The match on 16 November 2021 between Canada and Mexico, held in Edmonton, marked the coldest match played in Mexican football history, kicking off at −9 °C (16 °F) with a heavy snowstorm the day before.[3][4] The match was seen by 2.1 million viewers in the United States on the day of its original broadcast, becoming Telemundo's most-watched sporting event since the 2019 Copa América final.[5]
Format
Eight teams (CONCACAF teams ranked 1 to 5 based on the FIFA rankings of July 2020, and the three winners of the second round) played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format for a total of 14 matches per team. The top three teams qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, while the fourth-placed team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs in Qatar.[6][7][8]
Schedule
The third round was originally scheduled to begin in June 2021, but was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] The full schedule for the third round was announced on 16 June 2021,[10] and confirmed on 9 August 2021.[11]
Matchday
Dates
Matches
Original dates
Matchday 1
2 September 2021
1 v 2, 3 v 4, 5 v 6, 7 v 8
June 2021
Matchday 2
5 September 2021
4 v 1, 3 v 2, 6 v 7, 8 v 5
Matchday 3
8 September 2021
1 v 3, 2 v 4, 5 v 7, 6 v 8
Matchday 4
7 October 2021
7 v 1, 2 v 6, 3 v 5, 4 v 8
Matchday 5
10 October 2021
8 v 1, 7 v 2, 6 v 3, 5 v 4
September 2021
Matchday 6
13 October 2021
1 v 5, 2 v 8, 3 v 7, 4 v 6
Matchday 7
12 November 2021
1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 8, 4 v 7
October 2021
Matchday 8
16 November 2021
1 v 7, 6 v 2, 5 v 3, 8 v 4
Matchday 9
27 January 2022
2 v 1, 4 v 3, 6 v 5, 8 v 7
November 2021
Matchday 10
30 January 2022
1 v 4, 2 v 3, 7 v 6, 5 v 8
Matchday 11
2 February 2022
3 v 1, 4 v 2, 7 v 5, 8 v 6
January 2022
Matchday 12
24 March 2022
6 v 1, 5 v 2, 8 v 3, 7 v 4
Matchday 13
27 March 2022
1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5
March 2022
Matchday 14
30 March 2022
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.[12] For consistency, the three winners of the second round are shown with their FIFA rankings as of July 2020.[12]
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.[14]
^ abcIdentity of the team unknown at the time of the draw.
^The Panama v Mexico match was originally scheduled on 8 September 2021, 20:05 local time,[11] but was re-scheduled to 19:05 local time since Panama maintained a midnight curfew as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]
^Referee Jair Marrufo from United States, who was originally assigned to the Jamaica v Costa Rica match,[18] was replaced by Marco Ortíz from Mexico.[19]
^The Jamaica v El Salvador match was originally scheduled on 24 September 2021, 19:00 local time,[20] but was rescheduled to 18:05 local time.[21]