itsbeautifuloutside

Italy v Costa Rica

Recife, 20th June 2014

Match Report

Report “Costa Rica are dead in the water”. “The likes of Joel Campbell and Bryan Ruiz will hardly strike the fear of God into the opposition”. My own words came back spectacularly to haunt me as Ruiz, bundled out of Fulham even before they were relegated last season, headed the winner and Joel Campbell, perennial loanee from Arsenal, put in another effervescent performance to ensure that England’s faint hopes of qualifying were ended.

Just as they did against Uruguay, Costa Rica pressed Italy to such a degree that even Pirlo, restored to his position just in front of the defence, could only find rare moments of quality. One of those came in the first half when he released Balotelli but it went to waste, just like most of the possession enjoyed by the AC Milan hitman slash nutter. He cut an increasingly frustrated figure before finally Prandelli put him out of his misery by hauling him off in a strop.

This was in stark contrast to Campbell at the other end, who should have earned Los Ticos the lead just before Ruiz’ goal. A jinking, diagonal run took Campbell into the penalty area before Chiellini crudely bundled him over. A characteristic of this World Cup has been some poor refereeing decisions, and the Chilean referee contributed to this when he waved play on. Pinto, the Costa Rican manager, looked like he was about to explode.

And minutes later, he did. Ruiz’ header cascaded against the bar and over the line and pandemonium ensued. With the bit between their teeth, Costa Rica pressed and pressed, allowing Italy barely a chance on goal, let alone to settle on the ball.

A feature of Spain and England, two early exitees from the World Cup, has been hurried and inaccurate passing, leading to slow build-ups and predictable attacks. In this game, Italy suffered from the same. They looked like a team who thought they were too good to be pressed into mistakes; that quality would prevail.

But this is the first World Cup of a new era, of a new type of football with high energy teams hunting in packs. Just as Atletico did in the Champions League, the underdogs have found a way to beat the big teams, and Costa Rica are the alpha male of the underdog pack in this World Cup. And just like Atletico, it is quite possible that one of these underdogs- Costa Rica or Chile- could go all the way to the final.

Batts