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Posted by: LewisGT 18th March 2023, 10:27 PM

North American Qualification

The North American Qualification will consist of 3 stages. 3 teams will qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2 teams will qualify for the Intercontinental Play-Offs. As hosts, United States of America, Mexico and Canada have already qualified.

Round 1 - The 4 lowest ranked teams will be drawn into two 2-legged ties with the winners qualifying for Round 2. Matches will be played in March 2024.

Round 2 - The 30 teams (28 highest ranked teams and the 2 winners from Round 1) will be drawn into 6 groups of 5 teams and will play single round robin fixtures. The 5 group winners and 5 group runners-up will qualify for Round 3. Matches will be played between June 2024 and June 2025.

Round 3 - The 12 qualifiers from Round 2 will be drawn into 3 groups of 4 teams and will play home-and-away round-robin fixtures. The 3 group winners will qualify directly to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The two best group runners-up will qualify for the Intercontinental Play-Offs. Matches will be played between September - November 2025.

Posted by: PeteFromLeeds 13th July 2023, 07:53 PM

Interesting to see there's still only 3 spots up for grabs for North America - probably means the Caribbean teams will still miss out sadly.

Posted by: LewisGT 13th July 2023, 08:23 PM

The 3 is in addition to the auto-qualified hosts so there’s a decent chance of a Caribbean qualifier. If we go by the Current World Rankings it would be Costa Rica, Panama & Jamaica taking up the 3 qualifying spots with El Salvador and Honduras in the Play-Offs

Posted by: PeteFromLeeds 13th July 2023, 08:39 PM

Ah yep, completely overlooked that! That's good to hear - hopefully Jamaica might have a change of making it in then.

Posted by: DJHazey 18th July 2023, 01:41 PM

Normally I would say Trinidad & Tobago could challenge too but their recent performance in the Gold Cup, including a 4-1 defeat to Jamaica tells me they're still not back to their former quality.

Posted by: LewisGT 16th December 2023, 07:08 PM

Round 1 - The bottom four nations in the World Rankings will compete in a two-leg final with the 2 winners advancing into Round 2.

Anguilla - Turks and Caicos Islands
U.S. Virgin Islands - British Virgin Islands

The matches will be played in March before Round 2 begins in June.

Posted by: PeteFromLeeds 16th December 2023, 07:21 PM

The battle of the Virgin Islands!

Would be interesting to see those teams play as I don't think I have done before.

Posted by: LewisGT 25th January 2024, 06:49 PM

The draw for Round 2 has just been completed. The top two teams from each group will qualify for Round 3.

Group A
Honduras
Antigua and Barbuda
Cuba
Bermuda
Cayman Islands

Group B
Costa Rica
Trinidad and Tobago
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Grenada
Bahamas

Group C
Haiti
Curaçao
Saint Lucia
Barbados
Aruba

Group D
Panama
Nicaragua
Guyana
Montserrat
Belize

Group E
Jamaica
Guatemala
Dominican Republic
Dominica
Winner Play-Off 2 (British Virgin Islands/U.S. Virgin Islands)

Group F
El Salvador
Suriname
Puerto Rico
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Winner Play-Off 1 (Turks and Caicos Islands/Anguilla)

Posted by: PeteFromLeeds 25th January 2024, 06:55 PM

They feel like reasonably even groups! It does feel a little odd that all of USA/Canada/Mexico are missing from the qualifiers thanks to being hosts.

Posted by: LewisGT 24th March 2024, 08:05 PM

Round 1 - First Leg

Anguilla 0-0 Turks and Caicos Islands
U.S. Virgin Islands 1-1 British Virgin Islands

It's safe to say we didn't learn much about who might progress from those 1st legs. BVI were saved by a stoppage time equalizer.

Posted by: LewisGT 27th March 2024, 10:43 AM

Round 1 - Second Leg

Turks and Caicos Islands 1-1 Anguilla (3-4 pens)
British Virgin Islands 0-0 U.S. Virgin Islands (4-2 pens)

Anguilla and British Virgin Islands qualify for Round 2.

Posted by: PeteFromLeeds 27th March 2024, 09:07 PM

Not the most thrilling of first-round matches then! Let's see if either of them can make a decent inroads in the second round.