The CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football) qualification stage for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa consisted of 35 national teams competing for the three berths given automatically to CONCACAF by FIFA. The United States, Mexico and Honduras qualified. The fourth-place finisher, Costa Rica, played a two-game playoff with the CONMEBOL fifth-place finisher, Uruguay, for a possible fourth berth.
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Format
The First and Second Rounds reduced the 35 entrants to 24 and 12 teams, respectively. The remaining 12 teams were then placed into three Third Round groups of four, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the Fourth and final qualification group. The Third Round began in August 2008 and ended in November 2008. The top 3 teams from the Fourth Round group of 6 (held from February to October 2009) qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The 4th place team competed in a home-and-away playoff against the 5th-place team from CONMEBOL.
Seeding
The draw took place on 25 November 2007 in Durban, South Africa and it determined the fixtures for the preliminary rounds. In addition, because second round winners are paired off for the third round, the top 13 seeds have been subdivided as follows:
In the 2nd round, the 13 top-ranked CONCACAF teams from the May 2007 FIFA World Ranking joined 11 winners from the 1st Round.
First round
The 22 teams ranked 14 to 35 competed in the First Round. Teams ranked 14th–24th were randomly drawn against teams ranked 25th–35th. Teams played home and away against their opponents, except three ties: Puerto Rico–Dominican Republic, Grenada–U.S. Virgin Islands and Montserrat–Suriname, which were played over one leg in late March due to several Member Associations failing to meet the new FIFA Stadium standards and being unable to secure a home venue. The winners advanced to the Second Round.
1 Belize moved their home leg to Guatemala.
2 Both legs played in the Bahamas.
3 Played as one leg due to a lack of acceptable grounds for FIFA competition.
4 Played as one leg at Trinidad and Tobago because neither side are able to provide a suitable venue according to FIFA's guidelines.
5 Played in the United States because Anguilla's stadium is not a suitable venue.
Second round
In the Second Round, the 11 first round winners joined the 13 teams which received a bye to the Second Round. Teams ranked 1st–12th were randomly drawn against the unseeded teams (the 11 first round winners plus Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which was ranked 13th). Teams played home and away against their opponents and the winners advanced to the next round. Matches took place in June 2008.
1 Saint Lucia moved their home leg to the United States.
2 Belize moved their home leg to the United States.
3 Bahamas moved their home leg to Jamaica.
4 Order of legs reversed subsequent to original draw.
Third round
The winners from the Second Round were placed into three groups of four teams, where they played a double round robin home and away schedule. The top two teams from each group advanced to the Fourth Round.
Fourth round
The six teams that reached the fourth round formed one double-round-robin, home-and-away group nicknamed the "Hexagonal." The top three teams qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The fourth place team qualified for a home-and-away play-off against the fifth-place team from CONMEBOL.
The allocation of teams in the draw took place in Johannesburg, South Africa on 22 November 2008.
Play-off against CONMEBOL team
The 4th place team played the 5th place team from the CONMEBOL (South American Zone) Qualification in a home and away play-off. The winner of this play-off qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The draw for the order in which the two matches were played was held on 2 June 2009 during the FIFA Congress in Nassau, the Bahamas. The CONCACAF side played the first leg at home.
Uruguay won 2 – 1 on aggregate and qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Goalscorers
As of 9 September, there have been 349 goals scored over 109 games, for an average of 3.20 goals per game.
"—" = First Round Bye
"X" = Eliminated
"Q" = Team qualified for World Cup and did not need playoff