2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

The CONCACAF qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup will see teams competing for places at the finals in Brazil.

As in recent tournaments, CONCACAF will have three direct qualifiers for the finals tournament in addition to a further possible place via the inter-confederation play-offs against the OFC's first-placed team. This opponent was chosen through a random draw on 30 July 2011, rather than being decided by FIFA beforehand as in previous tournaments (e.g., 2010 against a team from CONMEBOL, 2006 against a team from AFC).

Format

In March 2011, following news that CONCACAF would not receive four spots in the 2014 World Cup, officials within CONCACAF indicated that the first format proposed (below) would be revised.^[1] Several days later, officials within CONCACAF announced the qualifying format they would present to FIFA. The proposed format, which was subsequently accepted by FIFA, consists of 4 stages.^[2]

1. Round One. Teams ranked 26–35 will play-off to reduce the number of entrants to 30.
2. Round Two. 6 groups of 4 teams. This round includes the 5 qualifiers from the preliminary round plus teams ranked 7–25. The top team in each group advances to the next stage.
3. Round Three (Semifinal round). 3 groups of 4. Teams ranked 1–6 face off against the 6 group winners from the previous round. The top two in each group advance.
4. Round Four (Hexagonal). The top two teams in each group from the semifinal round compete in one group of 6. The top three teams advance to the World Cup finals, while the 4th place team advances to an intercontinental play-off.

Entrants

All 35 FIFA-affiliated national teams from CONCACAF entered qualification. The seeding – used to draw the first three rounds of the qualifiers – were based on the FIFA World Rankings of March 2011.^[3] (Rankings shown in brackets)^[4]

First round

The first round of the CONCACAF qualifiers saw the bottom 10 teams being paired up into five home-and-away series, with the highest ranked team facing the lowest ranked team and so on. The winners of these series proceeded to the second round.

Matches

The matchups were announced by FIFA on 26 April 2011.^[5] Early indications were that the matches would be played on 3 and 7 June 2011; however subsequent releases have given the dates for the first round as 15 June to 17 July.^[6]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Montserrat	3–8	Belize	2–5	1–3
Anguilla	0–6	Dominican Republic	0–2	0–4
U.S. Virgin Islands	4–1	British Virgin Islands	2–0	2–1
Aruba	6–6 (4–5p)	Saint Lucia	4–2	2–4 (aet)
Turks and Caicos Islands	0–101	Bahamas	0–4	0–6

• Note 1: Order of legs reversed from originally published draw.

Second round

In the second round, the teams ranked 7–25 were joined by the 5 winners from the first round. These teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 30 July 2011. The matches were played from 2 September to 15 November 2011.^[2]

The top team from each group advanced to the third round.

Seeding

Teams were seeded into four pots – designated Pots 4 to 7 in the draw.^[2] Pot 4 included teams ranked 7–12, Pot 5 teams ranked 13–18, Pot 6 teams ranked 19–24, and Pot 7 the team ranked 25 along with the 5 first round winners.

^† First round winners

Groups

Group A

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  El Salvador 6 6 0 0 20 5 +15 18  Dominican Republic 6 2 2 2 12 8 +4 8  Suriname 6 2 1 3 5 11 −6 7  Cayman Islands 6 0 1 5 2 15 −13 1

Cayman Islands  – 1–1 1–4 0–1 Dominican Republic  4–0 – 1–2 1–1 El Salvador  4–0 3–2 – 4–0 Suriname  1–0 1–3 1–3 –

Group B

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Guyana 6 4 1 1 9 6 +3 13  Trinidad and Tobago 6 4 0 2 12 4 +8 12  Bermuda 6 3 1 2 8 7 +1 10  Barbados 6 0 0 6 2 14 −12 0

Barbados  – 1–2 0–2 0–2 Bermuda  2–1 – 1–1 2–1 Guyana  2–0 2–1 – 2–1 Trinidad and Tobago  4–0 1–0 3–0 –

Group C

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Panama 4 4 0 0 15 2 +13 12  Nicaragua 4 2 0 2 5 7 −2 6  Dominica 4 0 0 4 0 11 −11 0

Dominica  – 0–2 0–5 Nicaragua  1–0 – 1–2 Panama  3–0 5–1 –

• Bahamas withdrew from the tournament on 19 August 2011 and were not replaced.^[7][8]

Group D

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Canada 6 4 2 0 18 1 +17 14  Puerto Rico 6 2 3 1 8 4 +4 9  Saint Kitts and Nevis 6 1 4 1 6 8 −2 7  Saint Lucia 6 0 1 5 4 23 −19 1

Canada  – 0–0 4–0 4–1 Puerto Rico  0–3 – 1–1 3–0 Saint Kitts and Nevis  0–0 0–0 – 1–1 Saint Lucia  0–7 0–4 2–4 –

Group E

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Guatemala 6 6 0 0 19 3 +16 18  Belize 6 2 1 3 9 10 −1 7  Saint Vincent & Gren. 6 1 2 3 4 12 −8 5  Grenada 6 1 1 4 7 14 −7 4

Belize  – 1–4 1–2 1–1 Grenada  0–3 – 1–4 1–1 Guatemala  3–1 3–0 – 4–0 Saint Vincent & Gren.  0–2 2–1 0–3 –

Group F

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Antigua and Barbuda 6 5 0 1 28 5 +23 15  Haiti 6 4 1 1 21 6 +15 13  Curaçao 6 2 1 3 15 15 0 7  U.S. Virgin Islands 6 0 0 6 2 40 −38 0

Antigua and Barbuda  – 5–2 1–0 10–0 Curaçao  0–3 – 2–4 6–1 Haiti  2–1 2–2 – 6–0 U.S. Virgin Islands  1–8 0–3 0–7 –

Third round

The third round will see the top 6 seeds joined by the 6 group winners from the second round. These teams were drawn into three groups of four teams, at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 30 July 2011. The matches are scheduled to be played from 8 June to 16 October 2012.^[2]

The top two teams from each group will advance to the fourth round.

Seeding

As the draw for the third round was held before the previous matches were held, only the six teams with byes to the round were known at the time of the draw. Teams were seeded into three pots, with Pot 1 containing the top 3 seeds, Pot 2 seeds 4 to 6, and Pot 3 the 6 group winners from the second round. Each third round group contains one team from Pot 1, one team from Pot 2 and two teams from Pot 3.^[2]

^† Second round winners whose identity was not known at the time of the draw

Groups

Group A

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  United States 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Jamaica 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Guatemala 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Antigua and Barbuda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Antigua and Barbuda  – 11 Sep 12 Jun 12 Oct Guatemala  7 Sep – 12 Oct 12 Jun Jamaica  16 Oct 8 Jun – 7 Sep United States  8 Jun 16 Oct 11 Sep –

Group B

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Mexico 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Costa Rica 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  El Salvador 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Guyana 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Costa Rica  – 8 Jun 16 Oct 7 Sep El Salvador  12 Oct – 7 Sep 12 Jun Guyana  12 Jun 11 Sep – 12 Oct Mexico  11 Sep 16 Oct 8 Jun –

Group C

Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Honduras 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Cuba 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Canada 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Panama 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Canada  – 12 Oct 12 Jun 7 Sep Cuba  8 Jun – 7 Sep 16 Oct Honduras  16 Oct 11 Sep – 8 Jun Panama  11 Sep 12 Jun 12 Oct –

Fourth round

The fourth round will see the 3 group winners and 3 runners-up from the third round compete in a single group. The matches are scheduled to be played from 6 February to 15 October 2013.

The top three teams will qualify directly for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, while the fourth-placed team will enter the intercontinental play-offs.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Intercontinental play-off

The fourth-placed team of CONCACAF will play OFC's first-placed team in a home-and-away play-off. The winner of this play-off qualifies for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals.

Goalscorers

As of 15 November 2011, there have been 272 goals scored over 76 games, for an average of 3.58 goals per game. Players highlighted in bold are still active in competition.

11 goals

• Deon McCaulay

8 goals

• Peter Byers

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References

External links

• Results and schedule (FIFA.com version)
• Results and schedule (CONCACAF.com version)