FIFA: World Cup qualifying begins to gain momentum

With Belize’s 3-1 second leg victory over Montserrat on Sunday, helping the former to an 8-3 aggregate win over the latter, the first round of FIFA World Cup qualifying in the CONCACAF region has been completed.

Daniel Jimenez, Deon McCauley and Luis Mendez scored the goals which sealed Belize’s passage into the second qualifying round in which they will join other first round winners Dominican Republic, St Lucia, Bahamas and the US Virgin Islands and nineteen other nations into the draw for the next round which takes place on July 30^th in Rio de Janeiro.

This week also sees the beginning of the second round of Asian qualifying with thirty teams fighting for the 15 places available in the next round, the draw for which will also take place on July 30^th along with the main FIFA World Cup qualifying draws for Oceania, Africa and Europe. South America, with just nine teams playing in a round-robin home-and-away format, will not require a draw to be made for qualifying.