People in Costa Rica might argue that manager Oscar Ramirez, is completely mistaken when he says that his National Team gave a decent football display against the United States last Tuesday. According to most of the press in the Central American country, they didn't even fight back against an apparently weak USA. But Ramirez wanting to shield himself from criticism, attempted to justify the bad performance with the press after the match.
First of all, Ramirez wanted to say: "I apologize for the score, but not for football. I think it was one of those rare games. We were far superior footballing wise. We had control, but in football you have to score. The United States were very effective and difficult for us. We conceded in very important moments. It is not something I can berate the players about. They did everything I asked of them. It is only a blow, a defeat that hurts and touches our pride," Ramirez added.
For Costa Rica, things are way more difficult as they now practically need a miracle in order to get through to the next round. However, Colombia's victory against Paraguay gave them a small chance to get back to the fight. They would need to defeat the Colombian National team and expect Paraguay to beat the US in order to get through by goal average. But that's a really difficult goal to reach at this point, Costa Rica are pretty much done for.
Photo credit: Fedefutbol