We all love a good underdog story, especially in a big sporting stage like the World Cup.
This year, no country has taken that status and turned it upside its head quite like Costa Rica. The Central American country has had quite a tournament, hasn’t it? Left for death in a group that wasn’t billed a Group of Death only because pundits believed Costa Rica was too weak to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Italy, England and Uruguay.
Well, guess what. There’s only one team remaining in that group and it isn’t the Three Lions.
That team is Costa Rica, the same squad that entered the tournament as 50/1 odds to win its group. Again, guess the hell what, fellas. It did just that, beating Uruguay and Italy before settling for a goalless draw against England only because it had already won Group D at that point.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, Costa Rica gave us even more reason to believe the freakin’ hype by beating Greece in a dramatic penalty shootout in the Round of 16, booking a date with the Netherlands in the quarterfinals in a match that doesn’t seem so lopsided anymore.
So give it up for CONCACAF’s finest, ladies and gentlemen! A team that was ranked 28th in the world before the World Cup is now in the final eight of the sport’s biggest tournament. We all didn’t see this coming. But now that Costa Rica has turned many of us into believers, it’s time to stand up and give props to a team that continues to defy the odds and has made us all look like fools in the process.
Vamos La Muerte!
