The final place at the 2024 Copa America will be determined on Saturday afternoon when Costa Rica and Honduras face each other in a playoff at Toyota Stadium.
Los Ticos were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the CONCACAF Nations League by Panama, 6-1 on aggregate, while La H were eliminated from their tie with Mexico on penalties.
Match preview
Costa Rica played catch-up from the early stages of their quarter-final tie versus the Panamanians, conceding after just four minutes in the opening leg.
Five of their six goals conceded in that tie came in the opening half, while this team have given up three or more goals in three of their last four matches in all competitions.
Gustavo Alfaro won his first match as the national team manager last month, when the Costa Ricans defeated El Salvador in a friendly played at their national stadium in San Jose (2-0).
It has been nearly eight years since they featured at the Copa America, which took place in the United States in 2016 when they were eliminated in the group stage, finishing third.
The Costa Ricans have won just one of their last six matches played on American soil, defeating Martinique at the 2023 Gold Cup, 6-4.
They have not lost to the Hondurans in normal time since a 1-0 defeat in an October 2013 World Cup qualifying fixture played in San Pedro.
After an opening leg where everything went right, the opposite was true for Honduras when playing at altitude inside Estadio Azteca.
Reinaldo Rueda's side seemed to be playing to maintain their 2-0 advantage from the opening leg, but that strategy and all their time-wasting ultimately backfired as the Hondurans conceded in the 11th minute of stoppage time and could not hold their nerve in the shootout.
La H have only featured in the Copa America once before, making it out of their group before eventually finishing third at the 2001 tournament.
Honduras have earned a result in their last four matches in all competitions in which they found the back of the net but have failed to score in eight of their last 12 competitive fixtures.
They have lost their last three encounters when conceding the opener, though Los Catrachos have won six consecutive matches in all competitions when scoring first, collecting a clean sheet the last four times they have done so.
Since the CONCACAF Nations League debuted in 2019, the Hondurans have only faced a Central American opponent once, defeating Costa Rica on penalties to claim third place in June 2021.
Team News
There were five changes made to the Costa Rican starting 11 from leg one to leg two of their Nations League tie with Panama, with Julio Cascante, Francisco Calvo, Alejandro Bran, Elias Aguilar and Bryan Oviedo replacing Pablo Arboine, Juan Pablo Vargas, Joel Campbell, Yeltsin Tejeda and Jimmy Marin.
Haxzel Quiros picked up his first senior cap in their friendly against El Salvador, while Keylor Navas was recalled for this match and he can collect his 113th cap for Los Ticos this weekend, which would put him in a tie with Rolando Fonseca for sixth all-time.
Campbell can move beyond Juan Ulloa and Celso Borges for fifth in all-time goals should he find the back of the net on Saturday, while a brace would move him into a tie for fourth alongside Bryan Ruiz.
Denil Maldonado and Enrique Facusse were each given red cards in their second-leg Nations League tie versus Mexico last November.
Jonathan Rougier is the only uncapped Honduran player selected for this window, Anthony Lozano is two caps away from 50 and Jerry Bengtson can hit 70 this weekend.
Bryan Rochez and Andy Najar missed their penalties in the shootout versus the Mexicans, relegating them into this playoff round.
Costa Rica possible starting lineup:
Navas; Lopez, Calvo, Cascante, Mora; Zamora, Bran, Lassiter; Campbell; Contreras, Ugalde
Honduras possible starting lineup:
Menjivar; Najar, Santos, Vega, Decas; Flores, Rodriguez; Rivas, Rosales, Ruiz; Lozano
We say: Costa Rica 1-0 Honduras
With Navas and many of the veterans back in the fold for Costa Rica, we expect them to play with much more composure than we saw in the Nations League quarter-final tie.
The Hondurans came close to upsetting El Tri in the last eight, but their inconsistencies in the attacking third has us leaning towards Los Ticos, who have often gotten the better of La H.
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