Recife: Italy vs. Costa Rica

Sunday, June 22, 2014
With Costa Rica already in the lead of Group D(-eath), they were hoping to pull off a draw against Italy to get one step closer to qualifying for the next round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.


We arrived early morning on game day at the hostel in Recife. We dropped off our bags and headed for Arena Pernambuco.


Already on our way out the front gate of the hostel, we ran into some Costa Rican fans which we decided to join, as we were wearing the Costa Rica jerseys, which we had got in a trade at the last match against Uruguay.


Costa Ricans are a lot more fluent in english compared to most Brazilians so we had no trouble communicating with these guys.
We arrived at the stadium and outside we had a couple of beers (possibly more than a couple) and suddenly Costa Rican World Cup legend Juan Cayasso showed up. The Costa Ricans gathered in a big group around him - and we joined them.
We were lucky enough to have a photo with the legend and we even had Mr. Cayasso sign our Costa Rica shirts - how awesome is that? He scored the first ever World Cup goal for Costa Rica in 1990.


Inside the stadium we gathered with the Costa Ricans close to the pitch.
A header from Costa Rica star Bryan Ruiz passed Buffon in the Italian goal. Costa Rica was in the lead. Absolutely no one had seen this coming!


With great fight and an unbreakable willpower Costa Rica managed to keep a clean sheet against super stars like Mario Balotelli and Andrea Pirlo.


We cheered for Costa Rica throughout the whole match like it was our own national team playing.
As the referee blew the final whistle the stadium exploded into heavy cheers from the crowds.
The underdog from the Group of Death is now through to the next round as they turned Andrea Pirlo and his teammates upside down, so to speak. And I'm certain they'll beat England in the last group match to claim the first place of Group D.

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