Next up was Uruguay (ranked fifth in the world) and Costa Rica (28th) in Brazil. And I should have taken more notes on this one, or written it up sooner, because it was a fun game to watch.
Uruguay was certainly dominating play for much of the game, although I'm not sure that I agreed with the call that gave them a penalty kick. It looked like incidental (rather than deliberate) contact, and I wish there was a less-decisive call available to be made in that circumstance.
Cavani converted on the kick to get the lead for Uruguay, and they continued to play well for the rest of the half.
But in the second half, Costa Rica, and especially Joel Campbell, came on strong. He scored a beauty of a goal, calm and measured in approach, in the 54th minute, which came after several chances.
Three minutes later, Duarte had a beauty of a goal (and a daring one), going for a header only a foot or two off the ground, with a defender right there.
From there, the play was almost all Costa Rica. Forlán was subbed out a couple minutes later, which I found odd; he had missed some pretty good chances, but he did get into position to get those chances. (And as a side note, I always forget that he's Uruguayan; keep thinking he's Argentine, for some reason.) But maybe there was a tactical side to the move that I didn't see.
Ureña closed out the scoring a minute after being subbed in. He ran onto a picture-perfect pass from Campbell, and put a well-aimed first touch across his body and into the net.
So the Ticos had the upset of the tournament (so far, at least), cheering 'pura vida'. I wonder about that; my so-so spanish translates that to 'clean living', which seems like an odd cheer. I imagine there's some significance that I'm missing.
Anyway, a good game, and fun to watch. I find myself hoping Costa Rica moves on.
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