2010 World Cup Qualifying Starting with CONCACAF

For the 2010 World Cup, three or four teams from the CONCACAF Region will make it to South Africa to take part in the 2010 World Cup and represent their country´s pride and honor.

There are 35 countries in CONCACAF, but only three or four of those teams will advance thru 4determining rounds to see which teams will make the cut

The first two rounds being a single-elimination format.

The first round consists of eleven games between the teams ranked #35 to #14 by the official FIFA Rankings. The winners advance to the second round to play another single-elimination game agains the remaining 13 teams.

The twelve winners of the second-round matches advance to the third round. Here, the twelve teams are divided into three groups of four, where each team plays the other team one at home and once away. The top two teams in each table advances to the fourth and final round.

The final round consists of the six remaining teams in a single table. Once again, each team will play a home and away match against every other team in the group. The top three teams get an automatic birth to the World Cup. The team that places fourth has a home-away playoff with the fifth-place team from the South American Region for a spot in the World Cup.

This year, the top three teams according to the May 2007 FIFA Rankings were Mexico, United States and Costa Rica. All three of those teams advanced. USA and Costa Rica advanced rather easily, while Mexico struggled in the third round and ended up advancing due to goal differential.
Honduras (ranked #4) and Trinidad & Tobago (#6) also advanced to the final round. #20-ranked El Salvador was the surprising final team.

The dates for the final round have been announced, with the first games of the round being played on February 11th. Asian sportsbooks will no doubt have USA and Costa Rica as heavy favorites throughout. Mexico will also be favored the majority of the time, but their spotty play may worry some online football bettors.

Costa Rica has looked the sharpest of the remaining countries, winning all six games in the third round and finishing with a goal differential of +17. The United States finished with five wins and one defeat, while Mexico struggled with three wins, two losses and a draw.

The matches set for February 11th have Costa Rica opening at home against Honduras, USA hosting Mexico, and Trinidad & Tobago travelling to El Salvador.

The World Cup is the most watched event in the sporting world so don´t let people fool you when they say the Super Bowl is the most watched event.