October's most important World Cup qualifiers, and how to watch them

Henry Bushnell
·Senior soccer reporter

One more wild day of the October international break remains. Here’s how you can watch Tuesday’s key games, which will see six more teams qualify for the 2018 World Cup:

TUESDAY, OCT. 10

Australia v Syria | 5 a.m., ESPN3 — Set those alarms. Seriously, do it. And then come follow along with the rest of us on Early Morning Soccer Twitter. It’ll be loads of fun. The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw.

Portugal v Switzerland | 2:45 p.m., Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes — One of the biggest games of the qualifying cycle. Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal can qualify directly with a win. Switzerland only needs a draw. The loser (or, in the case of a draw, Portugal) will head to the playoffs.

Netherlands v Sweden | 2:45 p.m., ESPN3
France v Belarus | 2:45 p.m., Fox Sports 2 — The Dutch must beat Sweden by SEVEN goals simply for a shot at the playoffs. France will qualify if it equals Sweden’s result.

Brazil v Chile | 7:30 p.m., BeIN Sports Connect
Paraguay v Venezuela | 7:30 p.m., BeIN Sports Connect
Peru v Colombia | 7:30 p.m., BeIN Sports Connect
Uruguay v Bolivia | 7:30 p.m., BeIN Sports Connect
Ecuador v Argentina | 7:30 p.m., BeIN Sports en Español — BeIN has rights to all five simultaneous South American games. But it also has English-language rights to the CONCACAF games, which start 30 minutes later, so there’s a conflict.

BeIN has chosen to put Ecuador-Argentina on its Spanish-language channel, with the rest pushed to BeIN’s online-only streaming service, BeIN Sports Connect. Four of the five games have massive implications.

Trinidad and Tobago v USA | 8 p.m., BeIN Sports, NBC Universo, go90 app
Honduras v Mexico | 8 p.m., BeIN Sports Connect, Telemundo
Panama v Costa Rica | 8 p.m., BeIN Sports Connect, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (online streaming) — BeIN will show the U.S. match on its English channel. The other two CONCACAF games will only be available in online in English, with Honduras-Mexico available in Spanish on Telemundo. Those games won’t mean anything for the Yanks if they take care of business, but the intercontinental playoff spot will be on the line.

(Getty)
(Getty)

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Henry Bushnell covers soccer – the U.S. national teams, the Premier League, and much, much more – for FC Yahoo and Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Question? Comment? Email him at henrydbushnell@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @HenryBushnell.