Costa Rica’s smash and grab against Japan has us drooling over Spain ahead of their clash against Germany and dampened criticism over CONCACAF allocation at the World Cup.
Costa Rica qualified for this World Cup by beating New Zealand 1-0 in an inter-confederation play-off, having come fourth in CONCACAF qualification behind USA, Mexico and Canada. Just three points separated those four teams after 14 games, but the gap in quality apparent at this tournament, just eight months after Costa Rica ended their qualifying campaign with a 2-0 win over USA, was significant enough to raise questions over their place in Qatar, and therefore the allocation of spots to North, Central American and Caribbean nations.
Costa Rica also beat Canada in that qualification campaign and any defeats to their fellow CONCACAF nations in Qatar were never by more than a single goal. All evidence ahead of the World Cup suggested the four sides were very evenly matched. But after Canada smashed Belgium but lost, the USA drew impressively with England and Mexico held Poland before matching Argentina in defeat, a 7-0 spanking at the hands of Spain left the uninitiated bemused as to how Costa Rica qualified with their neighbours and wondering why we’re forced to witness them struggle while the Italians and Egyptians watch from home.
But a much-improved display against Japan has us pondering Spain’s brilliance more than the worth of the team they put to the sword.
It was the definition of smash and grab. Costa Rica scored with their first and only shot on target in the World Cup so far. Keysher Fuller appeared to dink his tame effort straight at goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda, who was too far off his line and mistimed his jump to flap at what would in cricketing terms be described as an absolute dolly.
“Football, eh?” was John Hartson’s response to the goal, after he had watched an admittedly leggy display from Japan, but one in which they looked like the only side with any hope of claiming victory. Japan could have drawn level after a couple of late moments of pinball, but couldn’t make it count as they did against Germany, a game which had clearly sapped a huge amount of their energy.
Costa Rica completed as many passes (230) in the first half an hour against Japan as they managed in the full 90 minutes against Spain. The free-flowing tiki-taka that Luis Enrique’s side produced in that opening game had us drooling, but thoughts of World Cup glory were dampened by…
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