Panama vs. Costa Rica 9/2/21 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifications Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Panama and Costa Rica face off on Thursday in a CONCACAF World Cup qualifying game at Estadio Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez. These two teams last faced off in October of 2020 and it was Panama that came away with the 1-0 victory. 

Panama’s last action was during the Gold Cup, and they weren’t able to get out of the group stage. Panama played to a draw, a loss, and win during the tournament. In the last game against Grenada, Panama was able to come away with a 3-1 victory against Grenada. Alberto Quintero opened up the scoring in the 7th minute and Jose Luis Rodriguez added two more goals to seal the victory. Panama did give up one goal late, but the game was really never in doubt. Panama had 15 shots and seven on goal and also had 68 percent of the possession. In this game, if Panama wants to come away with the victory, it’s going to be important that they get the first goal. 

On the other side of this matchup is Costa Rica who lost to Canada in the Gold Cup quarterfinal. Costa Rica isn’t a strong offensive team, and to have success they really can’t even give up one goal. The last game for Costa Rica was a friendly against El Salvador on August 21st and neither team could find the back of the net. Over the last three games, El Salvador has scored only one goal total, and that came three games ago against Jamaica. In that game, Costa Rica’s goal was enough to win the game. 

I expect it’s going to be another low-scoring game against Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s offense is going to struggle to get anything going in this game, and that will lead to the under cashing. I will also be throwing a few dollars on an exact score of 0-0.