The national soccer teams of both Costa Rica and Panama classified to the CONCACAF hexagonal last Friday with victories over Haiti and Jamaica respectively; these games are all part of Russia 2018 World Cup Qualification Matches. Costa Rica beat Haiti with a score of 1-0 while Panama defeated Jamaica 2-0.  Costa Rica vs. Panama will take place in the Costa Rica National Stadium, Tuesday September 6 at 7:30 P.M. Costa Rica time.

“La Sele” holds the first spot in Group B with 13 points while “Los Canaleros” stand in second place with 10 points. Although both teams already secured their spots in the final round, and many call this a “friendly match” there is no “friendly” when it comes to professional sports, at the end both teams are rivals, Costa Rica is certainly going to use this opportunity playing at home to confirm the leadership of the group and Panama sure won’t make it easy for the Ticos.

Costa Rica’s head coach Oscar Ramirez called goalkeeper Danny Carvajal and defenders Michael Umaña and Pablo Salazar for Tuesday’s game, this due to the suspension of Patrick Pemberton, Kendall Waston and Johnny Acosta who accumulated their second yellow card in the game against Haiti.  These players probably won’t be part of the main line up but come in as backups; goalie Esteban Alvarado is likely to step in for Pemberton while Giancarlo “Pipo” Gonzalez and Francisco Calvo will fill the spots left by Waston and Acosta.  Bryan Ruiz, Christian Gamboa, Joel Campbell and Marco Ureña all have one yellow card and are at risk of receiving a suspension if they accumulate a second one.

Panamá’s National Soccer Team arrived to Costa Rica on Saturday, its head coach Hernan Gomez spoke to press on his arrival and stated he expected a difficult game against Costa Rica. He also mentioned he’d probably change his main line up a little to give a rest to some of his main figures and try different tactics using fresh players.

Costa Rica and Panama will have Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago among their rivals in the next phase while Honduras and Canada will be disputing one of the spots this coming Tuesday. The U.S. MNT is practically classified and would complete the sixth slot.