The US national team was left out of the 2018 World Cup. Panama qualified for the world championship for the first time.
The strongest North American team — the US team — which won the CONCACAF Gold Cup this summer, will not attend the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
To qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the Americans had to play a draw with the outsider of the selection of the Trinidad and Tobago national team in the last round of selection, but the United States unexpectedly lost 1: 2 and finished fifth without even making the play-offs. Thus, the US team will miss the World Cup final for the first time since 1986.
But the Panama national team for the first time in its history will play in the final tournament of the World Cup. In the final round of the CONCACAF qualifying round, Panama defeated Costa Rica (2-1). At the same time, defender Roman Torres scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.
In another match of the zone, the Honduras national team won against Mexico (3: 2). And thus, Honduras, who played in the previous two world championships, finished fourth in the CONCACAF zone and made it to the play-offs.
The rival of Honduras will be Australia, which defeated Syria on aggregate. On November 6, the teams will play in Honduras, on November 14 — in Sydney.