A young selection of Costa Rica ratified this Wednesday his great moment at defeat USA 2-0 with goals from defender albiazil Juan Pablo Vargas and Anthony Contreraswith which he confirms his pass to a playoff against New Zealand in which will be played Ticket to the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
With this result on the last day of the octagonal Concacaf, The United States (25 points) joins Canada (28) and Mexico (28) like the three Concacaf teams that classify directly to the World Cup, while Costa Rica (25) closed in the fourth box that accesses the playoffs.
Costa Rica, which has never lost at home to the United States in history, still had a mathematical chance of winning the direct ticket to the World Cup in Qatar, but had to deliver a historic 6-0 win to displace the Americans from third place.
Costa Rica’s coach, Colombian Luis Fernando Suárez, reserved 8 footballers who had a yellow card and who, if they received another, would miss the play-off against New Zealand, including defender Francisco Calvo, midfielders, Bryan Ruiz and Celso Borges , and attacker Joel Campbell, who make up the backbone of the team.
For this reason, the coach fielded a very young team of 23 years on average, in which the debut of 18-year-old midfielder Brandon Aguilera stood out, who led the game and with two long-distance shots generated the two clearest chances in the first time for the locals. Even so, the Central American team sought the feat and signed a great victory to close the tie by winning 19 of the last 21 points.
Goalkeeper Keylor Navas, one of the few regular stars who played this Wednesday, showed his ability and signed two great saves in the first half against shots from Musah and Pepi. In the first 45 minutes, the United States had better possession and clarity when Christian Pulisic came into contact with the ball and managed to separate himself from the sticky mark of the Tico defenders.
On the first play of the second period, Navas once again saved Costa Rica with a great save from Pepi’s header. Costa Rica responded and at minute 51 he opened the scoring with a headed goal from Colombian Millonarios defender Juan Pablo Vargas on a corner kick play.
The Ticos kept pressing and with better football they extended the score to 59 through 22-year-old attacker Anthony Contreras, who caught a ball in the small area to score his second goal in the last two qualifying rounds.
Costa Rica completely outplayed the North American team that looked imprecise and bewildered in the second half and came close to conceding another touchdown on Alonso Martinez’s counterattack play.
This was Vargas’ goal:
