ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Canada will face Belize in the next round of World Cup qualifying.

The first leg will be played Sept. 4 at BMO Field in Toronto with the second leg set for Sept. 8 in Belize.

Canada is 2-0 against Belize, winning a World Cup qualifying series 8-0 on aggregate in 2004. Both games were held in Kingston, Ont., because Belize did not have a suitable stadium at the time.

The 2018 World Cup, hosted by Russia, kicks off on June 14 and the final is on July 15.

In other third-round CONCACAF matchups, which covers North, Central and South America, it’s Curacao vs. El Salavador, Grenada vs. Haiti, St. Vincent and the Grenadines vs. Aruba, Jamaica vs. Nicaragua and Antigua and Barbuda vs. Guatemala.

Canada joined the second round of CONCACAF qualifying after defeating No. 174 Dominica 6-0 on aggregate in a home-and-away series.

The Canadians and nine other second-round winners moved on, joining Jamaica and Haiti -- the seventh- and eighth-seeded teams -- to play six home-and-away series in the third round.

The six winners advance to Round 4, joining the six top-ranked teams: Costa Rica, Mexico, U.S., Honduras, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Those 12 teams will be placed in three round-robin groups, playing from November to September 2016. The top two from each pool advance to the next round.

The fourth round will be a tough road for the Canadians, who are ranked 103rd in the world. If they beat Belize, they will be in a group with Mexico, Honduras and the either Curacao or El Salvador. Only the top two advance to the following round. Honduras humiliated Canada in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, eliminating them with an 8-1 win in San Pedro Sula.

Canada’s record against Mexico is a dismal 3-16-7 while Honduras is only slightly better at 6-10-5. They hold a winning record (7-4-3) over El Salvador.

The final six teams will face off in the CONCACAF hexagonal, to be played from November 2016 to October 2017. The top three in the group will advance directly to the World Cup with the fourth country taking part in an intercontinental playoff spot.

The draw was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. He was joined by outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the first first major public event for the organization’s leadership since American and Swiss criminal investigations of corruption in world soccer were unsealed two months ago.