Clint Dempsey scored his 50th global goal early to help the United States to a much-needed 4-0 victory over Costa Rica in its second match of the Copa America Centenario on Tuesday night at Soldier Field in Chicago.
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No one is denying that. “I think we are very well prepared and we are definitely capable of beating them”. If it wins by one goal, then it must hope there is a victor between Brazil and Peru to be sure of going through, otherwise it could end up in a drawing of lots (see above). There’s only two games left so you got to get your first three points and then you see how things will play out in the third game. It’s a good group of guys that we have together.
“Costa Rica are a great team, we know that the match against them will be hard with the quality of players they have and the good team they are”. They shut shop and thwarted the Costa Rican attack, which now looked bereft of energy and creativity. The Americans could be facing a much more hard opponent if they make it out of the group. Another loss against Costa Rica and the USA would have been eliminated on the fifth day of the tournament.
With Costa Rica looking a little ragged, the US kept up the attack. That’s a different era for U.S. Soccer, back before the U.S. started making every World Cup. But the Americans weren’t really that much better against Costa Rica than they were against Colombia. “We certainly understand that”.
The win came as a welcome relief for U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, whose tenure has faced mounting criticism over the past 18 months after a series of disappointing performances in competitive matches. Despite the 2-0 loss, Klinsmann again repeated that he thought it was “a good performance”.
During the first half, the Colombians took the lead early in the 7th minute thanks to a great shot by AC Milan’s defender Cristián Zapata after a corner kick, where United States’ defender Geoff Cameron missed the mark of the Colombian striker letting him shoot without pressure.
“We wanted to put ourselves in the driving seat against Paraguay and that’s what we did”, Klinsmann said.
Watch all the live action from the 2016 Copa America Centenario Group A match between Columbia and Costa Rica at 9 p.m. ET on June 11, 2016.
“We hope the refs don’t make as many mistakes as they did today”, Diaz said. “There’s no question about that”.
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While Mexico shares the top spot in Group C with Venezuela, which earned just its second win in its past 16 games with a 1-0 victory over Jamaica, the Mexicans have pulled away from the pack as -500 chalk to win the group. “But the reality is that we never know exactly what to expect in terms of the makeup of the crowd”.
