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The winter slate of World Cup qualifying is coming to a close for CONCACAF and the USMNT has some work to do in its final four matches. A tough loss on Sunday is likely to drop the US into third place heading into the final match of the winter slate.
Team USA went north to face Canada in Ontario and came away with a loss. Cyle Larin got Canada up 1-0 in the seventh minute and the US simply could not get anything going. Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan was solid enough, but the US couldn’t get consistent shots on goal in the loss. Sam Adekugbe added a goal in second half extra time and Canada won 2-0.
The USA-Canada was the first game of Sunday, so the USMNT now awaits the later results to see if they drop into third. The remaining slate has Mexico hosting Costa Rica, Panama hosting Jamaica, and Honduras hosting El Salvador. If Mexico wins, they’ll climb into second place. If Panama wins, the US will be one point up on fourth place.
Meanwhile, Canada is closing in on securing the group. They have the goal differential tiebreaker edge over everybody behind them and have wrapped up their toughest home-and-aways against the US and Mexico. They need some help on Sunday and again Wednesday, but they could punch their ticket to the 2022 World Cup on Wednesday when they travel to face El Salvador.
UPDATE: Panama came back from a 1-0 deficit to beat Jamaica 3-2. They improve to 5-2-3 and are tied with Mexico at 17 points. Mexico has the tiebreaker edge thanks to goal differential.
UPDATE: Mexico could not get on the board against Costa Rica and had to settle for a 0-0 tie. El Tri moves into a tie with the USMNT, who has the tiebreaker edge with +6 goal differential to Mexico’s +5.
UPDATE: El Salvador beat Honduras 2-0. They move into sixth place with their second win of this qualifying stage.
The top three teams receive automatic qualification to the 2022 World Cup. The fourth-place team goes to a playoff round among all the federations, scheduled to take place in June 2022.
CONCACAF World Cup qualifying standings, through Jan 30
- Canada, 6-4-0, 22 Points
- USA, 5-3-2, 18 Points
- Mexico, 5-3-2, 18 points
- Panama, 5-2-3, 17 Points
- Costa Rica, 3-3-3, 12 points
- El Salvador, 2-3-5, 9 Points
- Jamaica, 1-4-5, 7 points
- Honduras, 0-3-7, 3 points