Goals and Highlights: Costa Rica 3-1 Honduras in CONCACAF Nations League 2024

End of the match, Costa Rica qualifies for the Copa America 2024 along with Canada.

More changes in the Tico team, Vargas enters and Mora leaves, Costa Rica seeks to reinforce the defensive zone. 

4 minutes are added to the commitment

Changes in Costa Rica! Madrigal and Manfred are out, Vargas and Contreras are in.

Last 10 minutes of the match, Costa Rica is close to clinch ticket to Copa América

Galo gets a half scissors kick in the area and almost scores a goal!

Campbell's great cross is carried across the penalty area and Rougier wins possession.

Changes in Costa Rica, Zamora comes out and Campbell enters on the right side.

Rodriguez's shot ends up going wide of the far post. Honduras tries to get back into the game 

ROUGIER IS OUT! A great save by rougier and Honduras is saved!

GOAL FOR COSTA RICA! Brenes had been announcing it for a long time, great shot to the far post and he nails the third.

Brenes was left dreaming of the third goal after he scored from the side of the goal in front of the goal. 

GOAL BY COSTA RICA! Madrigal's shot inside the box is putting the Ticos in the lead, Costa Rica dreaming of Copa America!

Great save by Keylor Navas to prevent the first goal from falling in favor of Honduras 

Martinez pulls Brenes down in the midfield and it's a dead ball for Costa Rica.

Zamora's cross shot goes just wide, the Tico player was close to scoring his second. 

THE SECOND 45 MINUTES BEGIN! Costa Rica and Honduras play each other for a place in the Copa America. 

4 minutes added to the first half

Se agregan 4 minutos al primer tiempo

Chirino's great free kick goes over the crossbar, Honduras close to their second!

THE ONE YOU LET GO ZAMORA! Costa Rica's right winger went one-on-one with the goalkeeper and smashes the ball past the keeper.

Le Flores is shown the yellow card for a foul on Madrigal.

Costa Rica is dominating possession of the ball and sending constant crosses to Rougier's goal.

Arboine hits a shot from the half moon but the ball ends up crashing into the defensive wall.

Brenes hits a long-range shot and the ball crashes into the billboard. Back-and-forth play!

Rodriguez's cross into the box goes over the top and misses a clear chance for Honduras.

Calvo's shot gradually goes wide of the goal and Costa Rica comes close.

GOAL BY COSTA RICA! The Costa Rican team responds quickly and ties the score with a goal by Galo.

GOAL FOR HONDURAS! Chirino shoots and sends it into the back of the net.

Rivas' cross goes over the crossbar and Honduras almost scores a goal

Match starts, Keylor Navas saves Costa Rica's goal with a corner kick

Bengsont was trying to go alone against the goalkeeper but is knocked down in the third quarter of the field. 

Costa Rica and Honduras play for a ticket to Copa America 2024

In a couple of moments we will start the broadcast of the match between Honduras and Costa Rica, a match corresponding to the playoff phase of the CONCACAF Nations League in search of a team to go to the Copa America 2024.

This is the starting eleven that the Costa Rican national team sends to the Toyota Stadium field to look for a victory against Honduras and a ticket to the Copa América 2024. 

This is the starting eleven that the Honduras national team sends to the Toyota Stadium field to look for a victory against Costa Rica and a ticket to the Copa América 2024. 

The coach of the Honduran national team arrived in the United States with 17 players from the Honduran National League. They were later joined by international players David Ruiz, Alenis Vargas, Joseph Rosales, Choco Lozano, Denil Maldonado, Deybi Flores, Douglas Martínez, Rigoberto Rivas and Bryan Róchez.

Costa Rica's Argentinean coach, Gustavo Alfaro, called up 26 players. In addition, the Costa Rican Football Federation announced that Alfaro had the full team at his disposal last Wednesday, and that the last player to join was Keylor Navas, goalkeeper of the French PSG, who arrived on Tuesday.

The H team arrived last Saturday and on Sunday held the first of five training sessions, with coach Reinaldo Rueda having the entire squad available. Meanwhile, the Costa Rican national soccer team traveled the previous Sunday to the city of Frisco, Texas, in the United States.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, United States, Panama and Jamaica. 
There are still two tickets to be determined, between Honduras vs Costa Rica and Canada vs Trinidad and Tobago. 

There is a question that has been asked a lot by fans and that is, how does Costa Rica vs. Honduras relate to the CONCACAF Nations League if a few months ago, both teams were eliminated in the quarterfinals? Well, this match corresponds to the Nations League playoff that still has two tickets to qualify for the Copa America 2024. 

According to the competition's regulations, the winning team of the CONCACAF Nations League receives only the champion's medals and the trophy, which has a special design highlighted by the inclusion of 34 diamonds. However, it is important to note that no financial compensation is awarded for the achievement within the North American Confederation.

The match for third place and the Grand Final will be played next Sunday, March 24 at AT&T Stadium, the former at 4:00 PM while the latter will be played at 7:15 PM. Whatever happens with the Mexico, United States, Jamaica and Panama teams, all four will be present in these last two CONCACAF Nations League matches.
WHAT DOES THE CHAMPION GET? 
According to the competition's regulations, the winning team of the CONCACAF Nations League receives only the champion's medals and the trophy, which has a special design highlighted by the inclusion of 34 diamonds. However, it is important to note that no financial compensation is awarded for the achievement within the North American Confederation.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

The wait for the CONCACAF Nations League is over, all the action, the best goals, the best plays, the hottest controversies and the best players return to the lawns of North America with the best games in the world.

Do not miss a detail of the match with the live updates and commentaries of VAVEL. Follow along with us all the details, commentaries, analysis and lineups for this Costa Rica vs Honduras match.

This is the start time of the game Costa Rica vs Honduras of 23th March in several countries

For this match, the player to watch will be the Tico goalkeeper and historic goalkeeper of the CONCACAF area: Keylor Navas. The powerful goalkeeper may not be the player in charge of scoring the goals, but he will be the one in charge of saving them and making his name on the scoreboard, so it will depend on him to keep Costa Rica's hopes alive throughout the 90 minutes.

For this match, the player to watch will be the right midfielder: "Choco" Lozano, who is one of the most fundamental pieces of his lesson and was of great help to try to get the qualifying ticket to the Copa America in the last phase for his national team, now, he has the opportunity to weigh more and show why he is one of the most unbalanced players in the CONCACAF area.

K. Chamorro; H. Quiros, P. Arboine, F. Faerreón, A. Gamboa, J. Valverde; A. Bran, O. Galo, A. Lassiter; W. Madrigal, J. Daly.

M. Licona; K. Álvarez, D. García, M. Santos, W. Decas; E. Rodríguez, A. López, J. Pinto, C. Pineda; D. Martínez, J. Álvarez.

Honduras and Costa Rica have met at least 56 times (15 Catracho wins, 21 draws, 18 Tico wins) with the scales tipping heavily in favor of Costa Rica. In terms of goals scored, Honduras has scored on 69 occasions, while Costa Rica only boasts 85 goals scored. Their last meeting dates back to the CONCACAF hexagonal final where Costa Rica defeated Honduras 2-1.

Toyota Stadium is a sports venue located in Frisco, Texas, United States, it is currently the home of FC Dallas, a team that plays its home matches in the MLS or popularly known as Major League Soccer, also, this stadium has seen several matches played in different competitions such as the Inter league between Rayados and Tigres UANL, group stage matches of the Gold Cup and matches of the Leagues Cup, in fact, having a memorable game between FC Dallas and Mazatlan FC. It was inaugurated in the year 2005 and has a capacity to hold 25,000 spectators.

Originally, Costa Rica should have played the final four against Mexico to reach its first CONCACAF Nations League final, however, to the surprise of the "ticos", Costa Rica was eliminated by Panama by a 6-1 aggregate score after conceding 3 Panamanian goals in the first and second leg. Now, after having really screwed up, they have one last chance to reach the Great Party of our continent, the Copa America 2024, however, they will have to face Honduras, a team that has already shown it is ready to fight for great things and that is undoubtedly living a better moment than the Ticos. After playing this playoff, they will face Argentina in a friendly match to wait until June and begin their journey to the 2026 World Cup with the CONCACAF qualifiers.

The Costa Rican national team will be looking to secure their ticket to the Copa América 2024 after they came close to achieving the feat in the last phase of the CONCACAF Nations League, as they were unable to maintain the advantage on aggregate and Mexico managed to take them to extra time to later define the ticket to the soccer festival on this side of the world in penalties. Now, in this playoff to define the last two teams that will be present at the Copa América, they will have to face Costa Rica, a team that also dreams of being part of this great tournament. It should be noted that regardless of the result, the Honduran national team will face El Salvador and then in June will play the first elimination stages for the 2026 World Cup against Cuba and Bermuda.

The soccer season is getting closer and closer to its end and that means only one thing, the national team tournaments are getting closer and closer to start, one of them, the glorious Copa America 2024, where for the second time, all South American countries and most of the CONCACAF nations will participate, however, not all of them will be present and at least those who played in the final four have already secured their ticket to this prestigious competition. Now, it will be the turn of Honduras and Costa Rica to dispute in 90 minutes the last qualifying ticket to the great party of American football.

The Honduras vs Costa Rica match will be played at Toyota Stadium, in Texas, USA. The kick-off is scheduled at 7:00 pm ET.

My name is Luis Miguel and I will be your host for this game. We will provide you with pre-game analysis, roster updates, and news as it happens live here on VAVEL.