By Vijay Setlur

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ali Gerba's second goal in as many games gave Canada a 1-0 win over El Salvador Tuesday night and all but assured it of a berth in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The 32^nd minute goal before a partisan El Salvadoran crowd at Columbus Crew Stadium was Gerba's sixth in Gold Cup play, giving him the most by a Canadian and eclipsing the previous mark of Carlo Corazzin.It also was his fifth goal in four games and 15th in 26 matches overall with the national team.

More importantly, it moved Canada to the brink of the knockout round. Canada became the first team to reach six points, but with no draws yet in the tournament no team has yet to clinch a spot in the final eight.

"We've come a long quicker than I thought because we didn't have a lot of time together," interim Canada manager Stephen Hart said."Tonight was for me pleasing because tonight we played more consistently than we did the game before, and we talked about it as a group. And we thought if we can play a game of two halves the way we played the first game in the first half, then we would be moving towards some consistency in what we're trying to do."

Since Hart took over April 17 on an interim basis, Canada has won four in a row and appears poised to repeat its Gold Cup run of 2007.

In the earlier game, Costa Rica avenged its 1-0 loss to El Salvador with a 1-0 win over Jamaica, all but eliminating the Reggae Boyz.

Gerba, who was signed by Toronto FC last month, was added to bolster the Major League Soccer club's finishing and demonstrated his knack for positioning for the second straight game.

Defender Paul Stalteri's cross from the right side was headed away by defender Manuel Salazar, but only to the top of the penalty area. Patrice Bernier hit a left-footed bouncer that Gerba was able to redirect with an extended toe from the edge of the six-yard box.

El Salvador had two opportunities in the second half to equalize, but couldn't finish.

Canadian goalkeeper Greg Sutton stretched to stop Salvador Correas' high drive from 30 yards in the 55th minute.Two minutes later, William Reyes' header sailed just wide of the post.

El Salvador trained to attack the center of Canada's defense with its speed.But the Canadian midfield, led by Julian de Guzman, stifled those efforts.

"It was a hard game, we tried to control the midfield a little bit, but Canada definitely had a strong approach to it and we had a bit of difficulty with that," El Salvador manager Carlos de los Cobos said. "Canada definitely was able to defend well and because they were able to hold and to counterattack we felt that they did that very well and it didn't work well for us."

De Guzman, Bernier and Atiba Hutchinson were instrumental in keeping the ball away from the Salvadorans in the first meeting between the two countries in 10 years.

"Our whole intention of our practices were to keep the ball and deny the ball as much as possible, and for us to be patient and to wait to take our chances," Hart said."It's very hard to play regardless of what tactic you have if you don't have the ball."

After an uneventful 15 minutes with Canada controlling possession, the game opened up midway through the first half.Gerba struck minutes later to give Canada a lead it would not relinquish.

"I thought it was a great performance from start to finish, we went out and had the ball," Hutchinson said."We were well organized tactically, and we got the goal that we were looking for and we played a good defensive game.

El Salvador will face Jamaica on Friday, while Canada will face Costa Rica in the Group A finale at Miami.