2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)
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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.
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. 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.
Round One. Teams ranked 26–35 will play-off to reduce the number of entrants to 30.
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.
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.
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. (World rankings shown in parentheses)
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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.
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Note 1: Order of legs reversed from originally published draw.
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.
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. 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.
† First round winners
Groups
Note: Scores marked by * are results awarded by FIFA.
Group A
Group B
Group C
withdrew from the tournament on 19 August 2011 and were not replaced.
Group D
Group E
Group F
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.
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.
† Second round winners whose identity was not known at the time of the draw
Groups
Group A
Group B
Group C
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'. The draw for 'The Hex' was conducted by FIFA on 7 November 2012.
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.
Inter-confederation play-offs
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 City, and the second leg was played on 20 November 2013 in Wellington.
Qualified teams
The following four teams from CONCACAF qualified for the final tournament.
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Goalscorers
There were 444 goals scored over 144 games (including inter-confederation play-offs), for an average of 3.08 goals per game.
11 goals
Deon McCaulay
10 goals
Peter Byers
Oribe Peralta
Blas Pérez
9 goals
Jerry Bengtson
8 goals
Álvaro Saborío
Clint Dempsey
7 goals
Carlo Costly
Luis Tejada
6 goals
Tamarley Thomas
Rocky Siberie
Carlos Ruiz
Osael Romero
5 goals
Lesly St. Fleur
Erick Ozuna
Jean-Eudes Maurice
Javier Hernández
4 goals
Randolph Burton
Iain Hume
Simeon Jackson
Olivier Occean
Kervens Belfort
Héctor Ramos
Lester Peltier
Jozy Altidore
Eddie Johnson
3 goals
Khano Smith
Dwayne De Rosario
Tosaint Ricketts
Josh Simpson
Celso Borges
Joel Campbell
Randall Brenes
Bryan Ruiz
Jonathan Faña
Inoel Navarro
Léster Blanco
Rafael Burgos
Freddy García
Dwight Pezzarossi
Mario Rodríguez
Jaylee Hodgson
Ian Lake
Jamil Joseph
Cliff Valcin
Kenwyne Jones
2 goals
Quinton Griffith
Frederick Gomez
Nesley Jean
Harrison Róches
Nahki Wells
Will Johnson
Mark Ebanks
Sendley Bito
Shanon Carmelia
Domingo Peralta
Jaime Alas
Luis Anaya
Christian Bautista
Isidro Gutiérrez
Rodolfo Zelaya
Clive Murray
Shane Rennie
Minor López
Marco Pappa
Trayon Bobb
Vurlon Mills
Chris Nurse
Ricky Shakes
Jean Alexandre
James Marcelin
Mario Martínez
Demar Phillips
Dane Richards
Luton Shelton
Rodolph Austin
Carlos Salcido
Jesús Zavala
Raúl Jiménez
Raúl Leguías
Nelson Barahona
Rolando Blackburn
Ricardo Buitrago
Amir Waithe
Luis Henríquez
Gabriel Torres
Andrés Cabrero
Myron Samuel
Cornelius Stewart
Friso Mando
Carlos Bocanegra
Graham Zusi
Herculez Gomez
Reid Klopp
1 goal
Dexter Blackstock
Ranjae Christian
Justin Cochrane
George Dublin
Marc Joseph
Keiran Murtagh
Kerry Skepple
Jamie Thomas
David Abdul
Rensy Barradas
Maurice Escalona
Erik Santos de Gouveia
Cameron Hepple
Jackner Louis
Diquan Adamson
Sheridan Grosvenor
Daniel Jiménez
Elroy Kuylen
Luis Mendez
Ryan Simpson
John Nusum
Antwan Russell
Kwame Steede
Trevor Peters
David Edgar
Christian Bolaños
José Miguel Cubero
Cristian Gamboa
Roy Miller
Michael Umaña
Diego Calvo
Jhonny Acosta
Alberto Gómez
Angelo Cijntje
Orin de Waard
Everon Espacia
Rihairo Meulens
Angelo Zimmerman
Johan Cruz
César García
Jack Michael Morillo
Kerbi Rodríguez
Jhoan Sánchez
Xavier García
Alfredo Pacheco
Steve Purdy
Edwin Sánchez
Herbert Sosa
Victor Turcios
Lancaster Joseph
Marcus Julien
Cassim Langaigne
Gustavo Cabrera
Carlos Figueroa
Yony Flores
Carlos Gallardo
Angelo Padilla
Guillermo Ramírez
Fredy Thompson
Anthony Abrams
Shawn Beveney
Leon Cort
Charles Pollard
Gregory Richardson
Judelin Aveska
Réginal Goreux
Wilde-Donald Guerrier
Kim Jaggy
Kevin Lafrance
Jean Monuma
Listner Pierre-Louis
Víctor Bernárdez
Juan Carlos Garcia
Marvin Chávez
Roger Rojas
Oscar García
Wilson Palacios
Maynor Figueroa
Ryan Johnson
Nyron Nosworthy
Jermaine Beckford
Marvin Elliott
Jermaine Anderson
Giovani dos Santos
Andrés Guardado
Héctor Moreno
Ángel Reyna
Aldo de Nigris
Paul Aguilar
Rafael Márquez
Carlos Alberto Peña
Daniel Reyes
Félix Rodríguez
Roberto Chen
Román Torres
Cristian Arrieta
Joseph Marrero
Devaughn Elliott
Jevon Francis
Orlando Mitchum
Kevin Edward
Kurt Frederick
Tremain Paul
Zaine Pierre
Giovanni Drenthe
Evani Esperance
Naldo Kwasie
Keon Daniel
Hughton Hector
Kevin Molino
Darryl Roberts
Aron Jóhannsson
Brad Evans
Landon Donovan
Michael Orozco Fiscal
Jamie Browne
Keithroy Cornelius
Alderman Lesmond
Dwayne Thomas
1 own goal
Angelo Zimmerman (playing against Haiti)
Lyndon Joseph (playing against Guatemala)
Nicko Williams (playing against Guatemala)
Charles Pollard (playing against Mexico)
J. P. Rodrigues (playing against Mexico)
Jorge Claros (playing against Jamaica)
Héctor Moreno (playing against Guyana)
Román Torres (playing against Nicaragua)
Woody Gibson (playing against Bahamas)
References
External links
Results and schedule (FIFA.com version)
Results and schedule (CONCACAF.com version)
Concacaf
FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)