{"id":47533,"date":"2022-01-28T07:24:43","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T07:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47533"},"modified":"2022-01-28T07:24:43","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T07:24:43","slug":"ecuador-usa-edge-closer-to-qatar-2022-world-cup-qualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47533","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador, USA edge closer to Qatar 2022 World Cup qualification"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Roundup of the World Cup 2022 qualification matches that took place on Thursday.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ecuador is one win away from returning to the World Cup after a 1-1 home draw with South American qualifying leaders Brazil.<\/p>\n

Coach Gustavo Alfaro\u2019s team will qualify to play in Qatar if it beats Peru next week.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on Thursday, Chile, once a force in the region, saw its chances shrink dramatically after a 2-1 home loss to second-place Argentina who had rested Lionel Messi for the game.<\/p>\n

The Chileans will have to pull good results at Bolivia and Brazil, with their last match in the competition likely to be in Santiago against bitter rival Uruguay.<\/p>\n

Uruguay, meanwhile, rose back to contention after a 1-0 win at Paraguay, with a goal by veteran Luis Suarez.<\/p>\n

It was the team\u2019s first win for new coach Diego Alonso, who took over after veteran Oscar Tab\u00e1rez was fired due to poor results.<\/p>\n

Brazil (36 points) and Argentina (32) have already qualified for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Ecuador has 24 points, five ahead of Uruguay. Colombia and Peru, which will clash in Barranquilla, Colombia, on Friday, are at 17 points.<\/p>\n

Chile has 16 and could be overtaken by Bolivia (15), which will travel to Venezuela \u2013 the only team in the region out of contention for a spot.<\/p>\n

South America has four direct World Cup spots, and the fifth-place team will play an international playoff for a berth.<\/p>\n

US, Canada win to lead CONCACAF World Cup race<\/h3>\n

Canada and the United States stayed on course for World Cup qualification with crucial wins on Thursday as Mexico reignited their campaign with victory over Jamaica.<\/p>\n

Canada, looking to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986, scored a disciplined 2-0 away victory over Honduras in San Pedro Sula to stay on top of the CONCACAF standings with 19 points from nine games.<\/p>\n

The USA \u2013 desperate to qualify for this year\u2019s tournament after their shock failure to reach the 2018 World Cup in Russia \u2013 boosted their chances of qualification with a 1-0 win over El Salvador in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\"MexicoMexico\u2019s Alexis Vega celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates [Gilbert Bellamy\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

In other games on Thursday, Mexico snapped their two-game losing streak with a battling 2-1 win over Jamaica in Kingston.<\/p>\n

Mexico are one point behind the US with 17 points from nine games.<\/p>\n

Costa Rica edged Panama 1-0 on a goal from Bryan Ruiz, the defeat leaving Panama three points behind Mexico in the standings and Costa Rica a further two points back.<\/p>\n

The top three teams qualify automatically for the finals in Qatar, with the fourth-place team advancing to a playoff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roundup of the World Cup 2022 qualification matches that took place on Thursday.Ecuador is one win away from returning to the World Cup after a 1-1 home draw with South American qualifying leaders Brazil. Coach Gustavo Alfaro\u2019s team will qualify to play in Qatar if it beats Peru next week. Elsewhere on Thursday, Chile, once…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}