When it comes to soccer, Costa Rica and Mexico have always had a high level of rivalry, this time around it was no different the rivalry was shown in the field, in a very disputed and complicated game that ended with a 1-1 score.

During the first half, Costa Rica’s head coach Oscar Ramírez used the exact same line up as he did in the last game against the US on Friday, who can blame him, it worked wonders then, but Mexico is not the USMNT and just like in boxing styles make fights, the same goes for soccer.

Contrary to the exciting match we witnessed between Costa Rica and the USA, the first half of the Mexico – Costa Rica game lacked emotion, both teams had an aggressive style and a few opportunities to score, but it was not until minute 41’ when the first goal was scored, unfortunately for “La Sele” it was an own goal by Cristian Gamboa which put Mexico ahead 1-0.

The second half of the game was better in terms of entertainment, after some changes in the lineup and especially the inclusion of Daniel Colindres finally Costa Rica looked more structured and with better control, Mexico had a very strong defense that was hard to penetrate by “La Sele”, and an intelligent game plan that made things hard for the Costa Rica team, which we must say, never gave up.

Both goal keepers, Keylor Navas and Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa had great interventions for their respective teams.

The goal for Costa Rica came from Marco Ureña in an incredible and effective shot that was impossible for Ochoa to stop.

Costa Rica had another clear opportunity to get ahead with just a few minutes left on the clock, but Johan Venegas was unable to capitalize, the ball hit the pole and that was the last chance ¨La Sele¨ had to secure its ticket to the Russia 2018 World Cup.

After the Honduras – USA tie today and Panama´s win over Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica needed to beat Mexico in order to confirm already its place in the World Cup, now, however, the Ticos will need to wait for their match against Honduras programmed for October to seal that ticket to Russia 2018.

After the last results, Mexico remains in the first place of the position table with 18 points and is already classified to the World Cup; Costa Rica follows in second place with 15 points; Panama climbed to the third place with 10 points, the US is fourth with 9, the same number of points as Honduras which sits in the fifth place and lastly Trinidad and Tobago with only 3 points.

The Costa Rica-Mexico game took place at the Costa Rica National Stadium in front of an audience of close to 35,000 fans.