The national men’s soccer team of the US has already gained its position in the regional qualifiers for World Cup 2022. Last week of August they were given a clearer indication of how they would reach the Qatar grounds.
Concacaf conducted a draw whereby the governing body decided on the qualifying rounds, their schedules, and formats. As per this, the US would be part of a schedule of 14 matches that would be held in June next year. Opponents are Trinidad, El Salvador, and Tobago. Their coach stated that clarity is important since it gives them a beacon, a light that would guide them on their training objectives. The focus is on for the coming two years to get to the tournament in 2022.
Other countries that are cleared for final rounds are Jamaica, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Mexico. There are three remaining slots that would be determined among 30 countries in two rounds that would start in October.
The draw that is Concacaf recently served several purposes. It helped to establish six groups of five teams for first-round and to align the playoffs for the second round. It also helped set the schedule for the final round. This will start in June 2021 and finish in March 2022. Among the eight teams, 3 would qualify for the final round. A fourth team will be chosen for the intercontinental playoff. Since the pandemic has impacted scheduling of the qualifying games, the format was accordingly changed by Concacaf.
El Salvador holds the top position in Group A after which comes Tobago, Trinidad that holds their positions in Group F. Other top seeds in different groups are Canada in B, Panama in D, Curacao in C, and Haiti in E.
The US team now has the clarity that they would be visiting Honduras as well as hosting Jamaica in June next year. There would be back to back matches in the fall of 2021 with Mexico and Costa Rica. They would then be visiting Mexico in January and hosting Honduras in the same month while the final match would be in March 2022 with Costa Rica.