Costa Ricans know the cost of celebrating early at World Cup

As they filed out of the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza last Saturday night, the players and coaching staff of Costa Rica spoke in chorus. They were thrilled, but not carried away.

“It’s only one match. There’s still a long way to go,” said Keylor Navas, the goalkeeper, whose save when the team trailed by a goal had been important in building toward the impressive comeback and 3-1 win over Uruguay.

“It’s a big step,” said Joel Campbell, scorer of the equaliser and the man of the match. “But there are still two matches to go.”

Costa Rican supporters were delighted by last Saturday’s coup, the thoroughly merited victory of “Los Ticos” over Uruguay, twice world champions, holders of the Copa America, World Cup semi-finalists in 2010, and the country who had prevented Costa Rica from reaching the previous World Cup with a narrow win in a play-off.

But fans of a certain age also know that bright beginnings are almost the norm for Costa Rica at these tournaments. It is sustaining momentum that is more of a challenge.

Scroll back to 2002, when Costa Rica won their first match, also by a two-goal margin, against China, then saw the dream of a place in the knockouts die in a loss to Brazil. The Costa Ricans went home with four points from that campaign and watched as Turkey, with whom they had drawn, finished third, and Brazil, against whom they had scored twice, won the tournament.

Rewind to 2006, and Costa Rica also scored twice in their opening fixture, the curtain-raiser of the entire competition, against Germany. Alas, they also conceded four that evening, and again were on their way home after three games.

This time, the sheer weight of pedigree in Group D suggested Brazil 2014 would be a brief adventure. They were up against three former winners of the trophy, including Italy, their opponent today.

Perceptions outside the small Central America nation regarding their potential have changed since Uruguay were overrun by the speed, precision and fine planning of Costa Rica. “The fact that they have beaten Uruguay might actually be a good thing from our point of view,” said Daniele de Rossi, the Italy midfielder.

“There is no way we could underestimate them now.”

The climate, in coastal, humid Recife, may also suit the Costa Ricans better than the Italians, De Rossi said. It might, but the majority of this Costa Rican squad spend at least nine months a year away from the Caribbean. They are all-weather sportsmen.

The current squad is by far the worldliest party of players they have taken to a World Cup tournament, including a cadre based in the United States’ Major League Soccer and another five with contracts in Scandinavian leagues.

Captain Bryan Ruiz has been in European club football for eight years, most successfully in Holland’s Eredivisie, where he spent the second half of last season on loan at PSV Eindhoven from Fulham.

Navas was among the top four or five keepers in Spain’s Primera Liga last season, for Levante. Campbell had a bright Uefa Champions League campaign with Olympiakos, where he was on loan from the English Premier League’s Arsenal, including a spectacular goal in a last-16 tie against Manchester United.

Campbell is anxious to advance his career farther, by establishing himself at Arsenal in 2014/15, but points to the strides he made as a player during the various loan arrangements – with Real Betis, in Spain, and with Lorient, in France, as well as in Greece – since he first became an Arsenal employee at age 18.

“I have worked hard every day at Olympiakos, as I did at Betis and Lorient, and it has been good for me.”

He played with swagger and confidence in his World Cup debut, capping his performance with an assist on the third goal, scored by Marcos Urena, the Russia-based striker.

Paulo Wanchope, who in the 1990s with England’s Derby County was something a pioneer for the Costa Rican game, and a rarity for creating a profile for himself abroad, is now an assistant coach with the national side. A former striker, he said experience abroad has emboldened Costa Rica.

“We are capable of scoring against anyone,” Wanchope said. “We can exert strong control defensively and be very disciplined when we need to be, and we know that Joel or Urena or even Bryan Ruiz and Cristian Bolanos, any of those guys can score. Add the fact we have pace and that makes us very good in attack.”

Midfielder Jose Miguel Cubero said his team have no intention of playing for a draw.

“When you play for a draw in football, you usually end up losing. We’re going for the win against Italy,” Cubero said.

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