MIAMI. - Mexico and Costa Rica meet in a Concacaf Gold Cup knockout match for the sixth time on Saturday, squaring off in a quarterfinal contest at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Mexico has never lost to the Central American squad in the Gold Cup, but needed extra time to get past the Ticos in their last two meetings. Mexico won a penalty shootout in the 2019 Gold Cup to advance from the quarterfinals in their title run. And it took extra time for Andres Guardado to find the winner in the 2015 Gold Cup quarterfinals.
Costa Rica will look to pin a loss on Mexico on Saturday coming off an offensive explosion in a 6-4 victory over Martinique in the final group match.
Six different players scored as the Costa Ricans showed their set-piece expertise and secured second place in Group C to set up the showdown with Mexico.
FW Joel Campbell scored from the spot and also secured three assists to lead Costa Rica during the group stage, while DF Kendall Waston is preparing for his sixth Gold Cup meeting with Mexico and comes into the game having scored against Martinique and leading the team with four recoveries.
While Mexico topped Group B, it enters the quarterfinals on the back of the first defeat of the Jaime “Jimmy” Lozano era. The manager oversaw Gold Cup victories against Honduras and Haiti but couldn’t engineer a comeback against Qatar in a 1-0 defeat.
He’ll lean on FW Uriel Antuna, who has contributed to eight goals in nine all-time appearances in the Gold Cup and leads Mexico in assists in 2023.
In the center of the park, MF Edson Alvarez led the team with 242 passes completed and will hope to add a second Gold Cup trophy to his award collection after helping the team win the 2019 competition.
The winner advances to Las Vegas to meet the winner of the quarterfinal between Jamaica and Guatemala.
Match Officials Mexico vs Costa Rica
9:30 PM Saturday July 8, 2023 AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas
Referee: SAID MARTINEZ (Honduras)
1st Assistant Referee: WALTER LOPEZ (Honduras)
2nd Assistant Referee: CHRISTIAN RAMIREZ (Honduras)
4th Official: RANDY ENCARNACION (Dominican Republic)
VAR: CHRIS PENSO (USA)
AVAR1: SELVIN BROWN (Honduras)
HEAD-TO-HEAD IN GOLD CUP
Mexico leads the all-time series GP-8 W-5 D-3 L-0 (GF-13 GA-4).
Mexico 2-0 Costa Rica (Gonzalo Farfán, Benjamín Galindo), Third Place, Gold Cup 1991, LA Memorial Coliseum, Los Ángeles (7-JUL).
Mexico 1-1 Costa Rica (Javier Delgado o/g; Juan Cayasso), Group B, Gold Cup 1993, Estadio Azteca, México (15-JUL).
Mexico 2-0 Costa Rica (Rafael Márquez, Jared Borgetti), Semi-finals, Gold Cup 2003, Estadio Azteca, México (24-JUL).
Mexico 1-0 Costa Rica (Jared Borgetti), Quarterfinals, Gold Cup 2007, Reliant Stadium, Houston (17-JUN).
Costa Rica 1-1 Penalty Shoot-outs (3-5) Mexico (Froylán Ledezma; Guillermo Franco), Semi-finals, Gold Cup 2009, Soldier Field, Chicago (23-JUL).
Mexico 4-1 Costa Rica (Rafael Márquez, Andrés Guardado x2, Pablo Barrera; Marco Ureña), Group A, Gold Cup 2011, Soldier Field, Chicago (12-JUN).
Mexico 1-0 Over time Costa Rica (Andrés Guardado), Quarter-finals, Gold Cup 2015, MetLife Stadium (19-JUL).
Mexico 1-1 Penalty Shoot-outs (5-4) Costa Rica (Raúl Jiménez; Bryan Ruíz), Quarterfinals, Gold Cup 2019, NRG Stadium, Houston (29-JUN).
