Then they bunkered the whole match, b/c they looked as bad at the 5th minute as at the 95th. Even bunkering teams can string passes together. Costa Rica couldn't do anything except kick the ball down the field.
One of the things I'm most certain of in Qatar. Costa Rica will probably be the least likely side to qualify to the next round.
FIFA executives must laughing their butts off with the amount of money they just made off this week's playoffs. People are much willing to watch minnows wrestle for WC table scraps. 2026 WC will be Minnow City for sure.
There was one sequence in the Costa Rica-Panama match where a bad giveaway left Panama with a 4-on-1 counterattack. That they didn't even muster a shot was the inflection point of the whole cycle Really, it's been Luis Fernando Suárez being pragmatic to a tee, only injecting a bit of youth at a time while relying on the old hands to navigate the highs and lows of WCQ, and it came together in that final stretch.
Yeah, I don't by the 'they only looked bad because they were protecting a lead' argument. For starters, they weren't doing a good job of protecting it. Just lucky that NZ's #9 wasn't clinical. The strategy of bunkering doesn't include allowing clear chances left and right while getting zero chances of your own on the counter.
Even if they go out with 0 points and -10 GD it doesn't really refute his answer. CR has more pedigree than NZ. CR is just better at shithousing due to experience and they got the perfect scenario to show that off: an early lead. Not much more to read in this.
Yeah, massive. I insist on that word. They were also a formidable side in 1990 and 2002. 2014 wasn't a standalone performance.
It would still matter. At least it should because if the keeper is lunging towards you it could effect your shot. That said, I didn't notice any infringement myself.
Not sure how match results from 32 years ago influenced today's match... talk about metaphysical stuff.
5 World Cups to 2 isn't a huge difference. And NZ did pretty well in 2010. Three draws, only team not to lose at that WC. Admit it, you're just bending the data to conform to your pet theory, as usual.
Kamtedrejt is right, they had like 5, 6 world cup quarterfinalists inside the pitch today. NZ just two guys whose career peak was getting a draw from the worst italian team of all time. It's not really comparable. Ruiz and co. Shithoused the whole game and know how to waste time. Against a limited team like NZ that can't do much in attack other than crosses it works. When the difference in talent is minimal pedigree wins games like that.
2:0 Knockout stage appearances as well. Costa Rica is viewed as a respectable nation in world football. New Zealand on the other hand gets very often belittled.
I've never had that signature. In fact, I've never had any signature at all That signature actually belongs to @guri
No, not really. You can ask almost anyone whom has seen lots of Conmebol matches, at both friendly and official competition fixtures, and I believe they can all agree, that their match against Australia, probably has been their worst performance in the last 10 years or so. It´s not for nothing, but for almost all Copa Americas played during the last 10 years, Peru has finished among the 4 top teams (only exception came in the bicentenial tournament of 2016, where they got eliminated by Colombia at quarters over a pk definition). Withing Conmebol, Peru is a very strong team, that usually plays outstanding football. But in "world" football, no one is completely free of never having a "bad" day. And well, for this last international playoff match, where they took part in, .........it was their turn to have a "bad" day (not the best moment to have one). They played horrible during the whole match and were completely owned by their opponents. Final result was completely fair.
In our case it was probably our best game for sometime, not because we played brilliantly, I don't think we are capable of that right now, but because we didn't make the defensive mistakes that have gifted teams chances over the last year or so. We turned over the ball a bit in midfield, but Peru probably did it more often than us. We didn't create a lot ourselves, but we rarely do these days relying mostly on set pieces to get most of our goals. Last time we won a playoff against Conmebol (also on penalties) the quality of the two teams was much higher than now. I will accept what you say about Peru being much better in other games, its not easy to finish top 5 in Conmebol, but they really didn't show much in the playoff and I think the teams that beat us in qualifying would have won against the Peru performance in the playoff comfortably.
I disagree with Rickdog, Peru has had poor games quite frequently (1 every 3 games let's say). They are normally inconsistent, capable of playing very well but also very bad. They arrived to this play-off mostly because Chile and Colombia were consistently... bad (in the sense of playing well below their capabilities). Especially Colombia, who were somehow incapable of scoring at home against Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru themselves despite having multiple scoring chances. Now, about what you said, I very much doubt Saudi Arabia would have beaten Peru easily. From what I've seen this international window they look very frail, even compared to Australia. But again, Peru just played 10 minutes of the entire match so it would have been impossible to beat anyone who was in front of them.