On Tuesday, Women’s World Cup debutantes Spain and Costa Rica played to a 1-1 draw in the Group E opening match. Spain entered the World Cup without losing a single game in qualification and only 1 game in the previous 16 matches. For Costa Rica, they earned a berth off of a magical run through CONCACAF qualification which culminated in a triumph over Jamaica on penalties. Costa Rican goalkeeper Dinnia Diaz saved all three penalties to make them the first Central American team to qualify for the Women’s World Cup. As of late though, they have struggled with no wins from six pre-tournament friendlies.
Raquel Rodriguez equalizer earns Costa Rica 1-1 draw with Spain
Costa Rica started the match in a 4-5-1 formation hoping to pack the midfield as well as to dominate that zone which they regarded as the key zone for victory. Spain, on the other hand, opted with a 4-3-3 formation to let their fullbacks get in on the offensive action.
La Sele, as the Costa Rican women’s national football team is known, looked nervous in the opening minutes of the game, offering little attacking threat and allowing the Spaniards to dominate possession. Spain looked dangerous getting the ball out wide with Sonia Bermudez crossing it into the box from out left, although the Costa Rican defenders were able to handle every threat. It was Spain that opened the scoring account in the 13th minute. On a corner taken short, while the Costa Ricans tried to organize their rear guard, Bermudez played a quick 1-2 to Vero who then crossed the ball to Victoria Losada in the box. With her back facing the goal, she controlled the ball with her right leg and then spun around quickly and sent the ball into the bottom left corner past a diving Diaz.
However, a mere 73 seconds later, La Sele responded to even the score. A long ball was played over the top by Wendy Acosta to Lixy Rodriguez who made a dash for the touchline and passed the ball through the center box through Spanish traffic to a wide open Raquel Rodriguez who was wide open and simply had to tap the ball into a wide open net.
From then on out, Spain continued to dominate possession although they were slow to take advantage of it and allowed all the Costa Ricans to get back behind the ball. They continued to sit back and soak up pressure from the Spaniards and were able to get a few counterattacks in when the opportunity presented itself.
The second half continued much the same with a bit of a brighter start for Spain however they failed to take advantage of several clear scoring opportunities. Spain was guilty of wayward finishing for the majority of the second half with Natalia Pablos in particular missing several clear opportunities such as in the 87th minute when in the Costa Rican box, she cut back to her favored left foot and fired a shot to the left side of the goal that narrowly missed, flying harmlessly past the outside of the post.
The Costa Ricans weathered some late chances toward the end of the second half but were able to do enough to secure the draw and the points were split between the two of them. All in all, the Costa Ricans made a showing for themselves in their first World Cup match. Coming up on Saturday in further Group E action, Costa Rica takes on the South Koreans and Spain is up against Brazil at 5 pm EST.
Photo by Stuart Franklin – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
