Five Talking points from the World Cup qualifiers

Costa Rica get their revenge in some style

Costa Rica’s Johnny Acosta celebrates after scoring against USA.

Back in March earlier this year, USA played Costa Rica in Colorado under conditions which were almost unplayable, thanks to the amount of snow on the pitch. USA won that game thanks to a Clint Dempsey goal early in the first half and the Costa Ricans weren’t best pleased. “It was an embarrassment to football, disrespectful to the game,” were the words of their manager, Jorge Luis Pinto. And players from both sides agreed that they have never played a game like this before and it was unplayable. And although an appeal was made to FIFA by the visitors, it was rejected.

So when the US team arrived for the return fixture, they found all the pent up emotion from that game boiling over. As soon as they came, the Americans were pelted with eggs, forced to stay on a farm, weren’t given a proper ball for training and were slowed down on their way to the stadium by taxi drivers. And once the match began, the crowd went ballistic and there were reports that the crowd volume was 96.08 decibels. On the pitch, two quick goals from Johnny Acosta and Celso Borges brought the Americans down and in the second half, Joel Campbell scored as they beat USA 3-1 and in doing so ended the visitors’ 12-match winning streak. For Costa Rica at least, revenge was a dish that was best served cold.