The final round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2018 World Cup is finally getting underway, and one of the biggest teams in the confederation is starting on the road as Costa Rica is traveling to face Trinidad and Tobago hoping to get their qualification run off to a strong start.
Trinidad and Tobago vs. Costa Rica 2016: Start time, live stream, TV schedule, and 3 things to know
A resurgent Costa Rica are set to face a struggling Trinidad and Tobago side.
Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
The “Hex” round of the final six CONCACAF teams is often tightly contested, especially with two of the three guaranteed spots in the World Cup often basically locked up by Mexico and the United States. Every road point especially is worth its weight in gold, so Costa Rica will want to come out swinging and try to put Trinidad and Tobago on the back heel from the start. Beginning the Hex off with a road win would be absolutely massive for Los Ticos.
TV: beIN Sports (U.S. - English); beIN Sports en Español, NBC Universo (U.S. - Spanish); TD7, GolTV (Costa Rica)
Online: beIN Sports Connect, NBC Universo Now (U.S.)
Match Date/Time: Thursday, 6 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. local
Venue: Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Three big things to know
- After spending quite a while struggling for consistency, Costa Rica have finally been looking like a strong side again of late. Since closing an otherwise-disappointing Copa America group stage run with a win over Colombia, Costa Rica have won three straight, including a friendly triumph over Russia a month ago. They’re the one team in the Hex that looks like they can truly mount a major threat to the power duo of Mexico and the United States atop the CONCACAF rankings, and for the sake of making the Hex as interesting as possible, let’s hope they keep playing strongly.
- Trinidad and Tobago, on the other hand, are not doing as well. Aside from a win over the low-rated Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Cup qualifiers last month, it’s been over six months since the island nation won an international match. Even that win over the Dominicans was undone quickly thanks to a shocking extra time loss to Martinique, and they need any kind of positive feeling they can manage right now.
- Costa Rica will be hoping to get the most they can from the attacking pair of captain Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell, who play together at club level with Sporting Clube de Portugal. The pair have combined for a total of five goals and five assists between domestic and Champions League action early in the season, and the Ticos will hope that they’ll bring that quality and familiarity to the international game to help lead a strong attacking performance. Long known as a defensive team, perhaps this kind of bond in attack can help start to change Costa Rica’s reputation.
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