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USMNT goaltender Matthew Freese makes a save against Haiti during the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

USMNT-Costa Rica: A fierce rivalry explained in five matches

By Alyssa Clang | Last updated Jun 23, 2025 2:24 PM ET

Three games up, three games down, three straight wins.

After a rough stretch in which the U.S. Men's National Team lost to Turkey and Switzerland, the Americans are back on track. They have qualified for the knockout rounds of the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup following nerve-settling wins over Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia and Haiti.

Up next for the USMNT in the quarterfinals, though, is a dangerous foe: the Ticos of Costa Rica. The teams have played each other dozens of times and established a fierce rivalry.

But where did that rivalry start? And how will it inform this Gold Cup quarterfinal? Here’s the story of the USMNT-Ticos rivalry, told through a few key games:

March 22, 2013: The Snow Clasico

The USMNT and Costa Rica have been battling each other since the 1970s, but their modern rivalry began in Commerce City, Colorado on the qualification trail for the 2014 World Cup. Both teams entered this match hungry for a victory: They had failed to win their opening games and viewed this fixture as their best way to get their World Cup qualification back on track. It was set to be a classic before it even started.

Enter the fickle Colorado weather. As the start drew nearer, the clouds over Commerce City grew thicker, and before long Dick’s Sporting Goods Park was engulfed in a late spring blizzard.

The game began as scheduled in a near-opaque cloud of snow. Costa Rica battled admirably, especially for a team without much snow experience, but the USMNT won 1-0 on a Clint Dempsey goal in the first half.

In the United States, this "Snow Clasico” is remembered fondly as one of the USMNT’s grittiest and most lovable performances. In Costa Rica, though, it’s remembered as an outrage. Furious with the unsafe playing conditions and unfavorable outcome, the Ticos swore they’d take their revenge.

Sept. 6, 2013: The Payback

Six months passed by the time they hosted the USMNT in San Jose, but the Ticos' feelings about the "Snow Clasico" remained fresh. The Costa Rican faithful gave the USMNT a heated, raucous reception, and that, coupled with a spirited performance by the Ticos on the field, bullied the USMNT into its worst performance in years.

Frustrated by the Costa Rican crowd’s gamesmanship, the USMNT collapsed. “That was not my fault,” USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann said of the "Snow Clasico" that fueled Costa Rica’s ire. “I didn’t call God to give us some snow.”

Costa Rica, full of righteous indignation, beat the USMNT 3-1.

June 7, 2016: The Copa Clash

The USMNT and Costa Rica met again in the 2016 Copa America, a centenario competition pitting North and South America’s best teams. They faced off in the second game of the group stage with plenty on the line. The USMNT, humbled in its opening match by Colombia and still scarred from its Costa Rican beatdown two years earlier, needed a statement win to get its confidence back — and a statement win is what it got.

The USMNT beat Costa Rica 4-0 at Chicago’s Soldier Field in grand style. Dempsey, Jermaine Jones, Bobby Wood and Graham Zusi scored as the global soccer media swooned over the USMNT’s reinvention. The USMNT went on to make the semifinals of that Copa America; Costa Rica went home in the group stage with its tail between its legs.

Nov. 15, 2016 and Sept. 1, 2017: The World Cup drama

The Copa America loss stung for the Ticos, but its revenge was swift and devastating. In two near-unbelievable matches a short months later, Costa Rica beat the USMNT by a combined score of 6-0 in World Cup qualifying.

“We didn’t make any plays that mattered and we probably were outplayed at most positions on the field and made critical errors,” USMNT coach Bruce Arena said after his team’s second loss (2-0) to the Ticos. “They outplayed us and outcoached us tonight.”

It was a near-unprecedented low for the USMNT. The losses to Costa Rica made the difference in the Americans' failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup a few months later.

The USMNT will face Costa Rica in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup on Sunday in Minneapolis.

Alyssa Clang

Alyssa is a Boston-born Californian with a passion for global sport. She can yell about misplaced soccer passes in five languages and rattle off the turns of Silverstone in her sleep. You can find her dormant Twitter account at @alyssaclang, but honestly, you’re probably better off finding her here

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