2022 World Cup Qualifiers: USA. Costa Rica

Costa Rica vs USMNT
2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers – Final Round – Match No. 14
March 30, 2022
Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica; San Jose, Costa Rica
Pre-match coverage: 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports, Paramount+, Universo, Peacock
Kick-off: 9 p.m. ET on CBS Sports, Paramount+, Universo, Peacock
Social media: USMNT on Twitter And the Instagram; Football Facebook American football app

USMNT Tonight starting XI in Costa Rica: 1-Zach Stephen, 2-DeAndre Yedlin, 3-Walker Zimmerman (capt.), 4-Tyler Adams, 5-Antonee Robinson, 6-Yunus Musah, 9-Ricardo Pepi, 10-Christian Pulisic, 12-Miles Robinson, 21-Tim Oh, 23-Clean Acosta

Subs: 18-Ethan Horvath, 7-Shack Moore, 8-Christian Roldan, 11-Gio Rena, 13-Jordan Morris, 14-Luca de la Torre, 15-Aaron Long, 16-George Bello, 17-Jordan Pivok, 19 James Sands, 20- Jesus Ferreira, 22- Eric Palmer-Brown

game notes | Five things to know about Costa Rica

• The US men’s team can snatch qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup tonight in two different scenarios: 1) USA win, draw or lose to Costa Rica by less than six goals -or -2) If the US loses by six goals or more to Costa Rica, they can still qualify directly for Qatar if Mexico loses to El Salvador in their last World Cup qualifier and the US maintains their goal difference advantage.

• USMNT starting XI Cap Numbers (including this match): DeAndre Yedlin (73), Kellyn Acosta (51), Christian Pulisic (48), Zack Steffen (29), Walker Zimmerman (28), Tyler Adams (27), Antonee Robinson (25), Tim Weah (22), Miles Robinson (20), Younes Musa (16), Ricardo Pepe (11)

• USMNT starting XI WCQ Cap Numbers (including this match): Christian Pulisic (23), DeAndre Yedlin (19), Kellyn Acosta (19), Tyler Adams (13), Antonee Robinson (13), Miles Robinson (11) , Walker Zimmerman, (10), Younes Musa (10), Ricardo Pepe (10), Tim Weah (9), Zack Stephen (6).

• Tonight’s starting age in a starting lineup is 24 years and 142 days, which means that 13 out of 14 US squads were aged 24 or younger during the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
• Over 14 games during the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, the USMNT starting XI averaged 23 years 302 days – the youngest in team history. The youngest came during the 1990 playoffs, averaging 24 years and 66 days over 10 matches.
• The squad averages 30 internationals and 18 official matches.

• Greg Berhalter made four changes to the USMNT squad that started with a 5-1 win over Panama on Sunday. Tim Weah and DeAndre Yedlin are back after being suspended for one game due to a yellow card accumulation, while Kellyn Acosta and Ricardo Pepi are also back on XI.
• With their starts tonight, Tyler Adams and Anthony Robinson will end the octagon as USMNT co-leaders in appearances, playing in 13 of 14 games.

• After a hat-trick performance on Sunday, Christian Pulisic has now scored 10 career goals in the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, putting him fourth in the scoring charts since the 1998 tournament. With one match remaining in the 2022 Octagonal, only Carlos Pavon (12 goals in 18 matches of the final round; Honduras), Jose Altidore (11 goals in 28 final matches; USA) and Paulo Wanchope (11 goals in 20 matches of the final round) are behind. Final Round.; Costa Rica).

• A Pulisic hat-trick also took his WCQ total to 12, tying him with Eddie Johnson for fourth on the USMNT WCQ’s all-time scoring list. He sits behind with one goal from Landon Donovan to finish third on the US WCQ scorers list (13 goals).

• Walker Zimmerman takes command of the USMNT for the fifth time tonight. The team had been 3-1-0 in the previous four games when Zimmermann was wearing the armband.

• Zimmerman and Miles Robinson will meet in central defense for the seventh time overall and sixth in the playoffs. The USMNT went 5-0-1 when the duo conceded at the back, only one goal in six games.

• Klin Acosta, Christian Pulisic and Deandre Yedlin are the three players in the starting line-up who also appeared in the last USA World Cup Qualifiers Final on October 10, 2017 in Trinidad and Tobago.

• Striker Paul Areola (tightness in the left thigh) is not wearing tonight’s game. Midfielder Gianluca Pusio, defender Reggie Cannon and goalkeeper Shawn Johnson are also not in today’s squad. Teams are allowed up to five substitutes in three moments.

• The US is 19-16-6 all the time against Costa Rica and the fairways Los Ticos With a score of 7-11-3 in the playoffs.

• The United States was 0-9-1 in 10 previous qualifying matches held on Costa Rica’s soil, with the only result being a 1-1 draw on May 26, 1985 in Alajuela.

• Drew Fisher of Canada is the referee for tonight’s match. He previously officiated USMNT’s 2-0 victory over El Salvador in the Gold Cup quarter-finals on July 19, 2017 in Philadelphia.