dismissing Barbados and recently defeating Guatemala.

The Breakdown of the Competition Format

Given that there are 35 teams playing for 3 or 4 World Cup berths the Concacaf organisers have rightly staggered the competition over four phases and the culmination will be one round robin league with the top three placed teams guaranteed their places in South Africa and the fourth placed team enters a two legged home and away playoff with the fifth placed South American side. Nobody wants a difficult trip away to Bogota, Quito or Santiago and so we shall see merciless displays of professionalism and gamesmanship in order to secure one of the top three spots.

Stage 1

Of the 35 member nations including great holiday destinations such as the Turks and Caicos, US Virgin Islands and Netherlands Antilles but unknown in a football quantity, those teams ranked 13 to 35 in the region enter. There are twelve sub groups consisting of eleven home and away games plus St Vincent and the Grenadines which received a bye through to Stage 2.

Eleven teams were eliminated in this first stage: Dominica, Turks and Caicos, Cayman Islands, Aruba, St Kitts and Nevis, British Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, US Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Anguilla, Nicaragua.

Stage 2

Stage 1 winners and St Vincent and the Grenadines then play the remaining teams which include the top three of Mexico, USA and Costa Rica. For some this is when the competition proper takes over since the big guns are included but saying this would do an injustice to the smaller nations who fell at the first. Stage 2 consists of twelve home and away matches the winners of which head through to Stage 3.

Results of Stage 2 in Aggregate

USA 9 – 0 Barbados, Guatemala 9 – 1 St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago 3 – 2 Bermuda, Cuba 8 – 3 Antigua and Barbuda, Mexico 9 – 0 Belize, Jamaica 13 – 0 Bahamas, Honduras 6 – 2 Puerto Rico, Canada 7 – 1 St Vincent and the Grenadines, Costa Rica 5 – 2 Grenada, Surinam 3 – 1 Guyana, El Salvador 3 – 2 Panama, Haiti 1 – 0 Netherlands Antilles.

Stage 3

Stage 3 is divided into three groups of four nations. The competition gets significantly more competitive. The groups are as follows

Group 1

Trinidad and Tobago, USA, Guatemala, Cuba

Group 2

Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, Honduras

Group 3

Costa Rica, Haiti, Surinam, El Salvador

Group winners and runners up go through to Stage 4

Stage 4

The 6 teams play one another home and away with the top three guaranteed their places in South Africa while the fourth placed team faces a tough home and away challenge with the fifth placed South American side.

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds