Football World Cup 2018 / Qualification (CONCACAF)

The continental association CONCACAF

The associations of the North and Central American and Caribbean Football Confederation ( CONCACAF ) have three permanent places for the 2018 World Cup . Another World Cup participant will be determined in an intercontinental decision-making meeting . The draw for the first and second round of the qualifying matches took place on January 15, 2015 in Miami .

All 35 CONCACAF associations, which are also members of the world association FIFA , registered for the qualification .

FIFA regulations

In accordance with FIFA regulations, the preliminary round matches are played in the form of group matches and cup matches in home and return matches or, in exceptional cases, in tournament form in one of the participating countries. In the group games, three points are awarded for a win and one for a draw. The following criteria are decisive:

1. higher number of points
2. better goal difference
3. higher number of goals scored
4. higher number of points from the direct encounters between teams with the same points and goals
5. better goal difference from the direct encounters between the teams with the same points and goals
6. higher number of goals from direct encounters between teams with equal points and goals
7. higher number of away goals from direct encounters between teams with the same points and goals if only two teams are affected.

If two teams do the same according to these criteria, a playoff is scheduled.

In the cup games, if there is a tie after the two games, the higher number of away goals scored counts. If the number of away goals is the same, extra time is played. If no goal is scored in extra time, the match will be decided on penalties . With the same number of goals in extra time, the away team qualifies due to more away goals scored.

mode

The qualification in the CONCACAF zone is played in five rounds. First, the teams placed 22 to 35 compete against each other in a knockout round in order to reduce the number of teams to 28. In the second round, the associations placed 9th to 21st and the seven qualifiers of the 1st round play against each other in 10 pairings, from which the winners each qualify for the 3rd round. In the 3rd round, the teams placed 7th and 8th and the 10 winners of the second round play six teams who play against each other together with the six top-placed teams in the fourth round. The six winners then play off the three teams that qualify directly for the World Cup and the qualifiers for the intercontinental playoffs in a group stage.

First round

In the first round, the fourteen worst -ranked teams in the FIFA world rankings competed against each other in a knockout system with a return leg. During the draw, the teams in places 22 to 28 were drawn to the teams in places 29 to 35 and whoever had home rights first was drawn. The seven winners of the first round advanced to the second round. The games took place from March 23rd to April 1st, 2015.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Bahamas	0: 8	Bermuda	0: 5 (0: 3)	0: 3 (0: 0)
Brit. Virgin Islands	2: 3	Dominica	12: 3 (1: 1) 1	0-0
Barbados	4: 1	American Virgin Islands	0: 1 (0: 1)	4: 0 (2: 0)
St. Kitts and Nevis	12: 40	Turks and Caicos Islands	6: 2 (3: 1)	6: 2 (3: 2)
Nicaragua	8-0	Anguilla	5: 0 (4: 0)	3: 0 (2: 0)
Belize	( a ) 1: 1(a)	Cayman Islands	0-0	1: 1 (1: 1)
Curacao	4: 3	Montserrat	2: 1 (2: 1)	2: 2 (1: 0)

¹Both the first leg and the second leg took place in Roseau ( Dominica ).

Second round

In the second round, the seven winners of the first round as well as the teams placed 9th to 21st in the CONCACAF rankings of the FIFA world rankings competed against each other in a knockout system with a return leg. During the draw, the teams in positions 16 to 18 of the ranking list were drawn to the teams in positions 19 to 21 and whoever had the right to home first was drawn. The teams in positions 9 to 15 of the ranking list were drawn to the not yet determined winners of the first round. With El Salvador, Canada and Cuba, three former World Cup participants also intervened in this round. The ten winners of the second round advanced to the third round. The games took place between June 8th and 16th, 2015.

	total		First leg	Return leg
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	( a ) 6: 6(a)	Guyana	2: 2 (0: 1)	4: 4 (2: 1)
Antigua and Barbuda	5: 4	St. Lucia	1: 3 (1: 1)	4: 1 (0: 0)
Puerto Rico	1: 2	Grenada	1: 0 (1: 0)	0: 2 (0: 1)
Dominica	0: 6	Canada	0: 2 (0: 1)	0: 4 (0: 2)
Dominican Republic	1: 5	Belize	1: 2 (0: 1)	0: 3 (0: 2)
Guatemala	1-0	Bermuda	0-0	1: 0 (1: 0)
Aruba	3: 2	Barbados	0: 2 (0: 2)	13: 0 1(0: 0)
St. Kitts and Nevis	3: 6	El Salvador	2: 2 (0: 1)	1: 4 (0: 1)
Curacao	( a ) 1: 1(a)	Cuba	0-0	1: 1 (1: 1)
Nicaragua	4: 1	Suriname	1: 0 (1: 0)	3: 1 (1: 1)

¹Because of the use of the yellow-banned Hadan Holligan by Barbados, CONCACAF scored the second leg 3-0 for Aruba. The game ended with 1-0 for Barbados.

Third round

The draw for the third and fourth round took place on July 25, 2015 in the Constantine Palace in Strelna . Here the 10 winners of the second round and the teams placed 7th and 8th in the CONCACAF rankings of the FIFA world rankings , the former World Cup participants Haiti and Jamaica, competed in a knockout system with a return leg on. The six winners of the third round advanced to the fourth round. The games took place from August 31 to September 8, 2015.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Curacao	0: 2	El Salvador	0: 1 (0: 1)	0: 1 (0: 1)
Canada	4: 1	Belize	3: 0 (1: 0)	1: 1 (1: 1)
Grenada	1: 6	Haiti	1: 3 (1: 2)	0: 3 (0: 2)
Jamaica	4: 3	Nicaragua	2: 3 (0: 2)	2: 0 (1: 0)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	3: 2	Aruba	2: 0 (0: 0)	1: 2 (0: 1)
Antigua and Barbuda	1: 2	Guatemala	1: 0 (0: 0)	0: 2 (0: 0)

Fourth round

The six winners of the third round and the teams placed 1 to 6 in the CONCACAF rankings of the FIFA world rankings met here in league format from November 2015 to September 2016 to determine six teams for the fifth round. The game was played in 3 groups of 4 teams each, the first two teams each qualified for the fifth round. With the exception of Guatemala, Panama and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, all teams qualified for the fourth round had already qualified for a World Cup final at least once.

Grouping

Group A	Group B	Group C
Mexico	Costa Rica	United States
Honduras	Panama	Trinidad and Tobago
El Salvador	Haiti	St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Canada	Jamaica	Guatemala

Group A

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Mexico	6th	5	1	0	013: 100	+12	16
2.	Honduras	6th	2	2	2	006: 600	± 0	08th
3.	Canada	6th	2	1	3	005: 800	−3	07th
4th	El Salvador	6th	0	2	4th	004:130	−9	02

Game results

11/13/2015	Mexico city	Mexico	-	El Salvador	3: 0 (2: 0)
11/13/2015	Vancouver	Canada	-	Honduras	1: 0 (1: 0)
11/17/2015	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	Mexico	0: 2 (0: 0)
11/17/2015	San Salvador	El Salvador	-	Canada	0-0
03/25/2016	Vancouver	Canada	-	Mexico	0: 3 (0: 2)
03/25/2016	San Salvador	El Salvador	-	Honduras	2: 2 (1: 1)

03/29/2016	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	El Salvador	2: 0 (0: 0)
03/29/2016	Mexico city	Mexico	-	Canada	2: 0 (2: 0)
02.09.2016	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	Canada	2: 1 (1: 1)
02.09.2016	San Salvador	El Salvador	-	Mexico	1: 3 (1: 0)
09/06/2016	Mexico city	Mexico	-	Honduras	0-0
09/06/2016	Vancouver	Canada	-	El Salvador	3: 1 (1: 0)

Group B

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Costa Rica	6th	5	1	0	011: 300	+8	16
2.	Panama	6th	3	1	2	007: 500	+2	10
3.	Haiti	6th	1	1	4th	002: 400	−2	04th
4th	Jamaica	6th	1	1	4th	002:100	−8	04th

Game results

11/13/2015	Kingston	Jamaica	-	Panama	0: 2 (0: 1)
11/13/2015	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Haiti	1: 0 (1: 0)
11/17/2015	Panama City	Panama	-	Costa Rica	1: 2 (0: 0)
11/17/2015	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	-	Jamaica	0: 1 (0: 0)
03/25/2016	Kingston	Jamaica	-	Costa Rica	1: 1 (1: 0)
03/25/2016	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	-	Panama	0-0

03/29/2016	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Jamaica	3: 0 (2: 0)
03/29/2016	Panama City	Panama	-	Haiti	1: 0 (0: 0)
02.09.2016	Panama City	Panama	-	Jamaica	2: 0 (1: 0)
02.09.2016	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	-	Costa Rica	0: 1 (0: 0)
09/06/2016	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Panama	3: 1 (1: 0)
09/06/2016	Kingston	Jamaica	-	Haiti	0: 2 (0: 0)

Group C

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	United States	6th	4th	1	1	020: 300	+17	13
2.	Trinidad and Tobago	6th	3	2	1	013: 900	+4	11
3.	Guatemala	6th	3	1	2	018:110	+7	10
4th	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	6th	0	0	6th	006:340	−28	00

Game results

11/13/2015	Guatemala City	Guatemala	-	Trinidad and Tobago	1: 2 (0: 0)
11/13/2015	St. Louis	United States	-	St. Vincent / the Grenadines	6: 1 (3: 1)
11/17/2015	Arnos Vale	St. Vincent / the Grenadines	-	Guatemala	0: 4 (0: 2)
11/17/2015	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	-	United States	0-0
03/25/2016	Guatemala City	Guatemala	-	United States	2: 0 (2: 0)
03/25/2016	Arnos Vale	St. Vincent / the Grenadines	-	Trinidad and Tobago	2: 3 (1: 0)

03/29/2016	Columbus	United States	-	Guatemala	4: 0 (2: 0)
03/29/2016	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	-	St. Vincent / the Grenadines	6: 0 (1: 0)
02.09.2016	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	-	Guatemala	2: 2 (1: 1)
02.09.2016	Arnos Vale	St. Vincent / the Grenadines	-	United States	0: 6 (0: 3)
09/06/2016	Jacksonville	United States	-	Trinidad and Tobago	4: 0 (1: 0)
09/06/2016	Guatemala City	Guatemala	-	St. Vincent / the Grenadines	9: 3 (4: 2)

Fifth round

The three group winners and runners-up in the fourth round formed a group of six. The game was played from November 2016 to October 2017 in the championship system with return matches. The first three teams qualified directly for the 2018 World Cup. The fourth-placed team qualified for the intercontinental play-offs against Australia (5th in the AFC qualification).

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Mexico	10	6th	3	1	016: 700	+9	21st
2.	Costa Rica	10	4th	4th	2	014: 800	+6	16
3.	Panama	10	3	4th	3	009:100	−1	13
4th	Honduras	10	3	4th	3	013:190	−6	13
5.	United States	10	3	3	4th	017:130	+4	12
6th	Trinidad and Tobago	10	2	0	8th	007:190	−12	06th

Game results

11/11/2016	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	Panama	0: 1 (0: 1)
11/11/2016	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	-	Costa Rica	0: 2 (0: 0)
11/11/2016	Columbus	United States	-	Mexico	1: 2 (0: 1)
11/15/2016	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	Trinidad and Tobago	3: 1 (2: 0)
11/15/2016	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	United States	4: 0 (1: 0)
11/15/2016	Panama City	Panama	-	Mexico	0-0
March 24, 2017	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	-	Panama	1: 0 (1: 0)
March 24, 2017	Mexico city	Mexico	-	Costa Rica	2: 0 (2: 0)
March 24, 2017	San Jose	United States	-	Honduras	6: 0 (3: 0)
03/28/2017	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	Costa Rica	1: 1 (1: 0)
03/28/2017	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	-	Mexico	0: 1 (0: 0)
03/28/2017	Panama City	Panama	-	United States	1: 1 (1: 1)
06/08/2017	Commerce City	United States	-	Trinidad and Tobago	2: 0 (0: 0)
06/08/2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Panama	0-0
06/08/2017	Mexico city	Mexico	-	Honduras	3: 0 (0: 0)

06/11/2017	Mexico city	Mexico	-	United States	1: 1 (1: 1)
06/13/2017	Panama City	Panama	-	Honduras	2: 2 (1: 1)
06/13/2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Trinidad and Tobago	2: 1 (2: 1)
09/01/2017	Harrison	United States	-	Costa Rica	0: 2 (0: 1)
09/01/2017	Couva	Trinidad and Tobago	-	Honduras	1: 2 (0: 2)
09/01/2017	Mexico city	Mexico	-	Panama	1: 0 (0: 0)
05.09.2017	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	United States	1: 1 (1: 0)
05.09.2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Mexico	1: 1 (0: 0)
05.09.2017	Panama City	Panama	-	Trinidad and Tobago	3: 0 (1: 0)
06.10.2017	Orlando	United States	-	Panama	4: 0 (3: 0)
06.10.2017	San Luis Potosí	Mexico	-	Trinidad and Tobago	3: 1 (0: 0)
07.10.2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Honduras	1: 1 (0: 0)
10/10/2017	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	Mexico	3: 2 (1: 2)
10/10/2017	Panama City	Panama	-	Costa Rica	2: 1 (0: 1)
10/10/2017	Couva	Trinidad and Tobago	-	United States	2: 1 (2: 0)

List of goalscorers

Below are the top scorers from the North, Central American and Caribbean World Cup qualifiers. If the number of goals is the same, it is sorted in ascending order according to the number of minutes played.

space	player	Gates	Playtime
01	Carlos Ruiz	9	820
02	Jozy Altidore	6th	927
03	Clint Dempsey	5	446
04th	Nelson Bonilla	5	476
05	Christian Pulisic	5	719
06th	Deon McCaulay	4th	360
07th	Romell Quioto	4th	547
08th	Cyle Larin	4th	627
09	Oalex Anderson	4th	681
10	Tosaint Ricketts	4th	702
11	Christian Bolaños	4th	702
As of September 1, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The long journey to Russia begins in Miami. In: fifa.com. FIFA , January 14, 2015, accessed January 15, 2015 . 
2. ↑ First round of the CONCACAF qualification for World Cup 2018 drawn. In: fifa.com. FIFA , January 16, 2015, accessed January 16, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Regulations FIFA World Cup 2014. (PDF; 421 kB) (No longer available online.) In: fifa.com. FIFA, July 15, 2011, archived from the original on June 29, 2014 ; Retrieved September 3, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Embarrassing mistake leads to World Cup in Barbados. In: sport1.de. Sport1 , June 29, 2015, accessed June 30, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Players - Most goals. In: fifa.com. FIFA, accessed September 3, 2017 .