2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

The North, Central American and Caribbean section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, for national teams which are members of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). 3.5 slots (3 direct slots and 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament were available for CONCACAF teams.[1]

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)
Tournament details
Dates22 March 2015 – 10 October 2017
Teams35 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played112
Goals scored319 (2.85 per match)
Attendance1,930,157 (17,234 per match)
Top scorer(s) Carlos Ruiz (9 goals)

In a change to previous qualification tournaments for this confederation,[2] the first three rounds were played as knockout rounds, with both the fourth round and the final round (referred to as the "Hexagonal") played as group stages. The first round was played during the FIFA international dates of 23–31 March 2015.[3] CONCACAF announced the full format details on 12 January 2015.[4][5]

The USA failed to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1986 after a surprise defeat by Trinidad and Tobago. As a result, Panama reached the World Cup for the first time in their history.

Format

The qualification structure was as follows:[4][6]

  • First round: 14 teams (lowest ranked teams are assigned spots 22–35) played home-and-away over two legs. The winners advanced to the second round.
  • Second round: 20 teams (second lowest ranked teams are assigned spots 9–21 and seven first round winners) played home-and-away over two legs. The winners advanced to the third round.
  • Third round: 12 teams (teams ranked 7–8 by CONCACAF and ten second round winners) played home-and-away over two legs. The winners advanced to the fourth round.
  • Fourth round: 12 teams (teams ranked 1–6 by CONCACAF and six third round winners) were divided into three groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two of each group advanced to the fifth round.
  • Fifth round: The six teams which had advanced from the fourth round played home-and-away round-robin matches in one group (often referred to as the "Hexagonal"). The top three qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the fourth-placed team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

All 35 FIFA-affiliated national teams from CONCACAF entered qualification.[7] The seeding – used to draw the first four rounds of the qualifiers – was based on the FIFA World Rankings of August 2014 (shown in parentheses).[4]

From the August 2014 FIFA World Rankings[8]
Bye to fourth round
(Ranked 1st to 6th)		 Bye to third round
(Ranked 7th to 8th)		 Bye to second round
(Ranked 9th to 21st)		 Competing in first round
(Ranked 22nd to 35th)
  1.  Costa Rica (15)
  2.  Mexico (17)
  3.  United States (18)
  4.  Honduras (43)
  5.  Panama (63)
  6.  Trinidad and Tobago (80)
  1.  Jamaica (85)
  2.  Haiti (117)
  1.  Canada (122)
  2.  Cuba (124)
  3.  Aruba (124)
  4.  Dominican Republic (126)
  5.  El Salvador (127)
  6.  Suriname (131)
  7.  Guatemala (134)
  8.  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (134)
  9.  Saint Lucia (138)
  10.  Grenada (142)
  11.  Antigua and Barbuda (149)
  12.  Guyana (153)
  13.  Puerto Rico (155)

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.[4]

Round Matchday Date
First round First leg 22–31 March 2015
Second leg
Second round First leg 8–16 June 2015
Second leg
Third round First leg 31 August – 8 September 2015
Second leg
Fourth round Matchday 1 9–17 November 2015
Matchday 2
Matchday 3 21–29 March 2016
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 29 August – 6 September 2016
Matchday 6
Round Matchday Date
Fifth round Matchday 1 7–15 November 2016
Matchday 2
Matchday 3 20–28 March 2017
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 5–13 June 2017
Matchday 6
Matchday 7 28 August – 5 September 2017
Matchday 8
Matchday 9 2–10 October 2017
Matchday 10

The inter-confederation play-offs were scheduled to be played between 6–14 November 2017.[9]

First round
Main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF First Round

The draw for the first round was held on 15 January 2015, 19:40 EST (UTC−5), at the W Hotel at Miami Beach, Florida, United States.[10]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Bahamas  0–8  Bermuda 0–5 0–3
British Virgin Islands  2–3  Dominica 2–3 0–0
Barbados  4–1  U.S. Virgin Islands 0–1 4–0
Saint Kitts and Nevis  12–4[note 1]  Turks and Caicos Islands 6–2 6–2
Nicaragua  8–0  Anguilla 5–0 3–0
Belize  1–1 (a)  Cayman Islands 0–0 1–1
Curaçao  4–3  Montserrat 2–1 2–2

Second round
Main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Second Round

The draw for the second round was held on 15 January 2015, 19:40 EST (UTC−5), at the W Hotel at Miami Beach, Florida, United States.[10]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  6–6 (a)  Guyana 2–2 4–4
Antigua and Barbuda  5–4  Saint Lucia 1–3 4–1
Puerto Rico  1–2  Grenada 1–0 0–2
Dominica  0–6[note 1]  Canada 0–2 0–4
Dominican Republic  1–5  Belize 1–2 0–3
Guatemala  1–0  Bermuda 0–0 1–0
Aruba  3–2  Barbados 0–2 3–0[note 2]
Saint Kitts and Nevis  3–6  El Salvador 2–2 1–4
Curaçao  1–1 (a)  Cuba 0–0 1–1
Nicaragua  4–1  Suriname 1–0 3–1

Third round
Main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Third Round

The draw for the third round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.[12]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Curaçao  0–2  El Salvador 0–1 0–1
Canada  4–1  Belize 3–0 1–1
Grenada  1–6  Haiti 1–3 0–3
Jamaica  4–3  Nicaragua 2–3 2–0
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  3–2  Aruba 2–0 1–2
Antigua and Barbuda  1–2  Guatemala 1–0 0–2

Fourth round
Main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Fourth Round

The draw for the fourth round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.[12]

Groups

Group A
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Mexico 6 5 1 0 13 1 +12 16 Advance to fifth round — 0–0 2–0 3–0
2  Honduras 6 2 2 2 6 6 0 8 0–2 — 2–1 2–0
3  Canada 6 2 1 3 5 8 −3 7 0–3 1–0 — 3–1
4  El Salvador 6 0 2 4 4 13 −9 2 1–3 2–2 0–0 —
Source: FIFA

Group B
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Costa Rica 6 5 1 0 11 3 +8 16 Advance to fifth round — 3–1 1–0 3–0
2  Panama 6 3 1 2 7 5 +2 10 1–2 — 1–0 2–0
3  Haiti 6 1 1 4 2 4 −2 4 0–1 0–0 — 0–1
4  Jamaica 6 1 1 4 2 10 −8 4 1–1 0–2 0–2 —
Source: FIFA

Group C
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  United States 6 4 1 1 20 3 +17 13 Advance to fifth round — 4–0 4–0 6–1
2  Trinidad and Tobago 6 3 2 1 13 9 +4 11 0–0 — 2–2 6–0
3  Guatemala 6 3 1 2 18 11 +7 10 2–0 1–2 — 9–3
4  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6 0 0 6 6 34 −28 0 0–6 2–3 0–4 —
Source: FIFA

Fifth round
Main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Fifth Round

As with every World Cup qualification campaign since 1998, CONCACAF held a six-team, home-and-away round-robin group known as the 'Hexagonal', or 'Hex', as its final and decisive round. As a result of the abolition of the February and August fixtures from the FIFA calendar, the 'Hex' for the first time was not contained within a single calendar year, but instead began in November 2016 and concluded in October 2017.[4][5]

The draw for the fifth round (to decide the fixtures) was held on 8 July 2016, 10:00 EDT (UTC−4), at the CONCACAF headquarters in Miami Beach, United States.[14][15][16]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Mexico 10 6 3 1 16 7 +9 21 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup — 2–0 1–0 3–0 1–1 3–1
2  Costa Rica 10 4 4 2 14 8 +6 16 1–1 — 0–0 1–1 4–0 2–1
3  Panama 10 3 4 3 9 10 −1 13 0–0 2–1 — 2–2 1–1 3–0
4  Honduras 10 3 4 3 13 19 −6 13 Advance to inter-confederation play-offs 3–2 1–1 0–1 — 1–1 3–1
5  United States 10 3 3 4 17 13 +4 12 1–2 0–2 4–0 6–0 — 2–0
6  Trinidad and Tobago 10 2 0 8 7 19 −12 6 0–1 0–2 1–0 1–2 2–1 —
Source: FIFA

Inter-confederation play-offs
Main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–AFC play-off)

The draw for the inter-confederation play-offs was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg.[18] The fourth-placed team from CONCACAF was drawn against the fifth-placed team from Asian Football Confederation (AFC), with the CONCACAF team hosting the first leg.[19]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Honduras  1–3  Australia 0–0 1–3

Qualified teams

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

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
 MexicoFifth round winners1 September 201715 (1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1978, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
 Costa RicaFifth round runners-up7 October 20174 (1990, 2002, 2006, 2014)
 PanamaFifth round third place10 October 20170 (debut)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Top goalscorers

There were 319 goals scored in 112 matches, for an average of 2.85 goals per match.

9 goals

8 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

For full lists of goalscorers, see sections in each round:

Broadcasting rights

The all matches are broadcast live on TSN

Notes
  1. Order of legs reversed from originally published draw.
  2. FIFA awarded Aruba a 3–0 win as a result of Barbados fielding the ineligible player Hadan Holligan. Holligan failed to serve an automatic one match suspension for receiving two yellow cards earlier in the competition.[11] The match originally ended 1–0 to Barbados.

References
  1. "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup™ confederation slots maintained". FIFA.com. 30 May 2015.
  2. "Concacaf estrenará formato de eliminatoria; sigue el Hexagonal" [New format for Concacaf qualification - Hexagonal retained] (in Spanish). ESPN Mexico. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  3. "Canada begins 2018 World Cup qualification in June". Sportsnet. 19 November 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  4. "CONCACAF to Hold Preliminary FIFA World Cup Qualifying Draw in Miami on January 15". CONCACAF. 12 January 2015. Archived from the original on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  5. "USMNT to start 2018 World Cup qualifying in November of 2014". Sports Illustrated. 12 January 2015.
  6. "Draw Procedures – North, Central American and Caribbean Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com.
  7. "Road to Russia with new milestone". FIFA.com. 15 January 2015.
  8. "FIFA Men's Ranking – August 2014 (CONCACAF)". FIFA.com. 14 August 2014.
  9. "FIFA Calendar". FIFA.com.
  10. "Official Draw: CONCACAF Qualifiers for FIFA World Cup Russia 2018". CONCACAF.com. 15 January 2015. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  11. "Barbados sanctioned for fielding ineligible player". FIFA. 29 June 2015.
  12. "Draw shines light on CONCACAF's WCQ path". CONCACAF. 25 July 2015. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  13. "Regulations – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia" (PDF). FIFA.com.
  14. "Official Draw Scheduled for the Final Round of CONCACAF Qualifying for FIFA World Cup Russia 2018". CONCACAF.com. 1 July 2016. Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  15. "Draw: CONCACAF Qualifying for FIFA World Cup Russia 2018". CONCACAF.com. 7 July 2016. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  16. "Mexico to open Hex on the road". FIFA.com. 8 July 2016.
  17. "Regulations – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia" (PDF). FIFA.com.
  18. "Preliminary Draw procedures outlined". fifa.com. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  19. "The Preliminary Draw results in full". FIFA.com. 25 July 2015.
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