A total of eight teams (CONCACAF teams ranked 1 to 5 based on the FIFA rankings of July 2020, and the three winners of the second round) will play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 14 matches per team. The top three teams will qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, while the fourth-placed team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.[2]
Schedule
The third round was originally scheduled to begin in June 2021, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]
Matchday
Original dates
Revised dates
Fixtures
Matchday 1
June 2021
September 2021
1 v 2, 3 v 4, 5 v 6, 7 v 8
Matchday 2
4 v 1, 3 v 2, 6 v 7, 8 v 5
Matchday 3
1 v 3, 2 v 4, 5 v 7, 6 v 8
Matchday 4
October 2021
7 v 1, 2 v 6, 3 v 5, 4 v 8
Matchday 5
September 2021
8 v 1, 7 v 2, 6 v 3, 5 v 4
Matchday 6
1 v 5, 2 v 8, 3 v 7, 4 v 6
Matchday 7
October 2021
November 2021
1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 8, 4 v 7
Matchday 8
1 v 7, 6 v 2, 5 v 3, 8 v 4
Matchday 9
November 2021
January 2022
2 v 1, 4 v 3, 6 v 5, 8 v 7
Matchday 10
1 v 4, 2 v 3, 7 v 6, 5 v 8
Matchday 11
January 2022
3 v 1, 4 v 2, 7 v 5, 8 v 6
Matchday 12
March 2022
6 v 1, 5 v 2, 8 v 3, 7 v 4
Matchday 13
March 2022
1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5
Matchday 14
5 v 1, 8 v 2, 7 v 3, 6 v 4
Qualified teams
The top five teams based on the FIFA rankings of July 2020 (shown in parentheses) received a bye to the third round.[4]
Teams were drawn from a single pot, and then were allocated a position (from 1 to 8) to determine the match schedule. The identity of the three second round winners was not known at the time of the draw.[6]
Mexico (11)
United States (22)
Costa Rica (46)
Jamaica (48)
Honduras (62)
Winner of B v E[a]
Honduras
United States
Costa Rica
Mexico
Jamaica