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Source: Reuters -
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Costa Rica suffered an agonising injury-time equaliser to be forced into a World Cup qualifying playoff after a 2-2 draw at the RFK Stadium on Thursday.
The result allowed Honduras, who won 1-0 in El Salvador, to take the third automatic qualifying spot in CONCACAF and leaves Costa Rica to face Uruguay over two legs.
On a damp and chilly night, Costa Rica went 2-0 up in the first half thanks to super solo goals from Bryan Ruiz and looked well placed to secure their spot in South Africa along with the United States and Mexico.
However, the United States fought back to stun the visitors, getting a goal back through Michael Bradley and then equalising in injury time through Jonathan Bornstein.
The home crowd erupted while the Costa Ricans were left holding their head in their hands.
Costa Rica's Brazilian coach Rene Simoes, brought in for the last two games to rescue the team's qualification hopes, did not even see the final moments as he had been sent off for arguing with officials and had to be led away by security guards.
Ruiz got Costa Rica off to the best possible start, outpacing defender Oguchi Onyewu before weaving his way into the box and driving the ball through the legs of keeper Tim Howard.
Three minutes later, the 24-year-old unleashed a 20-metre drive into the top corner to double the visitors' advantage.
Bradley, son of US coach Bob, brought his side back into the game in the 72nd minute when Costa Rica keeper Keilor Navas parried a Landon Donovan strike and Bradley slid home the loose ball.
Despite going down to 10 men when Onyewu was taken off injured and all the substitutes had been used, Bradley's side piled on the pressure.
With less than a minute of injury time remaining Bornstein was left unmarked to head home a corner.
The result leaves the United States as winners of the CONCACAF group ahead of Mexico, who drew 2-2 in Trinidad and Tobago.
