Football - News

Football's World Cup- qualifying series for the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), steps up a gear next month with competition in Stage Two.

This stage of qualification kicks off on June 4 with 1982 World Cup qualifiers Honduras hosting Puerto Rico at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula.

CONCACAF has confirmed that the first-leg encounters continue on June 14 as Guatemala take on St Lucia at the Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City, while Grenada face Costa Rica at St George's National Stadium and then Suriname meet Guyana at Andres Kamperveen Stadium in Paramaribo.

The following day, June 15, the USA meet Barbados at the Home Depot Centre in Carson, California, while Trinidad and Tobago, the number one team in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), host Bermuda at Port of Spain's Hasely Crawford Stadium.

Belize will be the home team when they play against Mexico at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, while the Bahamas travel to face Jamaica with both legs set to be played in the host country - at Kingston's National Stadium on June 15 and the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium three days later.

Rounding out the first-leg encounters will be St Vincent and the Grenadines taking on visiting Canada at the Arnos Vale Playing Field in Kingstown, while Panama meet El Salvador at Panama City's Estadio Rod Carew and then Haiti hosting the Netherlands Antilles at Stade Sylvio Cator in Port-au-Prince.

Antigua and Barbuda will tackle Cuba at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Tuesday June 17.

The second-leg encounters for Stage Two are scheduled for June 18-22 with the exception of Puerto Rico against Honduras which will be played on June 14 at the Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

The 12 winners from Stage two will progress to semi-final round of CONCACAF World Cup-qualifying series that will be composed of three groups of four with matches running from August 20 to November 19.

The top two from each of the three groups will advance to the six-team CONCACAF Final Round scheduled for February 11 to October 14, 2009.

The top three teams from the CONCACAF Final Round in 2009 will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

CONCACAF's fourth-place finisher will play off with South America's fifth-place team in a home-and-away series for one of the last berths to the FIFA event.