Costa Rica will look to capture Group C at the CONCACAF Gold Cup when they face Jamaica on Tuesday from Exploria Stadium in Orlando.
Los Ticos scored twice in a minute to defeat Suriname 2-1, while the Reggae Boyz scored in each half to edge Guadeloupe in their second match of this tournament by the same score.
Match preview
Luis Fernando Suarez saw his side challenged for the first time at this competition, and his Costa Ricans were able to come away with a 2-1 win and fend off a pesky Suriname side who came at them all game long.
Having now made it out of the Gold Cup group stage for a 12th successive time, they will want to keep their momentum going and capture their group for the second time in their last three campaigns.
After conceding the opening goal on 52 minutes to Suriname, the Costa Ricans had a quick reply, equalising six minutes later and then finding a winner not long after that.
Before their comeback on Friday, it had been quite some time before this team had won a match from a losing position - May 27, 2016 to be exact - when they conceded the opening goal to Venezuela but then scored twice in each half to win 2-1.
They will fancy their chances to capture this group, going up against a side who have not beaten them since September 2010, keeping the Jamaicans off the scoresheet six times in their last eight games against them.
They may be heading into the quarter-finals for a fourth successive campaign, but it has been far from a smooth ride in the group stage for the Reggae Boyz.
Theodore Whitmore saw his team struggle in the opening portion of their game on Friday, conceding an own-goal when a shot took an unlucky deflection off Amari'i Bell after only four minutes.
That seemed to wake the Jamaicans up as they levelled the match 10 minutes later, before getting a lucky break of their own, with an 87th-minute strike that Guadeloupe keeper Yohann Thuram let squeak through his legs.
However, it happened the Jamaicans are in, and they have always been able to show resilience in this competition, particularly in the group stage, having come away with at least a point from a losing position on three straight occasions, dating back to 2009.
They have been a very unselfish team at this competition, with each of their four goals being scored by a different player, while they have found the back of the net more in these two matches than they have in their three previous fixtures this year combined.
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Team News
Chicago Fire centre-back Francisco Calvo will be suspended for this game after being red-carded in the 85th minute versus Suriname, so expect to see veterans Kendall Waston and Giancarlo Gonzalez start in central defence on Tuesday.
Esteban Alvarado replaced Leonel Moreira in goal in their last match, and he only had to face two shots despite the Gwada Boys putting his defence under a lot of pressure at times.
Joel Campbell scored his second goal in as many matches, and he is now up to 21 all-time for his country, just two back of Jorge Monge for ninth, while Los Ticos remain unbeaten when Celso Borges scores, as the skipper netted for the 25th time, putting him just one behind his teammate Bryan Ruiz for fifth all-time.
Jamaican striker Cory Burke scored his seventh goal for his country in his 17th appearance, while Junior Flemmings scored the game winner, just his second international goal.
Bobby Reid sat out of their last game after testing positive for COVID, while Kemar Lawrence and Andre Gray made their first appearances, both coming on as substitutes.
Goalkeeper Andre Blake faced three shots in their last match, coming away with his second successive victory.
Costa Rica possible starting lineup:
Moreira; Matarrita, Waston, Gonzalez, Fuller; Ruiz, Borges; Marin; Lassiter, Rodriguez, Campbell
Jamaica possible starting lineup:
Blake; Powell, Lowe, Moore, Bell; Magee, Hector, Johnson, Gray; Burke, Flemmings
We say: Costa Rica 2-0 Jamaica
The Costa Ricans came into this tournament on the heels of a 4-0 defeat to the United States in a friendly, but they have somehow been able to turn it around quickly with a new coach who has brought the belief back into this team that they can go far in this competition.
Jamaica have given up many quality scoring opportunities in their first two games, but they were fortunate that it came against a pair of teams with limited attacking options.
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