A regular and a return. Two new countries qualified for the 2022 World Cup last night on the 14th and final day of qualifying for the Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Football) zone. These are Mexico and the United States. The Mexicans did not tremble by winning quietly (2-0) against El Salvador thanks to goals from Atkins and Jimenez in the first act and finished 2nd in the final standings behind Canada, already qualified. It will be the 17th participation in the World Cup, the 8th in a row for Mexico which reached the quarter-finals at home in 1970 and 1986, their best performance in the competition.
Absent at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the United States are making their comeback. They could afford to lose with less than 6 goals in Costa Rica to compose their ticket for Qatar and they succeeded by losing 2-0 against the selection led by PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas. Third in the standings, the USA qualified for their 11th World Cup whose best course dates back to the first edition in 1930 when they reached the semi-finals.
For Costa Rica, which finished 4th, all is not over. They have one last chance to participate in the World Cup in Qatar (from November 21 to December 18) because they will play one of the two intercontinental play-offs against New Zealand, which won against the Solomon Islands (5-0) in the final of the Oceania zone. The match will be played on June 13 or 14.
