To get to the 2022 World Cup, the U.S. national team will have to survive the octagon.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the traditional six-team Hexagonal is no more. Instead, Concacaf will determine its three automatic World Cup berths with an eight-nation, home-and-home round-robin scheduled to kick off in June 2021, the regional governing body announced Monday. The USA and its rivals each will play 14 matches, after which the top three finishers will book their spots in Qatar. The fourth-place team will head to the intercontinental playoff in June 2022.
Even with the additional qualifiers (each final-round participant would’ve played only 10 games under the old format), Concacaf’s plan provides room for the 2021 Gold Cup, the Nations League final four and friendlies.