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2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

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2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)
Tournament details
Dates24 March 2021 – 30 March 2022
Teams34 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played118
Goals scored345 (2.92 per match)
Attendance999,020 (8,466 per match)
Top scorer(s)Canada Cyle Larin
(13 goals)
← 2018
2026 →
CONCACAF Qualifiers
FIFA World Cup
CCCF–NAFC era

CONCACAF era

The North, Central American and Caribbean section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification[1] acted as the qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). Three direct slots and one inter-confederation play-off slot in the final tournament were available for CONCACAF teams.[2]

Format

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Original format

[edit]

On 10 July 2019, CONCACAF announced a restructured qualifying format for the World Cup.[3] After CONCACAF initially announced in March 2018 that they would use the CONCACAF Ranking Index to determine the seeding of CONCACAF teams for qualifying to international tournaments,[4] it was determined that FIFA Rankings would be used instead.

  • Top-seeded Hexagonal group: The top 6 ranked CONCACAF teams based on the FIFA rankings of June 2020 were to play home-and-away round-robin matches in one single group (often referred to as the "Hexagonal"). The top three teams would have qualified for the World Cup, and the fourth-placed team would have advanced to the CONCACAF play-off round.
  • Lower-seeded group stage and knockout stage: The remaining CONCACAF teams (ranked 7 to 35 based on the FIFA rankings of June 2020) were to be divided into eight groups (five groups of four teams and three groups of three teams) to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The winners of each group would have advanced to a knockout stage, consisting of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final to be played in a two-legged home-and-away series. The winner of the knockout stage would have also advanced to the CONCACAF play-off round.
  • Play-off round: The fourth-placed team of the Hexagonal group would have faced the winner of the knockout stage in order to advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Original qualifying schedule (pre-format change)
Stage Matchday FIFA international dates[5]
Top-seeded round
Hexagonal Matchday 1 31 August – 8 September 2020
Matchday 2
Matchday 3 5–13 October 2020
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 9–17 November 2020
Matchday 6
Matchday 7 22–30 March 2021
Matchday 8
Matchday 9 30 August – 7 September 2021
Matchday 10
Lower-seeded round
Group stage Matchday 1 31 August – 8 September 2020
Matchday 2
Matchday 3 5–13 October 2020
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 9–17 November 2020
Matchday 6
Knockout stage Quarter-finals First leg 22–30 March 2021
Second leg
Semi-finals First leg 31 May – 8 June 2021
Second leg
Final First leg 30 August – 7 September 2021
Second leg
Play-off round
Play-off First leg 4–12 October 2021
Second leg

However, on 25 June 2020, following FIFA's decision to postpone the September 2020 international window because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CONCACAF noted that "the challenges presented by postponements to the football calendar, and the incomplete FIFA rankings cycle in our confederation, means our current World Cup qualifying process has been compromised and will be changed."[6]

New format

[edit]

On 27 July 2020, CONCACAF announced a new qualifying format for the World Cup.[7]

  • First round: 30 CONCACAF teams, ranked 6 to 35 based on the FIFA rankings of July 2020, were drawn into six groups of five and played single round-robin matches (two home and two away), with group winners qualifying for the second round.
  • Second round: Six first round group winners played in a two-legged home-and-away series. The three winners advanced to the third round.
  • Third round: Eight teams, three second round winners and top five CONCACAF teams based on those FIFA rankings, played home-and-away round-robin matches in one single group. The top three teams qualified for the World Cup, and the fourth-placed team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

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All 35 FIFA-affiliated national teams from CONCACAF originally entered qualification. Teams were seeded based on their July 2020 FIFA rankings. However, Saint Lucia later withdrew, reducing the total number of teams to 34.

From the July 2020 FIFA World Rankings[8]
Bye to third round
(ranked 1st to 5th) 		Competing in first round
(ranked 6th to 35th)
  1.  Mexico (11)
  2.  United States (22)
  3.  Costa Rica (46)
  4.  Jamaica (48)
  5.  Honduras (62)
  1.  El Salvador (69)
  2.  Canada (73)
  3.  Curaçao (80)
  4.  Panama (81)
  5.  Haiti (86)
  6.  Trinidad and Tobago (105)
  7.  Antigua and Barbuda (126)
  8.  Guatemala (130)
  9.  Saint Kitts and Nevis (139)
  10.  Suriname (141)
  11.  Nicaragua (151)
  12.  Dominican Republic (158)
  13.  Grenada (159)
  14.  Barbados (162)
  15.  Guyana (166)

W Later withdrew

Schedule

[edit]

On 25 June 2020, FIFA announced that the inter-confederation play-offs, originally scheduled to be played in March 2022, were moved to June 2022, and that the June 2021 window would be extended from two matchdays to four for CONCACAF.[9] On 8 September 2020, CONCACAF announced that the matches scheduled for October and November 2020 would be rescheduled to 2021.[10] On 4 December 2020, FIFA announced that the September 2021, October 2021, January 2022 and March 2022 windows in the FIFA International Match Calendar would each be extended by one day to allow for three matchdays to be played per window.[11][12] On the same day, CONCACAF announced the revised qualification schedule, which was updated on 16 June 2021.[13]

Round Matchday Dates
First round Window 1 24–30 March 2021
Window 2 2–8 June 2021
Second round First leg 12 June 2021
Second leg 15 June 2021
Third round Matchday 1 2 September 2021
Matchday 2 5 September 2021
Matchday 3 8 September 2021
Matchday 4 7 October 2021
Matchday 5 10 October 2021
Matchday 6 13 October 2021
Matchday 7 12 November 2021
Matchday 8 16 November 2021
Matchday 9 27 January 2022
Matchday 10 30 January 2022
Matchday 11 2 February 2022
Matchday 12 24 March 2022
Matchday 13 27 March 2022
Matchday 14 30 March 2022
Original qualifying schedule (revised format)
Stage Matchday FIFA international dates
First round Window 1 7, 8, 10, 11 & 13 October 2020
Window 2 11, 13, 14 & 17 November 2020
Second round First leg 22–30 March 2021
Second leg
Third round Matchday 1 31 May – 15 June 2021
Matchday 2
Matchday 3
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 30 August – 7 September 2021
Matchday 6
Matchday 7 4–12 October 2021
Matchday 8
Matchday 9 8–16 November 2021
Matchday 10
Matchday 11 24 January – 1 February 2022
Matchday 12
Matchday 13 21–29 March 2022
Matchday 14

First round

[edit]
Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF first round

The six highest ranked teams of the first round were pre-seeded into groups A through F. Teams in their groups played each other once, a total of four matches; two home and two away matches. The draw for the first round was held on 19 August 2020, 19:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland.[14][15] The top team from each group advanced to the second round. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many "home" games to be played at neutral venues.

Group A

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Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  El Salvador 4 3 1 0 13 1 +12 10 Advance to second round — — 3–0 2–0 —
2  Montserrat 4 2 2 0 9 4 +5 8 1–1 — — — 4–0
3  Antigua and Barbuda 4 2 1 1 6 5 +1 7 — 2–2 — 1–0 —
4  Grenada 4 1 0 3 2 5 −3 3 — 1–2 — — 1–0
5  U.S. Virgin Islands 4 0 0 4 0 15 −15 0 0–7 — 0–3 — —
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group B

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Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Canada 4 4 0 0 27 1 +26 12 Advance to second round — 4–0 5–1 — —
2  Suriname 4 3 0 1 15 4 +11 9 — — 6–0 — 3–0
3  Bermuda 4 1 1 2 7 12 −5 4 — — — 5–0 1–1
4  Aruba 4 1 0 3 3 19 −16 3 0–7 0–6 — — —
5  Cayman Islands 4 0 1 3 2 18 −16 1 0–11 — — 1–3 —
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group C

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Curaçao 4 3 1 0 15 1 +14 10 Advance to second round — 0–0 — 5–0 —
2  Guatemala 4 3 1 0 14 0 +14 10 — — 1–0 10–0 —
3  Cuba 4 2 0 2 7 3 +4 6 1–2 — — — 5–0
4  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 4 1 0 3 3 16 −13 3 — — 0–1 — 3–0
5  British Virgin Islands 4 0 0 4 0 19 −19 0 0–8 0–3 — — —
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group D

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Panama 4 4 0 0 19 1 +18 12 Advance to second round — 3–0 1–0 — —
2  Dominican Republic 4 2 1 1 8 4 +4 7 — — 1–1 1–0 —
3  Barbados 4 1 2 1 3 3 0 5 — — — 1–1 1–0
4  Dominica 4 1 1 2 5 4 +1 4 1–2 — — — 3–0
5  Anguilla 4 0 0 4 0 23 −23 0 0–13 0–6 — — —
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group E

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Haiti 3 3 0 0 13 0 +13 9 Advance to second round — 1–0 2–0 — —
2  Nicaragua 3 2 0 1 10 1 +9 6 — — 3–0 — —
3  Belize 3 1 0 2 5 5 0 3 — — — 5–0 —
4  Turks and Caicos Islands 3 0 0 3 0 22 −22 0 0–10 0–7 — — —
5  Saint Lucia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Withdrew — — — — —
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group F

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Saint Kitts and Nevis 4 3 0 1 8 2 +6 9 Advance to second round — — 1–0 3–0 —
2  Trinidad and Tobago 4 2 2 0 6 1 +5 8 2–0 — — 3–0 —
3  Puerto Rico 4 2 1 1 10 2 +8 7 — 1–1 — — 7–0
4  Guyana 4 1 0 3 4 8 −4 3 — — 0–2 — 4–0
5  Bahamas 4 0 1 3 0 15 −15 1 0–4 0–0 — — —
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Second round

[edit]
Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF second round

The second round saw the six group winners from the first round playing in three home-and-away ties of predetermined pairings. The winners advanced to the third round.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Saint Kitts and Nevis  0–6  El Salvador 0–4 0–2
Haiti  0–4  Canada 0–1 0–3
Panama  2–1  Curaçao 2–1 0–0

Third round

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Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF third round

As a result of CONCACAF's revision to their World Cup qualifying format, the traditional Hexagonal with six teams and ten games per team was expanded to eight teams and fourteen games per team for the final and decisive round. The top five CONCACAF teams in the July 2020 FIFA rankings entered in the third round, joining the three winners of the second round. The draw to determine the schedule for the third round was held on 19 August 2020, 19:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland.[16][17]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Canada 14 8 4 2 23 7 +16 28 2022 FIFA World Cup — 2–1 2–0 1–0 4–1 4–0 3–0 1–1
2  Mexico 14 8 4 2 17 8 +9 28 1–1 — 0–0 0–0 1–0 2–1 2–0 3–0
3  United States 14 7 4 3 21 10 +11 25 1–1 2–0 — 2–1 5–1 2–0 1–0 3–0
4  Costa Rica 14 7 4 3 13 8 +5 25 Inter-confederation play-offs 1–0 0–1 2–0 — 1–0 1–1 2–1 2–1
5  Panama 14 6 3 5 17 19 −2 21 1–0 1–1 1–0 0–0 — 3–2 2–1 1–1
6  Jamaica 14 2 5 7 12 22 −10 11 0–0 1–2 1–1 0–1 0–3 — 1–1 2–1
7  El Salvador 14 2 4 8 8 18 −10 10 0–2 0–2 0–0 1–2 1–0 1–1 — 0–0
8  Honduras 14 0 4 10 7 26 −19 4 0–2 0–1 1–4 0–0 2–3 0–2 0–2 —
Source: FIFA, CONCACAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Inter-confederation play-off

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Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–OFC play-off)

The inter-confederation play-offs was determined by a draw held on 26 November 2021. The fourth-placed team from CONCACAF qualification third round was drawn against the representative team from the OFC.[18] The play-off was played as a single match in Qatar (host country of the World Cup) on 14 June 2022.[19]

Team 1  Score  Team 2
Costa Rica  1–0  New Zealand

Qualified teams

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The following four teams from CONCACAF qualified for the final tournament.

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
 Canada Third round winners 27 March 2022 1 (1986)
 Mexico Third round runners-up 30 March 2022 16 (1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1978, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018)
 United States Third round third place 30 March 2022 10 (1930, 1934, 1950, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
 Costa Rica CONCACAF v OFC play-off winners 14 June 2022 5 (1990, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2018)
1 Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Top goalscorers

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There were 345 goals scored in 118 matches, for an average of 2.92 goals per match.

13 goals

9 goals

8 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

Links to the lists of goalscorers for each round are below:

References

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  1. ^ Also the "CONCACAF Qualifiers Road to Qatar".
  2. ^ "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup confederation slots maintained". FIFA.com. FIFA. 30 May 2015. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
  3. ^ "Concacaf Announces Format for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Confederation Qualifiers". Concacaf. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  4. ^ "Concacaf Nations League". Concacaf. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  5. ^ "INTERNATIONAL MATCH CALENDAR 2018–2024" (PDF). FIFA. April 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  6. ^ "CONCACAF confirms 2022 World Cup qualifying will change". TSN. Canadian Press. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  7. ^ "New Concacaf Qualifiers announced for regional qualification to FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022". Concacaf. 27 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  8. ^ "FIFA Men's Ranking – July 2020 (CONCACAF)". FIFA.com. 16 July 2020. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020.
  9. ^ "FIFA Council unanimously approves COVID-19 Relief Plan". FIFA.com. 25 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Update on the CONCACAF Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022". CONCACAF. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  11. ^ "FIFA Council passes landmark reforms for female players and coaches, agrees further steps in COVID-19 response". FIFA. 4 December 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Men's International Match Calendar 2020-2024" (PDF). FIFA. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 January 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  13. ^ "Concacaf Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2022". FIFA. 16 June 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Concacaf preliminary draw for FIFA World Cup 2022 to take place on 19 August". FIFA.com. 12 August 2020.
  15. ^ "Draw procedures confirmed for First Round of Concacaf Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022". CONCACAF.com. 12 August 2020.
  16. ^ "Concacaf preliminary draw for FIFA World Cup 2022 to take place on 19 August". FIFA.com. 12 August 2020.
  17. ^ "Draw to determine schedule for Final Round of Concacaf Qualifiers to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022". CONCACAF.com. 12 August 2020.
  18. ^ "European and intercontinental play-off draw results and reaction". FIFA. 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  19. ^ Allen, William (26 November 2021). "2022 World Cup inter-confederation play-off draw: fixtures and format". as.com. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
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