2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

The CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football) qualification stage for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa consisted of 35 national teams competing for the three berths given automatically to CONCACAF by FIFA. The United States, Mexico and Honduras qualified. The fourth-place finisher, Costa Rica, played a two-game playoff with the CONMEBOL fifth-place finisher,Uruguay, for a possible fourth berth.

The First and Second Rounds reduced the 35 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 2008 and ended in November 2008. The top 3 teams from the Fourth Round group of 6 (held from February to October 2009) qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The 4th place team competed in a home-and-away playoff against the 5th-place team from CONMEBOL.

The draw took place on 25 November 2007 in Durban, South Africa and it determined the fixtures for the preliminary rounds. In addition, because second round winners are paired off for the third round, the top 13 seeds have been subdivided as follows:

In the 2nd round, the 13 top-ranked CONCACAF teams from the May 2007 FIFA World Ranking joined 11 winners from the 1st Round.

The 22 teams ranked 14 to 35 competed in the First Round. Teams ranked 14th–24th were randomly drawn against teams ranked 25th–35th. Teams played home and away against their opponents, except three ties: Puerto Rico–Dominican Republic, Grenada–U.S. Virgin Islands and Montserrat–Suriname, which were played over one leg in late March due to several Member Associations failing to meet the new FIFA Stadium standards and being unable to secure a home venue. The winners advanced to the Second Round.

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