FIFA World Cup 2014: Costa Rica beats Italy and throws England out

10. Roy Hodgson will remain in charge of the English national team after the World Cup, despite the huge fiasco.

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Official Book 

9. Italy – Costa Rica 0-1: If there is any group to call a “Group of Death”, the Europeans die. With a group against three previous world champions, Costa Rica is already in the Play-off leaving two of these champions out of the tournament as early as
before the third group match. Jorge Ruis Pinto’s side won two matches now, thanks to their great discipline and their opponents’ arrogance. It is hard to believe that Uruguay or Italy will lose to such a Costa Rican side more than once, if they were to meet five times. But this is a great World Cup for Latin American teams, who get all the support to go out and beat their highly rated opponents. This time it was not Joel Campbell, who scored, but the Fulham midfielder Bryan Ruiz. The goal became a winner, as Italians were unable to solve the problem of not getting caught offside. The impressive 93% pass completion rate in their first match deteriorated. But the worst about Italian defeat in that match was their attack. Having Balotelli, Cassano, Insigne and Cerci on the pitch, Italy didn’t create a single dangerous attack during the whole second half. England is officially out, Italy and Uruguay will fight for the only remaining Play-off ticket from this group. Those looking forward to several clashes of titans in this World Cup can already drop watching the tournament. Not many titans have arrived to Brazil this time.  
 Defence: 1 – 1,5
 Midfield: 0,5 – 1
 Attack: 0,5 – 1
 Interplay: 0,5 – 1
 TOTAL: 2,5 – 4,5  

 3. Gonzalez (CRC) – 1
 3. Chiellini (ITA) – 1
 4. Umana (CRC) - 1
 7. Bolanos (CRC) – 1
 10. Diaz (CRC) – 1

   8. Switzerland – France 2-5: One of the two all-European encounter of this round started bad for the Swiss. After less than 10 minutes the main centre-back Steve von Bergen had to leave the pitch due to an injury. And there it went with Giroud’s goal, then Matuidi’s, Benzema’s missed penalty, Valbuena’s goal, Benzema’s first in this match, and Sissoko’s first ever in his 19 matches. The Swiss defence was absolutely absent during the whole period, but the team never gave up and in fact they played 2-2 in the second half. After the score had become 0-5 Ottmar Hitzfeld’s young team managed to score twice, to improve their goal difference before the third round. France’s Hugo Lloris conceded his first goals in this World Cup. But Didier Deschamps can be proud of his team. This is a very young, dynamic and charming France. Of course they are not going to win the World Cup, mainly because of their weak defenders and the forwards who don’t help them, but it is going to be difficult to say goodbye to them.  

 Defence: 0 – 1
 Midfield: 0,5 – 2
 Attack: 0,5 – 2
 Interplay: 0,5 – 2
 TOTAL: 1,5 – 7  

 10. Benzema (FRA) – 1,5
 14. Matuidi (FRA) – 1,5
 9. Giroud (FRA) – 1
 8. Valbuena (FRA) – 0,5
 18. Sissoko (FRA) – 0,5
 19. Pogba (FRA) – 0,5
 15. Dzemaili (SUI) – 0,5
 23. Shaqiri (SUI) – 0,5

 7. Honduras – Ecuador 1-2: There are always a lot of emotions involved when two Latin American sides meet. The fans really needed a win this match as much as a qualification to the next round.  Ecuador was the only South American team which had not won a match yet in this World Cup. They didn’t disappoint the Ecuadorian and local fans, cheering for the team for 90 minutes. After conceding a goal, Ecuador equalized, and then, already in the second half, scored the winner. It was the same Enner Valencia, who scored both goals. The Pachuca forward has already scored three and is one of the topscorers. Honduras scored its first World Cup goal since 1982. This victory means the destination of the two Play-off tickets is not known yet.

Defence: 0,5 – 0,5
 Midfield: 0,5 – 0,5
 Attack: 1 – 1
 Interplay: 1 – 1
 TOTAL: 3 – 3

 13. Costly (HON) – 1
 13. E. Valencia (ECU) – 1  

 6. Leo Messi’s fans will be looking forward to see him play a better match than the first one. The starting nervousness is in the back. It is going to be interesting to see whether Alejandro Sabella chooses Higuain to start or not. It was a huge difference between Argentina with and without him.

 5. Impressive defensive show by Iran in the first match will hardly bother Argentina with its superstars, but the fact that Carlos Queiroz deserves credit for his work with the Asian side is indisputable. Iran will most likely delay the goalscoring plans until the last match of the group. It is important to get a bad goal difference or maybe hold another 0-0 draw in the upcoming match against Messi and Co.  

 4. After devastating Portugal, Germany and Thomas Mueller receive the next opponent. Ghana is obviously not the side to frighten Joachim Loew, but the Africans will only need a victory, so the Europeans need to cope with a motivated side. Interesting fact: brothers Boateng, playing for different national teams, will meet each other on the pitch, as they did four years ago in the same stage. The German Boateng was the one who took the victory then.

 3. Not too many expected Ghana to lose to USA. But a very early and a very late goal confirmed the defeat. Ghana lost the first match not only tactically, but also psychologically. The coach Appiah has got a lot to do to prepare his team to the match against three-time world champions Germany.

 2. Another poor performance by an African side has to become a turning point, if there are any teams from the Black Continent to succeed in this World Cup. Some more ideas are needed from Nigeria to beat newcomers Bosnia-Herzegovina in the second match. It is going to be a different match, as Nigerians are better when the initiative comes from the opponent’s side: a possibility for quick players like Musa and Emenike to score, but the defence might have a tough evening.

 1. Bosnians didn’t count on earning points against Argentina before the tournament, and they lost. But now the time has come to show what Edin Dzeko and his highly-rated teammates are capable of. They have to improve a little bit of everything to remain a realistic candidate to earn that ticket to the Play-off. They have a much better team than Nigeria and Iran, indeed, but you never know with Europeans in this World Cup.

  The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Fact Files