Netherlands needed penalties to beat Costa Rica 4-3 in 2014 Fifa WC

Costa Rica started very badly and on the back foot as they were exposed on the wings with their three defenders. They quickly sorted that and managed to have balance and depth at the back, especially the central position. They needed to get forward and be a threat to the Dutch defence a little bit more. Their compactness bothered them and the ‘General’ in Luis van Gaal pulled the Costa Ricans wider to enable penetrative movements forward.

Arjen Robben and Depay found the easy spaces to run into on both sides and the two changed sides occasionally. Despite the tactical adjustments, the Costa Rican defence had little solution to the pace of the Dutch pace when Robben, Depay, Sneijder and van Persie were in full flight. They found the resolute defending and goalkeeping of the South Americans unbreakable.

For all their trouble and toil, Costa Rica failed to make a telling pass out of the defensive area and gave away possession cheaply. The final pass into the final third was worse, resulting in the substitution of Joe Campbell. They fashioned a few moves into the penalty area but fluffed them.

Turning the 1-3-4-3 into a 1-4-5-1 seemed to keep the Dutch attack at bay effectively, but Holland responded by adding numbers upfront. Robben tried to win every free-kick possible, including one taken by Sneijder against the left upright post.

The best part of the night came in the last four minutes of extra time as The Netherlands attacked and Costa Rica counter attacked in basketball fast break fashion. Both teams were close to scoring thrice in that period of time, including a strike of the cross bar by Sneijder. Urena ran rings around the defence and his efforts were only blocked by Jasper Cillisen, who was replaced by Newcastle’s Krul in time for the penalty shoot-out.

With all the drama, it had to come down to kicks from the penalty spot. Krul saved the two to send the Dutch to face Argentina with a 4-3 win.

Costa Rica beat Italy 1-0 in 2014 Fifa World Cup

England should be wondering how on earth they got beat by Italy. So shambolic was their performance that their entry into the final can be counted in one hand against the minnows. They looked set to control the match as they dictated play in the early first half. Pirlo dominated the midfield and set up Mario Balottelli a few times. Balottelli had hoped for a kiss on the cheek from the Queen of England, but he kicked that chance away twice in the first half.

Italy became nervous and jittery as they failed to deal with Joe Campbell’s runs. Costa Rica remained composed and never gave much away. They penetrated systematically without giving the former Fifa World Cup champions any respect. They won the midfield bouts and played the ball through the middle to Campbell who beat three Italians and was felled in the penalty area, but the referee ignored the incident.

Justice was done minutes later as they did not need that call. They played the ball in midfield and pushed it left. There was no Italian pressure to press the ball in the middle of the park. The winger had ample time to control and cross without anyone closing down on the ball. Bryan Ruiz timed his perfect run being monitored by two defenders and met the cross at the far post to head past Buffon.

Italy came from the break showing further signs of decay in midfield. They lacked compactness and exposed their defence, which became stretched and played too far apart. That crack in defence became more exposed as Costa Rica played the long ball consistently at the same point, almost ripping it open with each launch.

Pirlo played too defensively without affecting much of the attack. This made the Europeans too slow in attack and fail to deliver any final pass for the isolated Balottelli. The midfield carried the ball too much and could not penetrate the South Americans defence. They were too careless, lost possession easily, and gave away easy free kicks in a very amateurish manner.

To the credit of Costa Rica, they did not make special arrangements for Pirlo who played very far away from the dance floor, and Balottelli. They had their game plan that boarded around their own strengths and stuck to it. They counter-attacked very well playing directly with the long ball through the centre. They remained compact at the back and stayed composed without diving into tackles or unnecessarily rushing their attacks.

It became one deserved win for Costa Rica as they put a perfect all-round show. For Italy, they did not come to the party and everything that could go wrong went wrong. England should have been watching with awe, how they lost to the Italians. The result sadly sends England home early while Italy and Uruguay will decide who stays between them.

Uruguay beaten 3-1 by Costa Rica in 2014 Fifa World Cup

It looked like a Goliath versus David affair from the onset, yet there was a side of Costa Rica to see. They were eager to push forward without fear and make a statement in a motivated way. They had made 5 entries into the attacking third by the 10^th minute. The nervousness in defence was obvious as they were to concede consecutive free-kicks including the one that led to the penalty converted by Cavani.

Uruguay played with a lot of width and tried to break the 5-men defence with crisp passing. Wasteful finishing by both Cavani and Diego Forlan counted for nothing until the rugby tackle on Lugano. Cavani slotted the ball in the right bottom corner of the net despite the goalkeeper guessing right. Thereafter, the former champions’ attempts were restricted to outside the penalty area. Despite that drawback, Costa Rica showed character by their positive response pushing for an equaliser. Their 1-5-3-2 coped well with the conventional 1-4-4-2 of Costa Rica.

The second half started with an injected pace in the Costa Rican attack as they ran at the Uruguayan defence. An exchange of passes on the right wing and the resultant cross eluded the Uruguay defence and found an unmarked Joe Campbell who controlled the ball and rifled a canon past Muslera to equalise. It was one such run in the middle of the defence that led to a free-kick that was neatly taken to the far post and headed home by Duarte for a 2-1 lead within minutes. It took courage as the low ball attracted a boot of a defender in a failed bid to clear.

Thenceforth, Uruguay threw kitchen sinks and all at the minnows who did not crack under pressure. They managed the lead well, composed themselves and frustrated their more illustrious opponents in midfield as they curled into a 1-5-4-1 formation. The frantic defending got into the nerves of Uruguay as they lost their cool and composure.

A ball lost on the right side of midfield was passed down the line and then played through to Urena who raced into the box attraction the attention of Muslera who tried to narrow the angle. The attacker raised his head, saw the onrushing keeper and tucked in a low ball past him to hammer the final nail in the coffin of Uruguay. Adding salt to injury, Uruguay lost a man at the death as a momentary rush of blood in the head left the referee with no option but to send him off.

It turned out as it looked, a David versus Goliath, and the result was no different from the actual ancient events, David killing Goliath.