The 3rd day of the FIFA World Cup is halfway over with and already we’ve seen outstanding performances. A controversial Brazil victory over Croatia, a poorly refereed Mexico vs. Cameroon game, the destruction of the reigning world champions by the Netherlands, an in form Chile victory and even Columbia coming out of their Brazil 2014 debut match victorious with a 3 – 0 win over European side Greece. Yes, this world cup has been full of surprises, between the refereeing and the upsets there is plenty to talk about in this world cup so far.
One of the biggest surprises of the tournament came today from group D. Many consider group D to be one of the groups of death but just about everyone wrote Costa Rica off as the clear loser of the group but today they have proven they are in Brazil to compete.
The CONCACAF side came out of the locker room strong and ready to give it their all. The match began hit for hit as both Costa Rica and Uruguay fought hard to establish dominance early in the match. Then, in the 22nd minute a foul on the Uruguayan captain Diego Lugano inside the box led to a penalty. Cavani converted from the penalty and gave us a match that began similarly enough to the Spain game. The match remained 1 to nothing for the rest of the first half.
Costa Rica continued to play well through the second half and their patience and determination finally paid off in the 54th minute when a cross by the Costa Rican side found its way to Joel Campbell who remained composed and put the ball past the keeper. The next goal came just 3 minutes later from a set piece that was placed perfectly by Christian Bolaños to the back post where Oscar Duarte was able to meet it and with his head for the goal that put the Costa Ricans ahead 2 – 1. And much to everybody’s surprise, during the 84th minute, a through ball found Marco Ureña who came off the bench at minute 83 and tapped the ball past the Uruguayan keeper for the final goal of the match and the 3rd for the Costa Rican side.
Unfortunately for the Uruguayans, the loss and goal difference are not their only problems. Diego Lugano, Walter Gargano, and Martin Cáceres, were all given yellow cards while Maxi Pereira was sent off with a direct red after a violent foul over Joel Campbell. Pereira will miss the next match and as for the other 3, another booking could mean missing a crucial match during the 3rd round of group play or even during the round of 16 if Uruguay should make it there.
Just like the match between Spain and the Netherlands, this match saw the defeated side score first from a penalty. This type of match is why football fans love the World Cup. Anything can happen and it isn’t safe to write any team off until you see them perform as we saw from Costa Rica’s triumph over Uruguay.
Photo Credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images
