Did You Knows

We've combed through the voluminous pre-game notes to give you a few items to chew on as you gear up for tonight's match. For example, did you know that:

*There are only two players on the U.S. roster who scored against Costa Rica, and none who have done so on Costa Rican soil. Landon Donovan netted a deuce in the one of the USA’s finest performances of the 2006 qualifying campaign, a 3-0 win on June 4, 2005, in Salt Lake City in front of 40,586 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Two years earlier, team captain Carlos Bocanegra nodded home the first U.S. goal as the team rallied from a 2-1 halftime deficit to win 3-2 in Miami and capture third place in the 2003 Gold Cup.

* The U.S. has a lifetime record of 11-10-5 against Costa Rica, but has never won on the road and holds a 0-6-1 record in qualifying in Costa Rica. In their last 10 meetings, the U.S. holds a 5-3-2 advantage against the Ticos, with all five wins coming in the U.S. and all three losses coming in San Jose, Costa Rica.

* With his goal on March 28 in El Salvador, Frankie Hejduk became the 14th different U.S. player to score in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. Hejduk joins Carlos Bocanegra (1) and Oguchi Onyewu (1) as the other defenders to score in qualifying. Jozy Altidore leads all scorers (5), with Brian Ching (4) Clint Dempsey (4) and Michael Bradley (4) just behind him. DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan have tallied two goals each.

* There are 36 different players with at least one cap in the 11 games of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying for the United States thus far.

* Costa Rican striker Bryan Ruiz plays for Gent, which faced off against Oguchi Onyewu’s Standard de Liege on May 16 in Belgium. Needing a win to advance into a championship playoff with Anderlecht, Gooch gave up a foul in the box in stoppage time with Standard clinging to a 1-0 lead. Stepping up to take the spot kick was Ruiz, whose shot to the left side of the goal was parried away by Standard’s keeper Sinan Bolat, preserving the win.