Match Summary

Costa Rica Team

England Team

England ended their dismal World Cup campaign with the 'dead rubber' match against Costa Rica, and the match was as flat as the rest of the tournament had been for them.  It was a poor game all round and not really what the army of loyal England fans at the game and the millions watching at home wanted to see, but two positive things, our first point and a clean sheet.

Costa Rica were the team who started with a confident look about them, whereas England looked nervous and tentative in the first quarter of an hour.  But they did gradually settle as they realised that Costa Rica were nothing special,en though they had beaten both Uruguay and Italy in their previous games.  After just two minutes Joel Campbell hit a shot that deflected off Gary Cahill, wrong-footing goalkeeper Ben Foster, but it went wide.  With England's current run of bad luck that could have easily gone in!  Meanwhile, it took England 12 minutes to conjure a decent attack as a good move down the left gave Jack Wilshere possession.  He teed up Daniel Sturridge who fired in a shot from 20 yards.  Unfortunately the ball flew the wrong side of the right hand post with the goalkeeper beaten.

Six minutes later Sturridge again shot wide and then on 23 minutes Costa Rica created their only real chance of the game.  Inevitably, perhaps, it came from a free-kick as Celso Borges fired in a curling effort that Foster did well to touch onto the crossbar and over.  That was Foster's last anxious moment of the match but the West Brom keeper can be well satisfied with a confident display, with good handling and excellent anticipation.

In the 27th minute Sturridge was again at the centre of the action as the ball landed at his feet close to goal.  As he went to pull the trigger Oscar Duarte came in from his left and unceremoniously bundled the Liverpool striker over, a penalty, surely?  No chance in this tournament as the referee smiled as he waved away the appeals.  Later replays showed that Duarte made no attempt to play the ball but made sure he took the player out.

England won three quick corners on 35 minutes and from the third Phil Jones headed back across goal to Sturridge who had a free header from close range.  Alas, the England crowd groaned as the header sailed over.  There has been a lot of talk about England's lack of a killer touch in these matches, and that incident was one that highlighted that fault in our game.  But there was worse to come.  Ross Barkley had one excellent run to create a good opening, only for his final shot to be skewed wide.  The half ended goalless, and the action was pretty sterile to say the least.

The second half was played mostly in the middle of the park and Sturridge continued to be the focal point of the England attack.  His touch let him down on 50 minutes and that allowed Keylor Navas to save, and then within two minutes of each other both Barkley and Adam Lallana were booked for late challenges.  This, after Costa Rica players had repeatedly blocked and hacked at England, without being punished.  Lallana was just starting to make an impact on the play, but Roy Hodgson decided at that moment to replace the Southampton player with Raheem Sterling, an odd decision that didn't go down too well with the England fans. 

On 62 minutes Foster made an easy save from substitute Christian Bolanos's long range effort and then three minutes later England created their best chance of the match.  A lovely one-two between Sturridge and Wilshere set up Sturridge with a clear chance.  99 times out of a hundred Sturridge would have tucked the ball into the far corner, but sadly, this was the 100^th and he put it wide of the far post!  It was yet another 'head in the hands' moment for the anguished England fans.

Four minutes later Sturridge was again brought down in the box but this time it was not such a clear cut decision.  England kept plugging away though and Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney were sent on for Wilshere and Milner, to add weight to the attacking third.  Alas, it didn't really work for them and one of the most disappointing aspects of England's play was their lack of penetration from set pieces.  Corners and free-kicks came to nothing every time, and that is supposed to be one of the strong points of the English game. 

With ten minutes left Rooney tried in vain to chip the goalkeeper, Luke Shaw's fine run down the left ended with a weak cross and Gerrard shot over.  At the other end, in the third minute of added time, Shaw showed his defensive qualities with a superb run and challenge that shut out Marco Urena's dangerous run.  It was the last action of a very poor match.  Costa Rica were content with a draw and go through as winners of England's group, and who would have thought that at the start of the tournament.

So England left Brazil after their worst showing in a World Cup since 1958.  Individually you could say that most of the players did their best, but as a team we never really found the combination that could cause the other teams problems.  The goals we conceded were poor, defensively, and up front we missed chance after chance.  A recipe for disaster to be honest.  In some ways it is a relief to see England come home as it was difficult to watch some of the decisions and incidents that the team suffered.  And how galling it was to see players like Uruguay's Diego Godin score the goal that put his team through to the next round with the winner over Italy.  He should never have been playing in that match because against England he should have been sent off!  And as for the man who puts the 'bite' into Uruguay's attack, words fail me.  Why is it that in every World Cup cheats are seen to prosper?
   

Source Notes