2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

The CONCACAF qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup consisted of four rounds of competition, in which the 35 member nations competed for three automatic berths at the finals in Brazil.

Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)
Tournament details
Dates15 June 2011 – 15 October 2013
Teams35 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played144
Goals scored444 (3.08 per match)
Attendance2,205,645 (15,317 per match)
Top scorer(s) Deon McCaulay (11 goals)
  Country qualified
  Country failed to qualify

The United States, Costa Rica, and Honduras qualified. The fourth-place finisher, Mexico, played a two-game series against New Zealand, the first-placed team from Oceania and qualified to the Finals.

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 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 – was based on the FIFA World Rankings of March 2011.[3] (World rankings shown in parentheses)[4]

Bye to third round
(Ranked 1st to 6th)		 Bye to second round
(Ranked 7th to 25th)		 Competing in first round
(Ranked 26th to 35th)
  1.  United States (19)
  2.  Mexico (27)
  3.  Honduras (38)
  4.  Jamaica (48)
  5.  Costa Rica (53)
  6.  Cuba (64)
  1.  Panama (68)
  2.  Canada (84)
  3.  El Salvador (92)
  4.  Grenada (94)
  5.  Trinidad and Tobago (95)
  6.  Haiti (99)
  7.  Antigua and Barbuda (101)
  8.  Guyana (109)
  9.  Suriname (114)
  10.  Saint Kitts and Nevis (119)
  11.  Guatemala (125)
  12.  Dominica (130)
  13.  Puerto Rico (131)
  14.  Barbados (137)
  15.  Curaçao (146)
  16.  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (148)
  17.  Cayman Islands (158)
  18.  Nicaragua (164)
  19.  Bermuda (165)

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.[3][5]

Round Matchday Date
First round First leg 15 June – 17 July 2011
Second leg
Second round Matchday 1 2–18 September 2011
Matchday 2
Matchday 3 7–15 October 2011
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 11–15 November 2011
Matchday 6
Third round Matchday 1 8–12 June 2012
Matchday 2
Matchday 3 7–11 September 2012
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 12–16 October 2012
Matchday 6
Round Matchday Date
Fourth round Matchday 1 6 February 2013
Matchday 2 22–26 March 2013
Matchday 3
Matchday 4 4–18 June 2013
Matchday 5
Matchday 6
Matchday 7 6–10 September 2013
Matchday 8
Matchday 9 11–15 October 2013
Matchday 10

The inter-confederation play-off between the fourth-placed team from CONCACAF (Mexico) and the winning team from OFC (New Zealand) was played between 13 and 20 November 2013.[5]

First round
Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF 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.

The matchups were announced by FIFA on 26 April 2011.[6] Early indications were that the matches would be played on 3 and 7 June 2011; However, the matches were postponed to scattered days in June and July, between 15 June and 17 July.[7] The 5 winners (in bold, below) advanced to the second round of the CONCACAF qualifiers: Belize, Dominican Republic, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Lucia, and the Bahamas.[8]

The two wins for the U.S. Virgin Islands were their first two ever in World Cup play, with their only other win prior to this coming in 1998.

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 (4–5 p)  Saint Lucia 4–2 2–4 (a.e.t.)
Turks and Caicos Islands  0–101  Bahamas 0–4 0–6
  • Note 1: Order of legs reversed from originally published draw.

Second round
Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF 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.

Pot 4 Pot 5 Pot 6 Pot 7

 Panama
 Canada
 El Salvador
 Grenada
 Trinidad and Tobago
 Haiti

 Antigua and Barbuda
 Guyana
 Suriname
 Saint Kitts and Nevis
 Guatemala
 Dominica

 Puerto Rico
 Barbados
 Curaçao
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
 Cayman Islands
 Nicaragua

 Bermuda
 Belize†
 Dominican Republic†
 Saint Lucia†
 Bahamas†
 U.S. Virgin Islands†

† First round winners

Groups

Note: Scores marked by * are results awarded by FIFA.

Group A
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 El Salvador 6 6 0 0 20 5 +15 18 Advance to third round — 3–2 4–0 4–0
 Dominican Republic 6 2 2 2 12 8 +4 8 1–2 — 1–1 4–0
 Suriname 6 2 1 3 5 11 −6 7 1–3 1–3 — 1–0
 Cayman Islands 6 0 1 5 2 15 −13 1 1–4 1–1 0–1 —
Source:

Group B
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 Guyana 6 4 1 1 9 6 +3 13 Advance to third round — 2–1 2–1 2–0
 Trinidad and Tobago 6 4 0 2 12 4 +8 12 3–0[lower-alpha 1] — 1–0 4–0
 Bermuda 6 3 1 2 8 7 +1 10 1–1 2–1 — 2–1
 Barbados 6 0 0 6 2 14 −12 0 0–2 0–2 1–2 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Match awarded

Group C
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 Panama 4 4 0 0 15 2 +13 12 Advance to third round — 5–1 3–0
 Nicaragua 4 2 0 2 5 7 −2 6 1–2 — 1–0
 Dominica 4 0 0 4 0 11 −11 0 0–5 0–2 —
Source:
  •  Bahamas withdrew from the tournament on 19 August 2011 and were not replaced.[9][10]

Group D
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 Canada 6 4 2 0 18 1 +17 14 Advance to third round — 0–0 4–0 4–1
 Puerto Rico 6 2 3 1 8 4 +4 9 0–3 — 1–1 3–0
 Saint Kitts and Nevis 6 1 4 1 6 8 −2 7 0–0 0–0 — 1–1
 Saint Lucia 6 0 1 5 4 23 −19 1 0–7[lower-alpha 1] 0–4[lower-alpha 1] 2–4 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Match awarded

Group E
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 Guatemala 6 6 0 0 19 3 +16 18 Advance to third round — 3–1 4–0 3–0
 Belize 6 2 1 3 9 10 −1 7 1–2 — 1–1 1–4
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6 1 2 3 4 12 −8 5 0–3 0–2 — 2–1
 Grenada 6 1 1 4 7 14 −7 4 1–4 0–3 1–1 —
Source:

Group F
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 Antigua and Barbuda 6 5 0 1 28 5 +23 15 Advance to third round — 1–0 5–2 10–0
 Haiti 6 4 1 1 21 6 +15 13 2–1 — 2–2 6–0
 Curaçao 6 2 1 3 15 15 0 7 0–3[lower-alpha 1] 2–4 — 6–1
 U.S. Virgin Islands 6 0 0 6 2 40 −38 0 1–8 0–7 0–3 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Match awarded

Third round
Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Third Round

The third round saw 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. These matches were played from 8 June to 16 October 2012.[2]

The top two teams from each group advanced 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]

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3

 United States
 Mexico
 Honduras

 Jamaica
 Costa Rica
 Cuba

 El Salvador†
 Guyana†
 Panama†
 Canada†
 Guatemala†
 Antigua and Barbuda†

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

Group A
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 United States 6 4 1 1 11 6 +5 13 Advance to fourth round — 1–0 3–1 3–1
 Jamaica 6 3 1 2 9 6 +3 10 2–1 — 2–1 4–1
 Guatemala 6 3 1 2 9 8 +1 10 1–1 2–1 — 3–1
 Antigua and Barbuda 6 0 1 5 4 13 −9 1 1–2 0–0 0–1 —
Source:

Group B
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 Mexico 6 6 0 0 15 2 +13 18 Advance to fourth round — 1–0 2–0 3–1
 Costa Rica 6 3 1 2 14 5 +9 10 0–2 — 2–2 7–0
 El Salvador 6 1 2 3 8 11 −3 5 1–2 0–1 — 2–2
 Guyana 6 0 1 5 5 24 −19 1 0–5 0–4 2–3 —
Source:

Group C
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 Honduras 6 3 2 1 12 3 +9 11 Advance to fourth round — 0–2 8–1 1–0
 Panama 6 3 2 1 6 2 +4 11 0–0 — 2–0 1–0
 Canada 6 3 1 2 6 10 −4 10 0–0 1–0 — 3–0
 Cuba 6 0 1 5 1 10 −9 1 0–3 1–1 0–1 —
Source:

Fourth round
Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Fourth Round

In the fourth round, the three group winners and three runners-up from the third round competed in a double round robin, including a home and away match against the other five teams between 6 February and 15 October 2013. The round is informally referred to as the 'Hexagonal' or just 'The Hex'.[11] The draw for 'The Hex' was conducted by FIFA on 7 November 2012.[12]

The top three teams qualified directly for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, while the fourth-placed team, Mexico, played a home-away series against New Zealand, the winner of Oceania qualifying. Teams are ranked first by total points in all games, then, if tied, by best goal differential in all games, then by total goals in all games. If still tied, the same criteria are applied to games among the tied teams.

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
 United States 10 7 1 2 15 8 +7 22 Qualification to 2014 FIFA World Cup — 1–0 1–0 2–0 2–0 2–0
 Costa Rica 10 5 3 2 13 7 +6 18 3–1 — 1–0 2–1 2–0 2–0
 Honduras 10 4 3 3 13 12 +1 15 2–1 1–0 — 2–2 2–2 2–0
 Mexico 10 2 5 3 7 9 −2 11 Advance to inter-confederation play-offs 0–0 0–0 1–2 — 2–1 0–0
 Panama 10 1 5 4 10 14 −4 8 2–3 2–2 2–0 0–0 — 0–0
 Jamaica 10 0 5 5 5 13 −8 5 1–2 1–1 2–2 0–1 1–1 —
Source:

Inter-confederation play-offs
Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–OFC play-off)

The winner of the OFC qualification tournament, New Zealand, played against CONCACAF's fourth-placed team, Mexico, in a home-and-away play-off. Mexico, the winner of this play-off, qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The first leg was played on 13 November 2013 in Mexico, and the second leg was played on 20 November 2013.[13]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Mexico  9–3  New Zealand 5–1 4–2

Qualified teams

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

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
 United StatesFourth round winners10 September 20139 (1930, 1934, 1950, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010)
 Costa RicaFourth round runners-up10 September 20133 (1990, 2002, 2006)
 HondurasFourth round third place15 October 20132 (1982, 2010)
 MexicoCONCACAF–OFC play-off winners20 November 201314 (1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1978, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

There were 444 goals scored over 144 games, for an average of 3.08 goals per game.

11 goals
10 goals
9 goals
8 goals
7 goals
6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal

References
  1. CONCACAF to seek change in World Cup qualifying Archived 18 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil – Preliminary Competition Format and Draw Procedure – North, Central and Caribbean Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com.
  3. "World Cup qualifying to begin June 3". Concacaf.com. 27 August 2009. Archived from the original on 24 September 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  4. "FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking - March 2011 (CONCACAF)". Fifa.com. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  5. "FIFA Calendar". FIFA.com.
  6. "Play-off-matches in CONCACAF". The-FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  7. "Montserrat-Belize to open World Cup qualifying". CONCACAF.com. CONCACAF. 13 June 2011. Archived from the original on 18 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  8. "Concacaf Fixtures". FIFA. 8 June 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
  9. "Bahamas withdraws from World Cup qualifying". concacaf.com. CONCACAF. 19 August 2011. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  10. "Bahamas withdraw from 2014 World Cup qualifiers". FIFA. 22 August 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  11. "Whitecaps FC players set for important World Cup qualifying matches". WhiteCapsFC.com. 11 October 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  12. "World Cup qualifying - draw set for CONCACAF 'hex' round - ESPN FC". Soccernet.espn.go.com. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  13. "International Match Calendar 2013–2018" (PDF). FIFA.com.
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