Costa Rica’s men’s National Soccer Team earned its place in the CONCACAF Hexagonal. La Sele defeated Haiti with one goal scored by midfielder Randall Azofeifa in the 72nd minute of the second half of their elimination game in round to the World Cup Russia 2018. Costa Rica only needed a tie to advance to the final round. They are now the undisputed winners of this phase with 13 total points.

The game against Haiti turned out to be a lot more complicated than expected. Haiti’s head coach, Patrice Neveu, had accepted and complained the days before the game that his team didn’t have the necessary resources to properly prepare for this level of competition, they didn’t have some of their main figures playing. Costa Rica was the better team and was expected to deliver a solid performance.

The game lacked excitement, yet, in my opinion, that isn’t exactly surprising, Costa Rica’s coach Oscar Ramirez has a tendency of just “going for the result”, in other words, his strategy was simply not losing, and he achieved that. This wasn’t a game where he needed to over expose his main players; the fans however, expected more, a more dominant game from a team that man to man is superior to its counterpart.

“La Sele” will now receive Panama next Tuesday, September 6 at the National Stadium. If Panama gets the win over Jamaica today they will also earn their pass to the final round. Patrick Pemberton, Kendall Waston and Johnny Acosta accumulated their second yellow card in the game against Haiti today and won’t be able to play against Panama, being sanctioned now will allow them to enter the hexagonal with a clean slate.
Congratulations Ticos on a very important win!