These teams combined for seven goals on Sunday, but it would take something miraculous for the Americans to drop out of the top three, and the Costa Ricans know that they are likely to be headed to the inter-confederation playoffs.
When considering all of that, we could see plenty of new faces hit the field for each side in what might be a cagey affair, with both managers knowing that there are likely more important games for them on the horizon.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Costa Rica win with a probability of 42%. A win for USA had a probability of 31.95% and a draw had a probability of 26%.
The most likely scoreline for a Costa Rica win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.27%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.81%) and 2-0 (7.3%). The likeliest USA win was 0-1 (8.71%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.38%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with a 7.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Costa Rica would win this match.