Canada took the top spot in Group A of the Gold Cup after battling to a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica in Miami, Florida on July 10th. The draw gave Canada seven points after they had already beaten Jamaica, and El Salvador. They now advance to the quarterfinals, but have to sit around for a week as they don’t get underway until July 18th.

Costa Rica also made it to the playoff stages as they ended up in second place in the group with a win, loss and draw. Jamaica beat El Salvador 1-0 in the other Group A match yesterday and they both end up with three points. Jamaica ends up in third place though, because of the head to head win. However, because of the complicated set up to the tournament, they won’t know if they go through until the other two groups have played their final round-robin matches.

Costa Rica actually had the better chances during the match and more of them. All four goals came in the first half and it looked like it might be a high-scoring affair, but things settled down in the second half.

Costa Rica jumped into the lead in the 22nd minute as Andy Herron found the back of the net. Canadian keeper Greg Sutton had booted a goal kick to midfield, but Costa Rica’s Armando Alonso headed it to an unmarked Herron on the right wing. He dribbled into the penalty area and neatly beat the onrushing keeper.

Canada came back with a vengeance though and three minutes later they had scored twice to take a 2-1 lead. Patrice Bernier leveled the score in the 24th minute as he was on the end of a great cross from the left wing by Josh Simpson. Bernier directed the ball past Costa Rican goalkeeper Ricardo Gonzalez with a shot from just outside the six-yard box.

Canada then took the lead in the 27th minute as Marcel De Jong scooped up a loose ball and then dribbled about five yards before hammering a low, long-range shot from about 25 yards out that bounced inside the left post. I thought keeper Gonzalez actually looked weak on both of the Canadian goals.

The lead didn’t last very long though as Walter Centeno tied it at 2-2 in the 34th minute with a long, swerving free kick that beat the Canadian wall and Sutton at the right post. It was again another example of why managers should take the common sense approach of placing a defender on each post for free kicks. Anybody positioned at the post could have stopped the ball, even if he was fast asleep, as the shot would have hit him.

There was no scoring from then on in, even though Costa Rica threatened t0o take the lead a couple of times. Each team received a yellow card, and it was a bit of a sloppy game with Canada committing 15 fouls to Costa Rica’s nine.

In the other group match, Omar Cummings scored in the 69th minute to give Jamaica their 1-0 win over El Salvador. Donovan Ricketts, as usual, had another strong game in goal for the Jamaicans with a series of fine saves. There were only 12 fouls, but each team received three yellow cards.