The soccer teams of Costa Rica and French Guiana met in the third match for each of the teams in the Gold Cup at the Toyota Stadium in Dallas and with a temperature that reached 37°C (98.6°F).
Costa Rica’s male national soccer team opened the score early on in the game with a goal by forward Ariel Rodríguez at minute 3, a big mistake by French Guiana’s defense left the Costa Rican player in a great position to score.

“La Sele” presented a very different lineup against Guiana and the formula seemed to work; for Costa Rica’s head coach this was the perfect game to try out a different strategy since French Guiana is probably the one team in the A Group that represented less of a risk for Costa Rica, it’s actually the first time they participate in a Gold Cup; Costa Rica was also forced to try other options since some of the main players have suffered injuries that have forced them to leave the Gold Cup.

The first half of the game concluded without any other goal and an entertaining but uneventful game, Costa Rica definitely had a better team and the resources to score more but had problems in the structure particularly in the midfield and offense. The lack of group work was evident and this resulted in wasted opportunities.

During the second half French Guiana was left with ten players after Ludovic Baal was expelled in minute 61 after an aggressive play over David Guzmán. There were actually several plays in the game that deserved a strong sanction and which the referee chose to ignore.

The second goal came at minute 78 by Rodney Wallace, and the third and final goal was made by David Ramírez at minute 82.

French Guiana only had one clear opportunity to score, which was caused by errors in Costa Rica’s defense, but goalkeeper Danny Carvajal was properly positioned and had a good save.

With this win Costa Rica sealed its pass to the quarter finals, and will have to face either Panama or Jamaica depending on the result of the Canada-Honduras game today. If Costa Rica finishes in first place in the group it will have to face Panama in Philadelphia; but if it finishes second in the group the match will be against Jamaica in Phoenix.