Listed below are the dates and results for the tournament qualification. A total of 17 CONCACAF teams entered the competition. Honduras withdrew before the matches were played. The remaining 16 teams were divided into 3 zones, based on geographical considerations, as follows:

North American Zone had 3 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner and runner-up would advance to the Final Round.
Central American Zone had 4 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner and runner-up would advance to the Final Round.
Caribbean Zone had 9 teams, which would be divided into 2 groups of 4 or 5 teams. The teams played in a knockout tournament, with matches on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would advance to the Final Round.

CONCACAF North American Zone

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	4	1	2	1	3	1	+2	4	1977 CONCACAF Championship
2=	Canada (O)	4	1	2	1	2	3	−1	4^[a]	1977 CONCACAF Championship
2=	United States	4	1	2	1	3	4	−1	4^[a]

Source:^{[citation needed]}
(O) Play-off winners
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Equal points and equal goal differential. A play-off match was organized as a tiebreaker.

24 September 1976	Canada	1–1	United States	Vancouver, Canada
	Bolitho 77'		Bandov 8'	Stadium: Empire Stadium Attendance: 15,453^[1] Referee: Dorantes García (Mexico)

3 October 1976	United States	0–0	Mexico	Los Angeles, United States
				Stadium: Memorial Coliseum Attendance: 33,171^[2] Referee: Dante Maglio (Canada)

10 October 1976	Canada	1–0	Mexico	Vancouver, Canada
	Parsons 32'			Stadium: Empire Stadium Attendance: 17,939^[3] Referee: Toros Kibritjian (United States)

15 October 1976	Mexico	3–0	United States	Puebla, Mexico
	Solís 28' Álvarez 40' Dávila 83' (pen.)			Stadium: Cuauhtémoc Referee: Werner Winsemann (Canada)

20 October 1976	United States	2–0	Canada	Seattle, United States
	Rys 55' Veee 81'			Stadium: Kingdome Attendance: 17,675^[4] Referee: Rubio Vásquez (Mexico)

27 October 1976	Mexico	0–0	Canada	Toluca, Mexico
				Stadium: Nemesio Díez Referee: Landauer (United States)

Canada and United States finished level on points and goal difference, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would advance to the Final Round.

22 December 1976	Canada	3–0	United States	Stade Sylvio Cator, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
	Budd 21' Lenarduzzi 80' Bolitho 87'			Attendance: 5,000 (estimated)^[5] Referee: Velasquez Ramírez (Colombia)

Mexico and Canada advanced to the tournament.

CONCACAF Central American Zone

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Guatemala	6	3	2	1	15	6	+9	8	1977 CONCACAF Championship
2	El Salvador	6	2	3	1	10	7	+3	7	1977 CONCACAF Championship
3	Costa Rica	6	1	4	1	8	6	+2	6
4	Panama	6	1	1	4	7	21	−14	3

Source:^{[citation needed]}

4 April 1976	Panama	3–2	Costa Rica	Panama City, Panama
	Tapia 48' Ponce 50' Sánchez 75'		Jiménez 34' Barrantes 85'	Referee: Cedillos (Honduras)

2 May 1976	Panama	1–1	El Salvador	Panama City, Panama
	Vázquez 50' (pen.)		Ramírez 16'	Referee: Rojas Luis (Costa Rica)

11 July 1976	Costa Rica	3–0	Panama	San José, Costa Rica
	Alvarado 11', 22' Jiménez 44'			Referee: Sazo Alvarez (Nicaragua)

1 August 1976	El Salvador	4–1	Panama	San Salvador, El Salvador
	Ramírez 7', 14', 78' Aquino 69'		Hernández 88'	Referee: Rubio Vásquez (Mexico)

17 September 1976	Panama	2–4	Guatemala	Panama City, Panama
	Wellmann 9' (o.g.) Montillo 25'		Pennant 51' Sánchez 56', 63' Anderson 88'	Referee: Álvarez Morales (Costa Rica)

26 September 1976	Guatemala	7–0	Panama	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	Sánchez 14', 68' Pennant 17', 40' McDonald 53', 62' Sandoval 70'			Referee: Avendano Ruiz (El Salvador)

1 December 1976	El Salvador	1–1	Costa Rica	San Salvador, El Salvador
	Cabrera 27'		Jiménez 78'	Referee: Méndez Molina (Guatemala)

5 December 1976	Costa Rica	0–0	Guatemala	San José, Costa Rica
				Referee: Archundia (Mexico)

8 December 1976	Guatemala	3–1	El Salvador	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	McNish 19' Monterroso 30' Sánchez 80'		Valencia 14' (pen.)	Referee: Luis Paulino Siles Calderón (Costa Rica)

12 December 1976	Guatemala	1–1	Costa Rica	Guatemala City, Guatemala
	Sandoval 77'		Salgado 89'	Referee: Andino Pinel (Honduras)

15 December 1976	Costa Rica	1–1	El Salvador	San José, Costa Rica
	Figueroa 40'		Ramírez 75'	Referee: Mollinedo (Guatemala)

19 December 1976	El Salvador	2–0	Guatemala	San Salvador, El Salvador
	Cabrera Valencia			Referee: Segura (Mexico)

Guatemala and El Salvador advanced to the tournament.

CONCACAF Caribbean Zone

Brackets


Preliminary Round					First Round					Second Round



					Guyana	2	0	n	2

					Suriname	0	3	n	3
										Suriname (a.e.t.)	1	2	3	3*
Group A
										Trinidad and Tobago	1	2	2	3
					Barbados	2	0	1	2

					Trinidad and Tobago	1	1	3	2*



					Jamaica	1	0	n	1

					Cuba	3	2	n	5
										Cuba	1	1	0	2
Group B
										Haiti	1	1	2	2*
					Netherlands Antilles	1	0	n	1

					Haiti	2	7	n	9
Dominican Republic	0	0	n	0

Haiti	3	3	n	6

Group A

First round

4 July 1976	Guyana	2–0	Suriname	Georgetown, Guyana
	Butts 9' Niles 72'			Referee: Gay (Trinidad and Tobago)

29 August 1976	Suriname	3–0 (3–2 agg.)	Guyana	Paramaribo, Suriname
	Playfaire 4' George 35', 53'			Referee: Wooding (Trinidad and Tobago)

Suriname advanced to the Second Round.

15 August 1976	Barbados	2–1	Trinidad and Tobago	Bridgetown, Barbados
	Clarke 47', 54' (pen.)		David 83'	Referee: Steeman (Suriname)

31 August 1976	Trinidad and Tobago	1–0 (2–2 agg.)	Barbados	Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
	Douglas 36'			Referee: Koetsier (Netherlands Antilles)

The aggregate score was tied 2–2, and a play-off was played to decide who would advance to the Second Round.

14 September 1976	Barbados	1–3	Trinidad and Tobago	Bridgetown, Barbados
	Clarke 26'		Llewellyn 3' Carpette 74' Clarke 85' (o.g.)	Referee: Calderón Castro (Cuba)

Trinidad and Tobago advanced to the Second Round, via the play-off.

Second round

14 November 1976	Suriname	1–1	Trinidad and Tobago	Paramaribo, Suriname
	George 2'		David 9'	Referee: Chandler (Barbados)

28 November 1976	Trinidad and Tobago	2–2 (3–3 agg.)	Suriname	Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
	Figaro 29' (pen.) Llewellyn 64'		Olmberg 44' Entingh 83'	Referee: Llobregat Vicedo (Venezuela)

The aggregate score was tied 3–3, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would advance to the tournament.

18 December 1976	Suriname	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Trinidad and Tobago	Cayenne, French Guiana
	George 60', 80' Olmberg 107' (pen.)		David 19', 70'	Referee: Llobregat Vicedo (Venezuela)

Suriname advanced to the tournament, via the play-off.

Group B

Preliminary round

2 April 1976	Dominican Republic	0–3	Haiti	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
			Auguste 12' Bayonne 29' Baptiste 32'	Referee: Wuertz (United States)

17 April 1976	Haiti	3–0 (6–0 agg.)	Dominican Republic	Port-au-Prince, Haiti
	Bayonne 32', 63' Domingue 44'			Referee: Villarejo Ramírez (Puerto Rico)

Haiti advanced to the First Round.

First round

30 July 1976	Netherlands Antilles	1–2	Haiti	Aruba, Netherlands Antilles
	Ruiz 84'		Sanon 27', 39'	Referee: Chaplin (Jamaica)

14 August 1976	Haiti	7–0 (9–1 agg.)	Netherlands Antilles	Port-au-Prince, Haiti
	Domingue 5', 41' Sanon 27', 79' Labissiere 30' Brevil 50' Bayonne 56'			Referee: Montane Bosch (Puerto Rico)

Haiti advanced to the Second Round.

15 August 1976	Jamaica	1–3	Cuba	Kingston, Jamaica
	Brown 65'		Rivero 29' Lara 50' Fariñas 75'	Referee: De la Puente (Dominican Republic)

29 August 1976	Cuba	2–0 (5–1 agg.)	Jamaica	Havana, Cuba
	Fariñas 42' Pérez 77'			Referee: Pastor (Dominican Republic)

Cuba advanced to the Second Round.

Second round

28 November 1976	Cuba	1–1	Haiti	Havana, Cuba
	Núñez 19'		Sanon 54'	Referee: Stewart (Jamaica)

11 December 1976	Haiti	1–1 (2–2 agg.)	Cuba	Port-au-Prince, Haiti
	Sanon 81'		Roldán 79'	Referee: Montane Bosch (Puerto Rico)

The aggregate score was tied 2–2, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would advance to the Final Round.

29 December 1976	Haiti	2–0	Cuba	Panama City, Panama
	Domingue 63' Désir 83' (pen.)			Referee: Dorantes Garcia (Mexico)

Haiti advanced to the tournament, via the play-off.

Goalscorers

6 goals

Emmanuel Sanon

5 goals

4 goals

Pierre Bayonne
Leintz Domingue
Steve David

3 goals

2 goals

Bob Bolitho
Johnny Alvarado Cascante
Francisco Fariñas
David Arnoldo Cabrera
Victor Manuel Mejia Valencia
Peter Sandoval
Remie Olmberg
Sammy Llewellyn

1 goal

Brian Budd
Bob Lenarduzzi
Buzz Parsons
Mario Barrantes
Javier Masís
William Fisher Salgado
Dagoberto Lara
Ramón Núñez
Agustín Pérez Castillo
Miguel Rivero
Andrés Roldán
Silvio Aquino
Julio César Anderson
Leonardo McNish
Felix McDonald
Benjamin Monterroso
Vibert Butts
Keith Niles
Arsène Auguste
Jean Marie Jean Baptiste
Carlo Brevil
Jean-Claude Désir
Louidor Labissiere
Carl Brown
Pedro Damián Álvarez
Hugo Dávila
Francisco Solís
Monico Eluterio Ruiz
Hector Nestor Hernández
Daniel Montillo Ruíz
Federico Ponce
Agustín Sánchez
Luis Ernesto Tapia
Virgílio Vázquez
Rinaldo Entingh
Henry Playfair
Leon Carpette
Anthony Douglas
Selris Figaro
Boris Bandov
Miro Rys
Juli Veee

1 own goal

Victor Clarke (playing against Trinidad and Tobago)
Allan Wellmann (playing against Panama)

References

^ Stinson, Dan (25 September 1976). "Canadians forced to settle for tie". Vancouver Sun. p. 25. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Jones, Grahame L. (4 October 1976). "Goalie Saves the Day for U.S." Los Angeles Times. sec. 3, p. 1. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Cross, Jeff (12 October 1976). "Crowd gets quite a Buzz". The Province. p. 17. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Petterson, Joel (9 June 2013). "It's been a long, successful road back to Seattle for U.S. Soccer". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
^ Stinson, Dan (23 December 1976). "Budd blooms on time for Canada". Vancouver Sun. p. 35. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

v t e 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification
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AFC/OFC	Qualification
CAF	Qualification
CONCACAF	1977 CONCACAF Championship Qualification
CONMEBOL	Qualification
UEFA	Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8 Group 9
Play-offs	UEFA v CONMEBOL

v t e CONCACAF Championship
Editions	El Salvador 1963 Guatemala 1965 Honduras 1967 Costa Rica 1969 Trinidad and Tobago 1971 Haiti 1973 Mexico 1977 Honduras 1981 1985 (No fixed venue) 1989 (No fixed venue)
Qualification	1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989
Successor: CONCACAF Gold Cup (since 1991)