By Vijay Setlur and Craig Merz

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Costa Rica has been restarted. And Canada is in overdrive.

Ali Gerba's second goal of the tournament lifted Canada to a 1-0 over El Salvador Tuesday to put it on the brink of the Gold Cup quarterfinals, while midfielder Celso Borges took advantage of undermanned Jamaica to get Costa Rica back into contention with a 1-0.

Canada, which has six points, can clinch a place with a draw on Friday, but could be assured of the quarterfinals based on the results in the other groups before then.

"We can still finish third and we're not thinking at all about the quarterfinals," interim Canada manager Stephen Hart said.

"We have a game to play against Costa Rica and Costa Rica (has) everything to play for. And we expect it to be a difficult game because it's on (artificial) turf and they're accustomed to the artificial surface more than we are. So we'll sit down as a group and as a team, and potentially you might see some changes."

El Salvador had planned to attack Canada's midfield, but that was thwarted by 2007 Gold Cup most valuable player award winner Julian de Guzman, Atiba Hutchinson and Patrice Bernier. The midfield troika consistently won balls and held possession for long stretches, effectively keeping the ball away from the El Salvadoran front men.

Under Hart, the team is undefeated and building momentum towards another Gold Cup run.

But despite consecutive 1-0 victories, Hart still feels there's still room for improvement.

"I think we have to concentrate a little more on our penetration, a little bit better on our movement and the timing of the movement, in particular, and, of course, finishing," Hart said.

"We had three glorious chances in the second half and weren't lucky to put enough of them away. And maybe it will come at another time, but the way I look at it is we're creating chances and once you create your chances at some point hopefully you start to put them away."

In the first match of the evening, Borges took a boot to the head then put a dent in Jamaica's bid to advance to the knockout stage with the lone goal in Los Ticos' win.

The loss left the Reggae Boyz without a point after two games and on the verge of elimination with the finale of Group A play Friday in Miami against El Salvador (three points).

"We will try hard in our next match and do our best. That's all we can do," Jamaican coach Theodore Whitmore said.

Costa Rica, which lost its opener to El Salvador, has three points and will face Canada in the other match at FIU Stadium.

"Winning a game like today, it gives us more confidence," Costa Rica coach Rodrigo Kenton said. "We are in the game again. We are in the tournament again."

His club leads the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying and said that teams are taking notice.

"Sometimes that goes against you. Everybody plays more careful against you," he said. "Little by little we are getting better and better. I hope that we are in the final."

Borges' goal in the 64th minute off a service from Pablo Herrera came 29 minutes after Jamaica's Rudolph Austin received a red card for kicking Borges in the back of the head while he was on the ground.

"I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it was a kick," Borges said.

Borges said the goal did not provide personal satisfaction.

"It was group revenge," he said. "We had many good chances, some balls off the crossbar, some balls we didn't finish very well. At the end, we took advantage of the chance we had."