The Americas Group
Three teams from the Americas Group will qualify directly for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, while one team will battle it out in an inter-confederation play-off to see if they too can progress. The format for the Americas Group now has four stages, with the first round effectively a knock-out round in order to reduce the overall number of teams.
The second round consists of six groups of four teams, with the top team in each group advancing to round three. These six teams will join up with the six highest ranking nations in the confederation who got an automatic bye to the third round. The top six nations which have received a bye to the third round are: USA, Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Cuba.
In the third round there are three groups of four teams, with the top two from each of these groups progressing through to the final round.
In the fourth and final round the six qualifying teams play each other home and away in one group of six. the top three from the final group qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil while the fourth placed team will have to play a nerve wracking inter-continental play-off.
