Ever closer to second place for a World Cup in its history, Canada beat the United States 2-0 on Sunday to open their lead in Concacaf qualifying for the Qatar Cup in 2022.

Striker Cyle Larin opened the scoring in the 7th minute of the first half and Samuel Adekugbe secured the victory in stoppage time for the fans at Tim Hortons Field, Hamilton, Canada.

“We’re almost there,” Larin said of qualifying after the win. “But we are not satisfied, we will continue to put pressure,” he assured.

With four rounds remaining, Canada has 22 points in the octagon, where it remains undefeated despite the absence of its star, Alphonso Davies, with myocarditis.

“We are becoming a country of football,” applauded Canadian national team coach John Herdman.

The United States “are a great team, they had great quality today but we were up to it,” he added.

“Canada have a great team and are at the top of the group for a reason. We take our opponents seriously,” said USA coach Gregg Berhalter, regretting the result but satisfied with the performance of his players.

“It’s hard for me to remember such a dominant away performance without getting a good result,” he said. “We wanted to be aggressive and push, we spent a lot of energy making it difficult for them and competing at a high level and I think we succeeded.”

The United States, which had a lackluster performance, provisionally occupy second place, with 18 points, before the other matches of the tenth round of the octagon, which will be played this Sunday.

Canada only played in the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and on that occasion was eliminated in the group stage.

The Concacaf Qualifiers award three straight berths to Qatar and the possibility of a playoff match for the fourth-placed team against a team from Oceania.

In the next round on Wednesday, Panama visit Mexico, while Jamaica host Costa Rica.