2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

Tournament details
Dates	February 28th 2004 - November 16th 2005
Teams	34[1] (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	112
Goals scored	378 (3.38 per match)
Attendance	1,669,098 (14,903 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jared Borgetti (14 Goals)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for North, Central America and the Caribbean. A total of 34 teams took part (out of 35 eligible – only Puerto Rico declined to participate), competing for 3.5 places in the World Cup.

The qualification process was divided in four stages. In the first stage, the 34 teams were divided in 10 groups of three teams each and two groups of two teams each. Groups with three teams had two rounds, with the best ranked team according to FIFA in each group entering the competition in the second round. In each group, teams were paired 2-by-2 and played home-and-away matches.

The 12 winners of the second stage advanced to the third stage, where they were divided into three groups of four teams each. Teams in each group would play against each other home-and-away, and the two teams with most points in each group would advance to the final round.

In the fourth stage, the six teams were put in a single group, and played against each other home-and-away. The three teams with most points qualified to the World Cup. The fourth placed team advanced to the AFC–CONCACAF play-off against the winner of a play-off between third placed teams in the Third Round of Asia.

Format

The First and Second Rounds reduced the 34 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 2004 and ended in November 2004. The top three teams from the Fourth Round group of six (held from February 2005 to October 2005) qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The fourth-placed team competed in a home-and-away play-off against the fifth-placed team from Asia.

First round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Grenada	8–1	Guyana	5–0	3–1
Bermuda	20–0	Montserrat	13–0	7–0
Haiti	7–0	Turks and Caicos Islands	5–0	2–0
British Virgin Islands	0–10	Saint Lucia	0–1	0–9
Cayman Islands	1–5	Cuba	1–2	0–3
Aruba	2–10	Suriname	1–2	1–8
Antigua and Barbuda	2–3	Netherlands Antilles	2–0	0–3
Dominica	4–2	Bahamas	1–1	3–1
U.S. Virgin Islands	0–11	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0–4	0–7
Dominican Republic	6–0	Anguilla	0–0	6–0

Second round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
United States	6–2	Grenada	3–0	3–2
El Salvador	4–3	Bermuda	2–1	2–2
Haiti	1–4	Jamaica	1–1	0–3
Panama	7–0	Saint Lucia	4–0	3–0
Cuba	3–3 (a)	Costa Rica	2–2	1–1
Suriname	2–4	Guatemala	1–1	1–3
Netherlands Antilles	1–6	Honduras	1–2	0–4
Canada	8–0	Belize	4–0	4–0
Dominica	0–18	Mexico	0–10	0–8
Barbados	2–5	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0–2	2–3
Dominican Republic	0–6	Trinidad and Tobago	0–2	0–4
Nicaragua	3–6	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2–2	1–4

Third round

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  United States 6 3 3 0 13 3 +10 12 — 6–0 1–1 2–0  Panama 6 2 2 2 8 11 −3 8 1–1 — 1–1 3–0  Jamaica 6 1 4 1 7 5 +2 7 1–1 1–2 — 0–0  El Salvador 6 1 1 4 2 11 −9 4 0–2 2–1 0–3 — Source:

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Costa Rica 6 3 1 2 12 8 +4 10 — 5–0 2–5 1–0  Guatemala 6 3 1 2 7 9 −2 10 2–1 — 1–0 0–1  Honduras 6 1 4 1 9 7 +2 7 0–0 2–2 — 1–1  Canada 6 1 2 3 4 8 −4 5 1–3 0–2 1–1 — Source:

Group 3

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Mexico	6	6	0	0	27	1	+26	18		—	3–0	7–0	8–0
Trinidad and Tobago	6	4	0	2	12	9	+3	12		1–3	—	2–1	5–1
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	6	2	0	4	5	12	−7	6		0–1	0–2	—	1–0
Saint Kitts and Nevis	6	0	0	6	2	24	−22	0		0–5	1–2	0–3	—

Source:

Fourth round

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	United States	10	7	1	2	16	6	+10	22[lower-alpha 1]		—	2–0	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–0
2	Mexico	10	7	1	2	22	9	+13	22[lower-alpha 1]		2–1	—	2–0	2–0	5–2	5–0
3	Costa Rica	10	5	1	4	15	14	+1	16		3–0	1–2	—	2–0	3–2	2–1
4	Trinidad and Tobago	10	4	1	5	10	15	−5	13		1–2	2–1	0–0	—	3–2	2–0
5	Guatemala	10	3	2	5	16	18	−2	11		0–0	0–2	3–1	5–1	—	2–1
6	Panama	10	0	2	8	4	21	−17	2		0–3	1–1	1–3	0–1	0–0	—

• United States finished ahead of Mexico based on results between tied teams which were the first tiebreaker.
• Mexico, United States and Costa Rica advanced to the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Trinidad and Tobago advanced to the AFC-CONCACAF play-off.

Inter-confederation play-offs

The Fourth Round fourth-placed team then played the fifth-placed team of the AFC qualifying group, Bahrain, in a home-and-away play-off. The winner of this play-off qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Trinidad and Tobago	2–1	Bahrain	1–1	1–0

Qualified teams

The following four teams from CONCACAF qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
United States	fourth round winners	3 September 2005	7 (1930, 1934, 1950, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
Mexico	fourth round runners-up	7 September 2005	12 (1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1978, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2002)
Costa Rica	fourth round third place	8 October 2005	2 (1990, 2002)
Trinidad and Tobago	CONCACAF-AFC play-off winners	16 November 2005	0 (debut)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

There were 378 goals scored in 112 matches (including 2 international play-offs), for an average of 3.38 goals per match.

14 goals

12 goals

11 goals

10 goals

8 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References