Costa Rica’s Long Way to the Top – Legacy of the 2014 World Cup

Taha Memon

22nd June 2018 | 6:30 PM

Costa Rica’s 2014 World Cup campaign was a result of years of work and determination, combined with the struggles that the nation itself faced. We look back at their coming of age.
Costa Rica
Coat Rica’s football is on a different plane of reality. Art by Revant Dasgupta.

Sitting in the dressing room after a quarter-final defeat, the players knew they had done nothing wrong. They had conceded two goals from open play in the entire tournament, and they had not lost a single game till this one; that too only on penalties.

Sweat dripped from the heads of these footballers who had laced their boots up and come to Brazil to represent a country with a population less than that of Rio De Janeiro. No one had given them a chance, no one had even dreamed that they would last beyond the first round. And yet, as the entire squad sat silent, feeling all the emotions that one feels at the end of an exhausting journey, it is hard to imagine that there were many tears in that locker room. Feelings of frustration, yes. Sorrow, to an extent. Thinking that all was over? No, definitely not. In fact, there was hope. There was a feeling of achievement. There was some amount of bliss.

Four years ago, it was Mario Gotze who came off the bench and scored the winning goal, as Germany lifted atop their heads, the most coveted trophy in team sport. But they were not the only team victorious in that tournament.

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