Camila Sosa
The Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers will end this Wednesday, March 30 with the last four games of the octagonal final, and only in one of those meetings there is nothing left at stake.
Concacaf’s first ticket to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar belongs to the Canada National Team which currently leads the standings with 28 points. In second place there is the United States, in third place Mexico, and in fourth place Costa Rica. These three teams secured the repechage in their matches on Sunday, March 27, but they have yet to define who advances directly and who must play the repechage against the Oceania rival.
All four matches will be played at 18:05 Pacific time.
Mexico vs El Salvador
The Mexican National Team has the opportunity to close the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers process at the Azteca Stadium against El Salvador. At the moment the “Tri” occupies the third place in the classification after going through a series of ups and downs in the last time. The good news is that the Aztec draw depends on itself to secure a direct ticket to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Mexico has 25 units, the same as the United States, but by goal difference the squad of the Stars and Stripes is better positioned. A different result will force them to wait for the score at the crossing between Costa Rica and the United States to know if they go straight to the World Cup or to the repechage as they did in the World Cup process towards Brazil 2014. El Salvador no longer has anything at stake in this match but could try to surprise at the height of Mexico City and ruin the party the “Giant of Concacaf”.
Costa Rica vs United States
Costa Rica defeated El Salvador 1-2 last Sunday and will now look to replicate that success against the United States National Team in search of leaving the repechage zone and aspiring to the direct pass for Qatar 2022.
However, their rival in turn just scored 5-1 to Panama and also wants to qualify directly, so an interesting duel is expected. The United States is second in the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers with 25 points, while the “Tico” team is fourth with 22 points.
Costa Rica wants to return to the World Cup, as the last time it attended was in Brazil 2014 when they had its best performance and was eliminated in the quarterfinals after losing on penalties against the Netherlands.
Panama vs Canada
Panama missed every opportunity to attend the 2022 Qatar World Cup after losing 5-1 to the United States last Sunday. Now there is nothing at stake, but they will play their last match of the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers at home and could take advantage of the venue to say goodbye with a victory in front of their people and try to ruin the party for the Canadian national team.
Canada has secured the direct ticket to the World Cup after making an almost perfect octagonal final, with only one defeat in 13 matches played so far, and thanks to that it will return to a World Cup after 36 years of absence since the last time it participated was in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
Jamaica vs Honduras
The only Concacaf World Cup Qualifier match that has nothing at stake is Jamaica vs Honduras as both occupy positions 7 and 8, respectively. However, Honduras will try to get their first victory since they are the only team that in 13 games has not been able to win so far. They have four draws and nine defeats, so they only recorded four points.
While a win would not allow them to get out of last place in the zone, at least it would be a positive thing in the closing of the elimination process. For their part, Jamaica only hopes not to lose in their last home game.
