No one remembers this now, but Hungary were a bit of trendy darkhorse pick to make a run in 1986. They beat West Germany in Stuttgart in friendly and then handed (and admittedly not all first choice) Brazil a 3-0 defeat in Budapest. It was Brazil’s heaviest defeat in 23 years. And then they got absolutely smashed by Lobanovskiy’s Soviets in the first match in Mexico.
With a wild day in African qualifying the stars have aligned and Canada can get into Pot 3 of the draw with a win in Panama Wednesday, so not quite a dead rubber for us.
The Costa Rica-US match is going to be somewhat interesting because the entire American squad has some level of a stomach virus from the trip to Mexico on top of playing three matches in seven days. At the same time, apparently yellow card accumulation carries into the playoff. Costa Rica has NINE players on a yellow and in the circumstances I wouldn’t play any of them and risk losing them for the playoff. It’s absurd to me that two yellows over 14 World Cup qualifiers earns you a suspension, but that is the rule.