2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF first round

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF first round
Tournament details
Dates	22 – 31 March 2015
Teams	14 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	14
Goals scored	51 (3.64 per match)
Attendance	35,468 (2,533 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Nahki Wells ; Harry Panayiotou; (3 goals each)
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The first round of CONCACAF matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification was played between 22 and 31 March 2015.^[1]^[2]

Format

A total of 14 teams (teams ranked 22–35 in the CONCACAF entrant list) played home-and-away over two legs. The seven winners advanced to the second round.

Seeding

The draw for the first round was held on 15 January 2015, 19:40 EST (UTC−5), at the W Hotel at Miami Beach, Florida, United States.^[3]

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of August 2014 (shown in parentheses).^[1]^[4] The 14 teams were seeded into two pots:

Pot 1 contained the teams ranked 1–7 (i.e., 22–28 in the CONCACAF entrant list).
Pot 2 contained the teams ranked 8–14 (i.e., 29–35 in the CONCACAF entrant list).

Each tie contained a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, with the order of legs decided by draw.

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the second round.

Pot 1	Pot 2
Saint Kitts and Nevis (159) Belize (162) Montserrat (165) Dominica (168) Barbados (169) Bermuda (173) Nicaragua (175)	Turks and Caicos Islands (181) Curaçao (182) U.S. Virgin Islands (191) Bahamas (193) Cayman Islands (197) British Virgin Islands (201) Anguilla (207)

Matches

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahamas	0–8	Bermuda	0–5	0–3
British Virgin Islands	2–3	Dominica	2–3	0–0
Barbados	4–1	U.S. Virgin Islands	0–1	4–0
Saint Kitts and Nevis	12–4^{[note 1]}	Turks and Caicos Islands	6–2	6–2
Nicaragua	8–0	Anguilla	5–0	3–0
Belize	1–1 (a)	Cayman Islands	0–0	1–1
Curaçao	4–3	Montserrat	2–1	2–2

25 March 2015

19:30 UTC−4

Bahamas	0–5	Bermuda
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Leverock 4' Wells 14' (pen.) Lewis 29' Donawa 57', 70'

Thomas Robinson Stadium, Nassau

Attendance: 3,500

Referee: Armando Villarreal (United States)

29 March 2015

15:00 UTC−3

Bermuda	3–0	Bahamas
Wells 79', 87' Burgess 81'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Bermuda National Stadium, Devonshire

Attendance: 4,370

Referee: Ricardo Montero (Costa Rica)

Bermuda won 8–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Guatemala.

26 March 2015

19:00 UTC−4

British Virgin Islands	2–3	Dominica
E. Moss 42' Johnson 52'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Elizee 45+1' Mit. Joseph 65' Peltier 80'

Windsor Park, Roseau (Dominica)^{[note 2]}

Attendance: 1,169

Referee: Karl Tyrell (Jamaica)

29 March 2015

17:00 UTC−4

Dominica	0–0	British Virgin Islands
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Windsor Park, Roseau

Attendance: 2,661

Referee: Fernando Guerrero (Mexico)

Dominica won 3–2 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Canada.

22 March 2015

19:00 UTC−4

Barbados	0–1	U.S. Virgin Islands
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Browne 16'

Barbados National Stadium, Bridgetown

Attendance: 2,300

Referee: Kimbell Ward (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

26 March 2015

15:30 UTC−4

U.S. Virgin Islands	0–4	Barbados
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Sargeant 4' Jam. Chandler 25' Harte 76' Jab. Chandler 90'

Addelita Cancryn Junior High School Ground, Charlotte Amalie

Attendance: 410

Referee: Kevin Morrison (Jamaica)

Barbados won 4–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Aruba.

23 March 2015

20:00 UTC−4

Saint Kitts and Nevis	6–2	Turks and Caicos Islands
Harris 18' T. Leader 43' O. Mitchum 45+3', 90' Hanley 68' O'Loughlin 86'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Forbes 22' T. Leader 74' (o.g.)

Warner Park, Basseterre

Attendance: 2,000

Referee: Sherwin Moore (Guyana)

26 March 2015

19:00 UTC−4

Turks and Caicos Islands	2–6	Saint Kitts and Nevis
Calixte 5' (pen.), 14' (pen.)	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	J. Leader 7', 29' Panayiotou 33' (pen.), 55', 60' Robbins 73'

TCIFA National Academy, Providenciales

Attendance: 420

Referee: Elmer Bonilla (El Salvador)

Saint Kitts and Nevis won 12–4 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against El Salvador.

23 March 2015

18:00 UTC−6

Nicaragua	5–0	Anguilla
Galeano 12' Copete 25', 39' Barrera 37' Lazo 63'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

Nicaragua National Football Stadium, Managua

Attendance: 4,214

Referee: Jafeth Perea (Panama)

29 March 2015

17:00 UTC−4

Anguilla	0–3	Nicaragua
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Leguías 22', 67' Barrera 45+1'

Ronald Webster Park, The Valley

Attendance: 1,200

Referee: Óscar Moncada (Honduras)

Nicaragua won 8–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Suriname.

25 March 2015

20:00 UTC−6

Belize	0–0	Cayman Islands
	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)

FFB Stadium, Belmopan

Attendance: 1,924

Referee: Oscar Reyna (Guatemala)

29 March 2015

19:00 UTC−5

Cayman Islands	1–1	Belize
M. Ebanks 5'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Kuylen 20'

Truman Bodden Sports Complex, George Town

Attendance: 1,800

Referee: Yadel Martínez (Cuba)

1–1 on aggregate. Belize won on the away goals rule and advanced to the second round against Dominican Republic.

27 March 2015

20:00 UTC−4

Curaçao	2–1	Montserrat
Merencia 8' Zschusschen 39' (pen.)	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Taylor 24'

Ergilio Hato Stadium, Willemstad

Attendance: 9,000

Referee: Óscar Dávila (Nicaragua)

31 March 2015

19:00 UTC−4

Montserrat	2–2	Curaçao
Willer 65' Woods-Garness 83'	Report (FIFA) Report (CONCACAF)	Lachman 41' Vicento 89'

Blakes Estate Stadium, St. John's

Attendance: 500

Referee: Rodphin Harris (Trinidad and Tobago)

Curaçao won 4–3 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Cuba.

Goalscorers

There were 51 goals scored in 14 matches, for an average of 3.64 goals per match.

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Thrizen Leader (against Turks and Caicos Islands)

Notes

^ Order of legs reversed from originally published draw.
^ Both legs were played in Dominica due to incomplete work at the A. O. Shirley Recreation Ground of the British Virgin Islands.^[5]

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 21 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
^ "USMNT to start 2018 World Cup qualifying in November of 2015". Sports Illustrated. 12 January 2015.
^ "Official Draw: CONCACAF Qualifiers for FIFA World Cup Russia 2018". CONCACAF.com. 15 January 2015. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
^ "FIFA Men's Ranking – August 2014 (CONCACAF)". FIFA.com. 14 August 2014. Archived from the original on 2 December 2014.
^ "BVI to play FIFA home qualifying matches in Dominica". Virgin Islands Daily News. 3 February 2015. Archived from the original on 7 February 2015.

External links

Official FIFA World Cup website
- Qualifiers – North, Central America and Caribbean: Round 1, FIFA.com
World Cup Qualifying – Men, CONCACAF.com

[order-5] Order of legs reversed from originally published draw.

[BVI-7] Both legs were played in Dominica due to incomplete work at the A. O. Shirley Recreation Ground of the British Virgin Islands.^[5]

[approval-1] "CONCACAF to Hold Preliminary FIFA World Cup Qualifying Draw in Miami on January 15". CONCACAF. 12 January 2015. Archived from the original on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.

[2] "USMNT to start 2018 World Cup qualifying in November of 2015". Sports Illustrated. 12 January 2015.

[preliminary_draw-3] "Official Draw: CONCACAF Qualifiers for FIFA World Cup Russia 2018". CONCACAF.com. 15 January 2015. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.

[4] "FIFA Men's Ranking – August 2014 (CONCACAF)". FIFA.com. 14 August 2014. Archived from the original on 2 December 2014.

[6] "BVI to play FIFA home qualifying matches in Dominica". Virgin Islands Daily News. 3 February 2015. Archived from the original on 7 February 2015.

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