Moving closer to second place for the World Cup in their history, Canada beat the United States 2-0 on Sunday to open their lead at the top of Concacaf’s qualification for the Qatar Cup in 2022.

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

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

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

“We’re becoming a football nation,” cheered Canada’s national team coach John Herdman.

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

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

“It’s hard for me to remember a dominant away form 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 did it.”

The United States, in a lethargic form, are temporarily second, with 18 points, before another game in the tenth round of the octagon to be played this Sunday.

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

The Concacaf qualifiers give three straight spots to Qatar and a possible playoff for the fourth-placed team against the Oceania side.

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