Costa Rica vs Jamaica Odds & Prediction – CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying

• Both Costa Rica and Jamaica head into Wednesday’s match looking for their first win of the final stage of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying
• The Reggae Boyz have lost both of their games and are bottom of the table, while Costa Rica has just one point
• Read on for betting odds, a full preview and the best bet for this CONCACAF World Cup qualifying match

Two games into the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, it’s hard to believe that Costa Rica and Jamaica are the highest-ranked teams in the region not named Mexico or the United States. After a pair of losses, 50th-ranked Jamaica is sitting dead last in the eight-team group, while 44th-ranked Costa Rica is just one place above it, courtesy of a 0-0 draw in Panama in its opening match of the round.

Luckily, both teams have a chance to move up in the world and the standings when they meet on Wednesday, September 8, at 9:00 pm ET in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose.

Costa Rica vs Jamaica Odds

Odds as of September 8 at FanDuel

Costa Rica Needs Goals

With zero goals through two games, it’s readily apparent where Costa Rica needs to focus its attention heading into Wednesday’s game. But then struggling to score is nothing new for Luis Fernando Suarez’s squad. The team has now failed to find the net in four straight matches and has managed to score in just four of the 12 games that it has played in 2021.

On the bright side, however, one of those four games was a game against Jamaica at the Gold Cup this summer, where despite being outshot 18-5 and going down to 10 men, Bryan Ruiz scored the only goal of the game with his team’s only shot on target as Los Ticos escaped with a victory.

https://twitter.com/1ashermorris/status/1435262671281139712?s=20

Ruiz will likely be partnered with Joel Campbell here, although the former Arsenal striker is still working his way back to full fitness following injury. However, with 21 goals from 104 international games, to go along with Ruiz’s 27 goals from 134, the success of the striker partnership will go a long way to determining the team’s success at home here.

Jamaica Needs Something… Anything

The only team without a point in CONCACAF through two rounds of qualifying, the Reggae Boyz are desperate. However, history is not on their side in this matchup. Only once in 12 attempts has Jamaica beaten Costa Rica in World Cup qualification, and that came on Jamaica’s road to the 1998 World Cup in France.

🌎 Here's the table after R2 in CONCACAF's Octagonal stage of #WCQ2022.

🇲🇽 Mexico post their second win vs. Costa Rica

🇸🇻 No one will be starting a war over the 0-0 draw between El Salvador and Honduras

🇨🇦 Canada hold the US to a draw in Nashville

🇵🇦 Panama win big in Jamaica pic.twitter.com/lqxR7KWosI

— FotMob (@FotMob) September 6, 2021

However, since that first and only appearance at the sport’s showcase, the team has gone winless in six matches against its CONCACAF rival. And it’s not just Costa Rica that has proven an Achilles heel either, with Jamaica failing to register a win in the final stage of World Cup qualifying since the 2002 cycle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWJZZRzDYSw

One-sided Rivalry

While Costa Rica has dominated the head-to-head encounters between the teams during the World Cup qualification cycles, things haven’t gotten much better in other forums either.

In 29 all-time meetings between the sides, Los Ticos have come out on top on 14 occasions, with 11 draws and just four defeats, with the most recent of those – and the only one this century – occurring 11 years ago in a friendly.

Costa Rica will be confident, too, entering this matchup on a nine-game unbeaten run against Jamaica, with the Reggae Boyz managing just four goals over those nine games, and none in the last three contests.

Costa Rica vs Jamaica 2021 Stats

In Shamar We Trust

If Jamaica is to turn the tide in front of the Costa Rican net, it will likely depend on the boot – or head – of striker Shamar Nicholson. With nine goals in 24 international games, the striker for Belgium’s Charleroi scored the equalizer in last week’s game in Mexico, where the home side only took all three points courtesy of an 89th-minute winner.

Shamar Nicholson with the equalizer Jamaica 🇯🇲 1 – 1 Mexico 🇲🇽

🖤💚💛 #JamaicavsMexico pic.twitter.com/GZuG1XVKtf

— Team Jamaica (@TeamJA876) September 3, 2021

But Nicholson could do little to prevent his team from falling to a devastating 3-0 home defeat to Panama in the second game of this qualification round last weekend.

Pick: Draw (+260)