2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF third round

The third round of CONCACAF matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 4 to 8 September 2015.^[1]^[2]

Format

A total of twelve teams (teams ranked 7–8 in the CONCACAF entrant list and ten second round winners) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the fourth round.

Seeding

The draw for the third round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.^[1]^[3]^[4]

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of August 2014 (shown in parentheses).^[5] The twelve teams were seeded into two pots:

Pot 3 contained the teams ranked 1–6 (i.e., Jamaica and Haiti, ranked 7–8 in the CONCACAF entrant list, plus four higher-ranked second round winners).
Pot 4 contained the teams ranked 7–12 (i.e., six lower-ranked second round winners).

Each tie contained a team from Pot 3 and a team from Pot 4, with the order of legs decided by draw.

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the fourth round.

Pot 3	Pot 4
Jamaica (85) Haiti (117) Canada (122) Aruba (124) El Salvador (127) Guatemala (134)	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (134) Grenada (142) Antigua and Barbuda (149) Belize (162) Nicaragua (175) Curaçao (182)

Note: Guatemala were seeded into Pot 3 as they had more FIFA ranking points (203.24) than Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (202.53). In the FIFA World Rankings, teams shared the same ranking if their ranking points rounded to the same whole number.

Matches

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Curaçao	0–2	El Salvador	0–1	0–1
Canada	4–1	Belize	3–0	1–1
Grenada	1–6	Haiti	1–3	0–3
Jamaica	4–3	Nicaragua	2–3	2–0
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	3–2	Aruba	2–0	1–2
Antigua and Barbuda	1–2	Guatemala	1–0	0–2

4 September 2015 (2015-09-04)

19:05 UTC−4

Curaçao	0–1	El Salvador
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Larín 12'

Ergilio Hato Stadium, Willemstad

Attendance: 6,000

Referee: Valdin Legister (Jamaica)

8 September 2015 (2015-09-08)

19:35 UTC−6

El Salvador	1–0	Curaçao
Barrios 9'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Estadio Cuscatlán, San Salvador

Attendance: 27,884

Referee: Ricardo Montero (Costa Rica)

El Salvador won 2–0 on aggregate and advanced to the fourth round (Group A).

4 September 2015 (2015-09-04)

19:37 UTC−4

Canada	3–0	Belize
Ricketts 25', 63' Hutchinson 90'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

BMO Field, Toronto

Attendance: 10,400

Referee: John Pitti (Panama)

8 September 2015 (2015-09-08)

19:00 UTC−6

Belize	1–1	Canada
McCaulay 26'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Johnson 45'

FFB Stadium, Belmopan

Attendance: 2,500

Referee: Javier Santos (Puerto Rico)

Canada won 4–1 on aggregate and advanced to the fourth round (Group A).

4 September 2015 (2015-09-04)

16:21 UTC−4

Grenada	1–3	Haiti
Straker 33' (pen.)	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Maurice 27' Jérôme 38' Nazon 56'

National Cricket Stadium, St. George's

Attendance: 5,100

Referee: Héctor Rodríguez (Honduras)

8 September 2015 (2015-09-08)

19:00 UTC−4

Haiti	3–0	Grenada
Guerrier 26' Nazon 38' Belfort 50'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Stade Sylvio Cator, Port-au-Prince

Attendance: 13,764

Referee: David Gantar (Canada)

Haiti won 6–1 on aggregate and advanced to the fourth round (Group B).

4 September 2015 (2015-09-04)

20:00 UTC−5

Jamaica	2–3	Nicaragua
Mattocks 69' Mariappa 78'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Rosas 5' (pen.) Chavarría 8' Galeano 48'

Independence Park, Kingston

Attendance: 18,300

Referee: Marlon Mejía (El Salvador)

8 September 2015 (2015-09-08)

19:30 UTC−6

Nicaragua	0–2	Jamaica
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Mattocks 13' Dawkins 89'

Nicaragua National Football Stadium, Managua

Attendance: 18,000

Referee: Oscar Reyna (Guatemala)

Jamaica won 4–3 on aggregate and advanced to the fourth round (Group B).

4 September 2015 (2015-09-04)

15:30 UTC−4

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2–0	Aruba
Slater 51' Anderson 90' (pen.)	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Arnos Vale Stadium, Kingstown

Attendance: 4,100

Referee: Rodphin Harris (Trinidad and Tobago)

8 September 2015 (2015-09-08)

20:00 UTC−4

Aruba	2–1	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Danso 4', 50'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Slater 84'

Trinidad Stadium, Oranjestad

Attendance: 950

Referee: José Alfredo Peñaloza (Mexico)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines won 3–2 on aggregate and advanced to the fourth round (Group C).

4 September 2015 (2015-09-04)

20:05 UTC−4

Antigua and Barbuda	1–0	Guatemala
Weston 72' (pen.)	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound

Attendance: 7,005

Referee: Armando Villarreal (United States)

8 September 2015 (2015-09-08)

20:06 UTC−6

Guatemala	2–0	Antigua and Barbuda
Ruiz 61' López 75'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City

Attendance: 5,206

Referee: Roberto García (Mexico)

Guatemala won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the fourth round (Group C).

Goalscorers

There were 29 goals scored in 12 matches, for an average of 2.42 goals per match.

2 goals

1 goal

References

^ ^a ^b "CONCACAF to Hold Preliminary FIFA World Cup Qualifying Draw in Miami on January 15". CONCACAF. 12 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
^ "USMNT to start 2018 World Cup qualifying in November of 2015". Sports Illustrated. 12 January 2015.
^ "Draw Procedures – North, Central American & Caribbean Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 24, 2015.
^ "Draw shines light on CONCACAF's WCQ path". CONCACAF. 25 July 2015. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
^ "FIFA Men's Ranking – August 2014 (CONCACAF)". FIFA.com. 14 August 2014. Archived from the original on December 2, 2014.