FIFA revealed the teams to contest Round Two and Three, in Concacaf, on the long road to Brazil 2014.
The draw procedure is difficult, but I will attempt to explain. Round One has already been played, it featured the ten lowest ranked nations in Concacaf, based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings of March 2011. These teams were paired into five home-and-away series with the winner of each series moving on to Round Two.
The five Round One winners, Belize, Dominican Republic, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Lucia and the Bahamas, now join the 19 next highest-ranked nations in the region, based of course on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings of March 2011. These 24 teams were drawn into six groups on Saturday July 30 with the winner of each group advancing to Round Three. Round two matches are expected to be played from September 2 to November 15 of this year.
The winner of each Round Two group will advance to Round Three where they face the remaining six teams which received byes for Round One and Two, the U.S.A. and Jamaica in Group A, Mexico and Costa Rica in Group B, Honduras and Cuba in Group C.
The Round Two winners of Group E and F will be placed in Round Three Group A; the Round Two winners of Group A and B will be placed in Round Three Group B; the Round Two winners of Group D and C will be placed in Round Three Group C.
The top two teams in Groups A, B and C will advance to Round Four with the top Three teams advancing to the World Cup in Brazil 2014. The fourth placed team will advance to the intercontinental play-off.
Canada, where I reside, is in Group D of Round Two with St. Kits and Nevis, Puerto Rico and St. Lucia. They should be able to cruise through Round Two and earn a berth into Round Three placing them with Cuba, Honduras and most likely Panama. Round Three will prove to be more difficult for the Canadians. I predict Honduras to advance while Panama and Canada will dispute second place and Cuba will most likely stay behind. I hope the Canadians can pull through, but in order to do so, I believe, they will have to earn wins, home and away, against Panama and Cuba.
The other Round Two group I'll be keeping my eye on is Group A which features my native land, El Salvador. They as well should cruise through Round Two and advance to Round Three. As in Canada's case, Round Three will be a lot more difficult for the Salvadorians as they would have to face Mexico, Costa Rica and most likely Trinidad and Tobago. I believe El Salvador have a chance to advance to the Fourth Round, but they will have to win four games, the two against Costa Rica and the two against their other rival, which I believe will be Trinidad and Tobago. I predict Mexico to take top spot while Costa Rica and El Salvador will fight for second place and Trinidad and Tobago will most likely stay behind. However, Trinidad and Tobago have been known to put together strong sides and if they do El Salvador and Costa Rica will have their hands full come game time.
Only time will tell which top three nations will advance to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil until then all we can do is hope, speculate and enjoy the beautiful game that is football.
It's called soccer....
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