Game # 52 - Costa Rica vs Greece

[catalyst2]

The first half was dull as Greece sought to blunt the Costa Rica attack by slowing the game down to a crawl. Greece was successful in doing this as the half finished 0-0. Of course, it also meant that Greece barely had a shot on target too.

After the break, the game eased up a little as both sides started to get attacks going. The weight of Costa Rica attacks eventually told and Ruiz scored in the 52nd minute. Greece barely even responded until the red card for Duarte in the 66th minute. This eventually roused them out of their slumber and the game became increasingly desperate for Costa Rica as Greece launched raid after raid though generally without an effective shot on target to finish off. Almost within sight of qualifying, Costa Rica finally conceded, after withstanding a veritable barrage of shots from Greece(24/13 to 6/2). The 91st minute equalizer was so late that there was nothing that Costa Rica could do to respond so the game finished 1-1.

In extra time, the Greeks were far and way the dominant team and thundered shot after shot on the Costa Rica goal (it felt like the majority of Greece shots were from this period of time). No-one really had a great chance so it finished still 1-1.

The penalty shootout was the usual lottery but very accurate Costa Rica shooting (they didn't miss a single penalty) meant that they won, 5-3 on penalties.

Costa Rica now meets Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

Comments

[leecetheartist.livejournal.com]

Catalyst I hope people who know and appreciate the game are enjoying your posts.

I don't know or appreciate the game, but I'm enjoying your posts!

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I really do it to remind myself in a year or two's time what the games were like. Having watched every game of every World Cup since 1982, I found it strangely hard to remember what they were like even a short time after the tournament finished.