All the USMNT had to do to qualify for the World Cup was forfeit and take a 3-0 loss, instead they played soccer. Costa Rica would need to win by six or win by another number of goals and have Mexico lose and other things that are more math than soccer hopefully wouldn’t be relevant for the match anyway in order to qualify outright. Or there’d have to be an even more improbable set of events to see the Ticos eliminated.
The Americans set out a strong lineup as Gregg Berhalter sought to finish the qualifying campaign with a win.