Canada Up-Ends Costa Rica

The Gold Cup officially got underway today and our neighbors to the north began it with a victory. The Canadian national team came from behind to up-end Costa Rica 2-1 in the opening game of the tournament, held at the Orange Bowl in rainy weather.

Canada, featuring eight MLS players on its roster (Onstad, Sutton, Braz, Pozniak, Reda, Harmse, Jazic, DeRosario), got two goals from Deportivo la Coruna's Julian de Guzman to overcome an early deficit and recorded the first win in the 2007 Gold Cup.

De Guzman, who was born in Toronto and became the first Canadian to play in Spain's La Liga, scored the equalizer in the 58th minute and put Canada ahead for good in the 73rd minute, giving his country an early edge in Group A.

Canada will face Guadeloupe on Saturday hoping to pad their lead in the group, while Costa Rica will meet Haiti on Saturday in a game they now badly need to win.

Group A standings:
Canada 1-0-0 (3 points)
Haiti 0-0-1 (1 point)
Guadeloupe 0-0-1 (1 point)
Costa Rica o-1-0 (0 points)