Saturday worked out really, really well for the Costa Rican soccer team. Their closest rival Guatemala lost to Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica beat Panama 3 to 1. This gives them a chance to lock away 3rd place in the qualifying tournament on Wednesday night against Trinidad and Tobago. The game will be at 8 pm local time. A Costa Rican win coupled with a loss by Guatemala at home to the USA will nail down the berth to the World Cup in Germany next year.

In the game against Panama the Costa Rican side looked bad for the first 40 minutes, while Panama had 2 almost certain goals miss by inches. But everything changed in the 40th minute when Alvaro Saborio took advantage of a lucky bounce to put away the first goal of the match.

In the second half Costa Rica took control and got 2 more goals. One by Walter Centeno to open the second half, and another by Ronald “The Bullet” Gomez in the 70th minute. They also dominated play throughout most of the second half. While Costa Rica didn’t allow Panama many shots in the second half, the Panamanians did get a goal on a corner kick in the 92nd minute to make the score more respectable closer.