The date is set. On Tuesday 14 June in Doha, Qatar the Aotearoa men’s football team will take on the intimidating force of Costa Rica for what will at that stage be the final remaining ticket to the FIFA World Cup later in the year. Wednesday morning NZT, if you’re wondering. A 9pm kickoff local time, a 12 noon kickoff Costa Rican time, a 6am kickoff NZ time.

The final European spot will be decided the week before (either Wales/Scotland/Ukraine) and one night earlier in the same city it’ll be Australia/UAE versus Peru for the other intercontinental playoff. Thus the All Whites will either be the last team to qualify or the final team eliminated. Absolutely massive.

There’s no doubt whatsoever that this has been a fortunate break for the New Zealand team. A single-legged tie at a neutral venue in a neutral continent? Where the All Whites just happened to have played the Oceania qualifying tournament a few months earlier? Yeah, that goes down smoothly. As does the fact that, with all due respect to a Costa Rica team that will certainly be favoured for this match-up, NZL were lucky enough to draw an intercontinental game against the fourth-placed North/Central America team rather than the fifth-placed South American nation like last time.

But those fortunate breaks only add up to the All Whites having a chance. It’s still gonna be Costa Rica predicted by most to make their way into Group E to take on Spain, Germany, and Japan. So what do we know about Costa Rica? How can we expect that match to look? What areas will each team be targeting? Let us have a peek at the scouting report, whanau...

SOME HISTORY

Los Ticos are no strangers to the World Cup finals stage. Most famous were their 2014 efforts where they were drawn with England, Italy, and Uruguay in a brutal group... and not only managed to progress but they won the whole damn thing. Came from a goal down at half-time to beat Uruguay with Joel Campbell (54’), Oscar Duarte (57’) and Marcos Ureña (84’) all on the score-sheet in a 3-1 victory. Next up a 44th minute Bryan Ruiz goal saw them beat Italy 1-0, a result which simultaneously eliminated England before the two teams drew 0-0 in the final matchday.

A meeting with Greece in the round of sixteen was their reward and things were looking swell when Bryan Ruiz gave them the lead early in the second half thanks to a delicately placed shot from the edge of the box. But then Oscar Duarte picked up a second yellow on 66’ and Costa Rica were forced to defend with their backs to the wall for much of the rest of the game. A masterclass delivered by goalie Keylor Navas had them on the brink of advancing despite the onslaught... however an injury time equaliser to Sokratis Papasthathopoulos forced extra time. But Costa Rica didn’t crumble. Navas then resumed his greatness and the match went to penalties where Navas made the only save of the shootout and Costa Rica famously advanced to the quarters. A penalty shootout was then their downfall after a 0-0 draw against Netherlands, so it goes.

That was their peak, yet Costa Rica also made the knockouts back in the 1990 edition. Those are the only two times they’ve gone past the group stage but keep in mind that Aotearoa has only ever made World Cups twice in total and has never won a game. Meanwhile Costa Rica also qualified for the 2002 and 2006 editions, missed out in 2010 at the intercontinental playoff stage, then qualified again in both 2014 and 2016. They have been at four of the last five tournaments and are fully focused on making it 5/6 against the All Whites in June.

For each of those four tournaments, Costa Rica has qualified automatically. They topped the CONCACAF table for the 2002 edition and have consistently finished in second or third ever since. Speaking generally, USA and Mexico are the two dominant nations in the region and Costa Rica tend to be the best of the rest. That dynamic may have shifted recently with the emergence of Canada as a genuine presence... but we’re not here to talk about Canada so we’ll leave that idea alone.

The one World Cup that they failed to qualify for in 2010 was an absolute heartbreaker. A 4-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago coupled with the USA beating Honduras 3-2 put them into third place for the final automatic spot going into the last round of matches. They’d advance if they could either beat the USA in Washington or match Honduras’ result.

Things were going great guns when they were 2-0 up at the break... but they couldn’t hold on and a Jonathan Bornstein equaliser in injury time meant a 2-2 draw. Honduras beat El Salvador 1-0 and thus Costa Rica had to settle for a playoff against Uruguay. They lost the first leg 1-0 at home (being reduced to ten-men late on) and then could only draw 1-1 in the away leg to miss out 2-1 on aggregate. Brutal yarns... although that disappointment did lead to them pushing through a new generation of players who became the backbone of that 2014 WC success in the following cycle, many of whom are still very much a part of this Ticos unit seeking a place at the 2022 tournament.

CONCACAF QUALIFICATION

The third/final phase of North/Central American World Cup qualifying this time saw the top eight teams in the region play home and away in a league format (they call it ‘The Octagonal’). Fourteen games all up with the top three going through automatically and fourth place advancing to an intercontinental playoff. First matchday was in early September 2021, final matchday was in late March 2022.

Costa Rica started terribly. A 0-0 draw with Panama (A), 1-0 loss to Mexico (H), 1-1 draw with Jamaica (H), and 0-0 draw with Honduras (A) left them still without a win more than a quarter of the way through the tournament. That finally changed in the fifth match as they came from a goal down to beat El Salvador 2-1, however the same thing happened in reverse away to the USA in MD6 and in the seventh matchday they fell 1-0 away to Canada. Halfway through proceedings and Costa Rica were a shambles. Six points from seven games and needing something special to have any hope of advancing.

Special may be a slight exaggeration but here’s what they did in the second half of The Octagonal...

• Costa Rica 2-1 Honduras (Duarte 20’, Torres 90+5’ / Quioto 35’)

• Costa Rica 1-0 Panama (Ruiz 65’)

• Mexico 0-0 Costa Rica

• Jamaica 0-1 Costa Rica (Campbell 62’)

• Costa Rica 1-0 Canada (Borges 45+1’)

• El Salvador 1-2 Costa Rica (Gil 31’ / Contreras 30’, Campbell 45+1’)

• Costa Rica 2-0 USA (Vargas 51’, Contreras 59’)

Seven games unbeaten including six wins. Five clean sheets. Five of the six wins were by a single goal and the only exception to that was the 2-0 win over USA in which they rested the majority of their players knowing that the only way they could finish higher than fourth at that stage was to beat USA by six goals. Considering the unlikeliness of that as well as the fact that they had several players on yellow cards at risk of missing the probable intercontinental match (and, yes, considering also that they knew by then that the intercontinental was only against New Zealand and not, say, a South American nation), you can understand the logic there. Hell, Danny Hay did the same in the Oceania final when he rested Winston Reid and Liberato Cacace.

Pretty obvious that Costa Rica are not a team that scores a heap of goals. Only bagged 13 of them in 14 qualifiers, not even one per match. Top scorers were Celso Borges, Joel Campbell, Anthony Contreras, and Bryan Ruiz who were all tied with two. But they also don’t concede many either and that’s where the strength of this team lies. Eight goals conceded with seven clean sheets from fourteen games. Never allowed more than two in a match.

Granted, that work was all against familiar teams from their own region whom they regularly meet in qualifiers, Gold Cup matches, and even a few friendlies and can therefore prepare in meticulous detail for them. Familiar foes. Outside of their own qualifiers, the All Whites have been getting back into the swing of things with friendlies against mostly Asian and African teams (albeit all of a much lower standard than what Costa Rica will offer), whereas the condensed nature of CONCACAF qualifying means that Costa Rica haven’t played a game outside their confederation since drawing 0-0 with Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2021 (as well as an unofficial game against Basque Country in November 2020).

Last qualifying cycle it was a top six league format for CONCACAF and it took them a full year to complete. This time they added four more rounds and completed it in seven months. Something to keep in mind, there. Plus any hope of non-CONCACAF games before the playoff have been dashed by the scheduling of the first to Nations Cup matches (against Panama and Martinique) in early June – round about the same time as the All Whites will be playing Peru in Spain. That’s their preparation.

THE SQUAD

There are plenty of blatant contrasts between Aotearoa and Costa Rica when it comes to football. We may pride ourselves on being a passionate sporting nation but Costa Rica is a passionate football nation. Very different things. One is a jack of all trades tag, the other is a specialist tag. All the various sporting love that is held in New Zealand (population: 5million) is matched by Costa Rica (population: 5million) except every last ounce of theirs is directed towards football alone. National sport that it may be, you wouldn’t say that the country stops when the All Blacks are on. But when Costa Rica made the knockouts of the 2014 World Cup the president literally made the next day a public holiday at short notice so that people could enjoy the game without the ramifications of work the following morning.

As such, a team that has made two straight World Cups has its share of recognisable names. None more famous or revered than goalkeeper Keylor Navas who has won three Champions League titles with Real Madrid, signing with them in the wake of his outstanding 2014 World Cup performances. Navas played 162 times for Real Madrid and for the last three seasons has been doing his thing for Paris Saint Germain. You wanna talk about big game players, this guy has started four Champions League finals as well as two World Cup knockout matches – both of which went to penalties. He shalt not be fazed.

Navas is the superstar but there are several other semi-stars. Joel Campbell was on the books for Arsenal for many years, spending most of that time out on loan across a variety of leagues. England, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece... he’s played in them all. These days he’s based in the Mexican league. Really handy winger/striker who remains a crucial cog in the Costa Rican machine. Many folks will be familiar with Bryan Ruiz too. He’s back in his homeland now playing for Alajuelense (where he started his career) though had decent spells with Fulham and Sporting CP through the 2010s. Midfielder Celso Borges played a lot for Deportivo La Coruña up until recently (he’s also at Alajuelense now). Bryan Oviedo was an Everton and Sunderland hombre at left-back/left-wing and these days is playing for FC Copenhagen... which means that Marko Stamenic should be pretty familiar with what he offers thanks to those preseason training camps. Oviedo was an unused sub the day that Marko Stamenic made his FCK debut.

Not sure if he’ll make the squad but Marco Ureña of Central Coast Mariners is a fella that a lot of kiwi fans will be familiar with. Scored a penalty against the Wellington Phoenix a few weeks back. There are also a handy few blokes who’ve plied their trade in the USA. Especially in the defensive areas. Fullback Rónald Matarrita features for FC Cincinnati - although he will miss the qualifier through injury, as will forward José Guillermo Ortiz who recently tore his ACL - while main men centre-backs Kendall Waston and Francisco Calvo have both had long MLS careers. Waston played for Vancouver Whitecaps while Stefan Marinovic was there (he’s now back at Saprissa). Calvo is at San Jose Earthquakes as of this year but prior to that was a teammate of Elliot Collier’s at Chicago Fire and before that he was Michael Boxall’s CB partner at Minnesota United. A few mutual friends in that group.

The majority of La Sele are based in Costa Rica with most of them split between Alajuelense, Herediano, and Saprissa – Alajuelense bossed the league last season but were beaten over two legs in the final by Deportivo Saprissa for the championship. Pretty clear trend of players moving back to the motherland in those paragraphs above, right? That’s not a coincidence. They’re doing that because they’re old.

A large portion of this Ticos squad are in their mid-30s. When the game kicks off in Qatar, Keylor Navas will be 35 years old, Bryan Oviedo 32, Kendall Waston 34, Celso Borges 34, Bryan Ruiz 36, and Joel Campbell will be about a fortnight away from the big three-oh. That’s not to say that they don’t have a bunch of younger dudes sprinkled in there either (17yo striker Jewison Bennette is one to watch) but the core of the team is going to be on the grizzly side... which will probably count in their favour against a young All Whites team in a must-win game. Borges, Ruiz, Campbell, and Navas are all centurions. Campbell and Navas are guaranteed starters. Borges is a probable starter. Ruiz has been used exclusively as an impact sub in recent times.

Would expect that VfL Bochum (Germany) right-back Cristian Gamboa will come back into contention for this match too. Injuries have meant that he has only played once for his national team since 2019 but he’s now back fit and playing regularly in the Bundesliga. Gamboa went to both of the last two World Cups and has 79 caps. He’s 32 so another reliable veteran. He’s also one of six active players who partook in the qualifying playoff defeat to Uruguay in 2009 along with Navas, Oviedo, Borges, Ruiz, and Christian Bolaños.

For the majority of those older guys this World Cup campaign is the last dance. One final opportunity to return to the biggest show of all. There are blokes in the All Whites set up that you could say the same thing about, Winston Reid most specifically, though for the most part it’s a young team at the very beginning of their journey. Guys like Joe Bell, Libby Cacace, Sarpreet Singh, Callum McCowatt, Eli Just, Michael Woud... they’ve come up through the age grades together. Been there done that at the U20 World Cup. Been there done that at the Olympics. Now they’ve emerged as the heart of a fresh and exciting All Whites crew.

But these Costa Rican lads, they’ve been doing this for over a decade. The same hombres who guided this team to the 2014 World Cup quarters and the 2018 World Cup group stage are still running the show in 2022 and experience tends to be a gigantic factor in these kinds of games.

THE TACTICS

For Costa Rica, it all starts from the back. That’s the priority as their defensive record through qualifying testifies (to recap: fourteen games played, eight goals conceded, seven clean sheets). In Keylor Navas they have a world class goalie who at 35 years of age has shown little to no signs of decline. Navas is not a keeper who does much with the ball at his feet, FB-Ref has him in the bottom 12% of goalies in the top five European leagues in terms of touches per game. Doesn’t really leave his area. But his shot stopping is legendary and he almost never makes mistakes. Flawless concentration. As reliable as it gets. He will be the most talented player on the pitch in this playoff.

In front of Navas they tend to pick what looks like a back four, though it’s regularly listed as a back five with that confusion (either the CONCACAF media team’s or mine) stemming from how they operate. From the games/highlights I’ve seen they appear to prefer a narrow back four with the two CBs – Waston and Calvo – staying close together and the responsibility is on the wingers to drop in when the opposition are attacking down that edge. Effectively forming a five-man line.

Dropping back does not seem to be an issue for Costa Rican players, by the way. When they’re defending, they’re all defending. The midfielders regularly find themselves in the penalty area. The striker (usually a lone man but sometimes they pick two) will track back. Wingers doubling up out wide. This was especially true against the stronger teams who qualified automatically (Canada, Mexico & USA) but that swarming defence-first mentality prevails regardless of opponent.

Within that shape you can expect physical and committed footy. Calvo and Waston in particular are excellent defenders. Lots of blocks, not afraid to attempt a challenge in the area, fantastic in the air. Plus they don’t give you a lot of room, marking strikers very closely including staying tight when they drop deeper (until they’re deep enough that it’s a midfielder’s problem). The heavyweight clash between Chris Wood and that backline should be one for the ages. The All Whites don’t have a heap of physicality among the rest of their forwards but Wood is a rare case whose height and strength can not only compete but potentially dominate that area against Waston and Calvo which they won’t be used to.

Mexico’s 0-0 draw with Costa Rica and Canada’s 1-0 defeat were both curious games. Mexico had a goal disallowed for offside and hit the woodwork a couple of times. They battered Costa Rica to the tune of 25 shots (with 13 on target) yet somehow were held out for a goalless draw. Canada meanwhile had a soft red card after half an hour, conceded before the half was out (from a second-phase cross after a free kick), but bossed the game in the latter stages despite the ten men. Neither was able to score a goal but they did make plenty happen, especially Mexico. One parallel area of success came from getting forwards operating in between the lines – something that the likes of Sarpreet Singh and Eli Just already enjoy doing around the focal point of Chris Wood occupying the last man. These sort of areas...

The All Whites don’t have the same ability to beat players one on one as those teams which threatens to force this game into pretty scrappy areas... but the way that Costa Rica defends means that attacking fullbacks ought to be able to find room to cross. Also deep defensive lines tend to allow room for long shots while set pieces will be a focus for both teams given the limited game-breaking quality elsewhere. After which it’s simply up to Chris Wood to put something past Keylor Navas... which, yeah, easier said than done.

Across the seven-game unbeaten streak that revived Costa Rica’s qualifying hopes they only averaged a mere 37% of possession. The Mexico game was as skewed as it gets with Los Ticos attempting 189 passes compared to 603 by Mexico but they were comfortably on the wrong side of the possession battle against the likes of Honduras, El Salvador, and Jamaica too. That’s just how they play.

In fact in the final round win over USA, the CONCACAF website has it that defenders Vargas, Waston, and Chacon only attempted a combined total of 17 passes. Either there’s something wrong with the stat counters or that’s bonkers. To be fair, that game was the one in which they rested eight of the nine players they had on yellow cards so the combos weren’t what they usually are. However that does also hint at a team that doesn’t waste any energy in possession, seeking to get the ball into the midfield or up the flanks as quickly as possible. Not a long ball team but definitely one that prefers economic passing patterns.

A massive swing-factor for the All Whites will be whether they’re able to win a majority of their 50-50 challenges. Costa Rica have good pace in attack and they love a counter attack. They’ve also got high levels of tenacity and found a lot of joy over those last seven games by battling through broken play or busting through tackles and getting on a roll that way. They also love getting the ball wide in an overload and crossing it in and gotta reiterate that set pieces are a massive, massive aspect of their game. Joel Campbell’s left foot and Celso Borges’ right foot are the ones to watch out for in dead ball situations. Those centre-backs win a heap of headers in the attacking penalty area. Probably best to limit the corner count whenever possible.

That’s a pretty routine attacking strategy from Costa Rica: set pieces, crosses, aerial duels, counter attacks, heaps of physicality. Not exactly groundbreaking... but remember how good this team is defensively. That comes at the cost of being able to attack in numbers yet it also means they only tend to need one or two goals to win matches. If anything they’ll probably be even stingier in an intercontinental playoff (note that a lot of these All Whites were involved in penalty shootout exits at the Olympics and the last U20 World Cup so that’s a scary prospect if it comes to that – against a very experienced team with a world class goalie, yikes).

Joel Campbell is the danger man. Sometimes he starts up front, sometimes he starts on the right wing. Could go either way but JC on the wing feels like the better match-up for Costa Rica which would allow someone like Alonso Martínez or Anthony Contreras to lead the line. Huge task for Libby Cacace in that case. The All Whites are a good chance to roll out a back three so don’t anticipate much space in the attacking areas for either side.

Costa Rica do press a little. It’s not an overload thing but they don’t mind a midfielder shooting out of the line and their forwards are all very mobile so they’ll set a trap when they can. Might not have too much success with that against an All Whites team with the likes of Winston Reid and Nando Pijnaker at the back who are comfortable with the ball at feet and will want to draw in attackers then play those quick long switches, which was a strategy at the Nations Cup and could be one which translates alright into this one. But don’t expect the AW’s to be able to build from the back unchallenged despite Costa Rica’s slim possession stats.

You know what though? Thinking back to some of that fan culture in Costa Rica, it’s hard not to feel that the biggest boost on the scouting report for the All Whites is the exclusion of home field advantage for either team. It’s pretty hard to see an All Whites team likely to have at least six starters aged 23 or under getting much of a result in front of a sold-out 35,000 ravenous crowd at Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San José. The USA has literally never won there, would be a tough bet for Aotearoa to do so. But a one-off neutral venue match in the same country that the All Whites just went through their continental qualifiers... don’t mind that. Don’t mind that at all.

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