Costa Rica is at the World Cup. The National Team beat New Zealand 1-0 in the playoffs to earn the last place in the Qatar World Cup.Joel Campbell’s early goal was enough for the Tricolor to celebrate qualifying for their sixth major World Cup and their third in a row.In a game that was not easy, the national team took advantage to maintain the lead on the scoreboard and reach the ticket.
Total party in Qatar
Where there were more than 2,000 Costa Ricans cheering; and also a party in Costa Rican territory, on an atypical Tuesday where red shirts predominated.“La Sele” will be at the World Cup, which will mean goodbye to several of the stars from the golden generation that made history in Brazil 2014.
Initial joy
The game started in the best way for the Tricolor. In just two minutes and in the first offensive action of the team, almost the only one in the first half came the goal.JewissonBennette took the ball from the left sector after a throw-in and after reaching the bottom line he took a cross into the area where Joel Campbell appeared to win the position of three defenders and took a shot.The Tico’s shot was not strong, but it was placed, enough to send the ball deep and make it 1-0.
The annotation left an ideal panorama for the national team and made New Zealand change their game proposal, which seemed to be to hold on and then look for a space on the counterattack.
However, the Costa Rican goal forced them to go to the front. Costa Rica suffered on several occasions, mainly with Chris Wood, who won practically all the aerial balls.
Wood put two-goal passes to his teammates who sent their shots above the horizontal and also put Keylor Navas in trouble, who cleared the danger in a double reaction.
Key was VARs
In the final stretch of the first half, the siege of the New Zealanders paid off and Wood sent the ball to the bottom after finding a ball in the area badly rejected by Yeltsin Tejeda.However, in the action prior to the goal there was a foul on Óscar Duarte that the referee Mohammed Abdulla did not point out.
After the goal and the claim of the Costa Ricans, the referee went to review the VAR, where he verified the foul on the Costa Rican defender, which allowed the New Zealand player to take out the center for Wood to score. A breath for LaSele, who went into the break with the advantage on the scoreboard and 45 minutes to go to the World Cup.
Vital substitutions
For the complement, coach Luis Fernando Suárezactivated the benched team and went to line of three with the inclusion in the rear of Kendall Waston.It also included Carlos Martínez and Bryan Ruiz, sitting Bennette and Torres.
The idea was to have more of the ball to take away the momentum of the rival, in addition to closing more spaces in the lower zone and placing a tall man next to Wood.
The variants paid off because La Sele did not suffer as much in the first 20 minutes of the complement. They had more of the ball and Campbell got more into the game, going down to pick up balls and complementing Bryan.
New Zealand was left with 10 at 68′ after the expulsion of KostaBarbarouses, who had eight minutes on the court, for a hard tackle to the ankle on Francisco Calvo.The referee went to the VAR to review the play and changed his initial yellow card decision, to show him the red one.
Closing and celebration
The end of the game was intense. The New Zealanders, despite being one less, did not give up and kept trying, although they ran into a strong wall dressed in red.Costa Rica continued with its game, seeking to have the ball, pass it from foot to foot and let the stopwatch continue to eat up the minutes.
Contreras tested the rival goalkeeper with a shot inside the area, which the goalkeeper rejected to avoid danger.Keylor also appeared; He did it at 76 ‘to cover a great shot that wanted to slip into the angle, but the effort of the Tico prevented the tie.Time expired and gave way to the celebration on Qatari soil and throughout Costa Rica. LaSele will be in a new World Cup, the sixth in its history.
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