CONCACAF Preliminary Draw

The top seeds in each group are the United States of America, México, and Costa Rica. The second seeds in each group are Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, and Panamá. The other seeded teams were Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica, Canada, Guyana, and Haiti. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines received a first-round bye. Note that Guadeloupe are not members of FIFA and therefore cannot participate in the World Cup despite their semifinal appearance at the 2007 Gold Cup.

The team listed first is the home team for the first match of the two-legged playoff. The numbers are the teams' current ELO ratings.

Group A:
185 Dominica vs. 133 Barbados
28 United States of America vs. Winner

214 Turks and Caicos Islands vs. 162 St. Lucia
81 Guatemala vs. Winner

166 Bermuda vs. 187 Cayman Islands
84 Trinidad and Tobago vs. Winner

193 Aruba vs. 177 Antigua and Barbuda
Winner vs. 85 Cuba

Group B:
189 Belize vs. 150 St. Kitts and Nevis
Winner vs. 12 México

198 Bahamas vs. 191 British Virgin Islands
67 Jamaica vs. Winner

174 Dominican Republic vs. 197 Puerto Rico
46 Honduras vs. Winner

54 Canada vs. 128 St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Group C:
215 U.S. Virgin Islands vs. 162 Grenada
Winner vs. 50 Costa Rica

147 Suriname vs. 219 Montserrat
Winner vs. 125 Guyana

112 El Salvador vs. 219 Anguilla
65 Panamá vs. Winner

179 Nicaragua vs. 173 Netherlands Antilles
71 Haiti vs. Winner

I see the teams with byes to round two all coming through to round three, although Panamá vs. El Salvador and Haiti vs. Nicaragua will be great ties. I also see Canada coming through against St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I picked the top twelve seeds to advance to the final twelve, so we'll see how many upsets disprove my predictions.