Costa Rica will be without star goalkeeper Keylor Navas who was injured after playing in Real Madrid’s Champions League triumph May 28.
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Paraguay and Costa Rica shared the spoils in a scoreless draw at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida in what turned out to be an aggressive matchup for the two teams.
And ahead of them kicking off their Copa America 2016 campaign with Saturday’s Group A clash against Paraguay in Orlando, assistant boss Luis Marin said on the FEDEFUTBOL website: “For us [the new ranking] is a great joy”. After their disappointing loss to Colombia, the United States of America still controls its own destiny in Group A.
Although Costa Rica had modest performance in 2015 Gold Cup where they failed to win a single match even after qualifying for quaterfinal.
With men behind the ball throughout, Costa Rica was left to try and make the most of set pieces and Bryan Ruiz’s first-half header was as close as it got.
Pemberton – Gamboa, Acosta, Duarte, Watson, Matarrita – Borges, Bolanos, Ruiz, Campbell – Saborio.
Paraguay coach Ramon Diaz said it was “crazy” to have scheduled the match to be played at 5pm local (Eastern) time. The veteran goal keeper Justo Villar, who played in key role in helping Paraguay to reach the final in 2011 Copa America is an undisputed starter in goal. In a much more aggressive half by both teams, Gustavo Gomez received a head injury following a knock during a corner but was back on the pitch just a few minutes later.
Meanwhile, the Captain of this side is 36 year old, Paulo da Silva with 136 scalps under his belt.The Captain is the most expereinced player in this team and other guys of the team will need his expereince in the pressure situation.
With the tie, Costa Rica earns one point in Group A. La Sele is now tied with Paraguay for second place in the group after Colombia beat the USA 2-0 on Friday.
The last meeting between these two team was ended in the draw 0-0.
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Well fans all over the globe are excited and predicting a solid tussle between these two teams.
