By: EFE Updated 30 Jan 2022, 21: 18 pm EST
The Colombian Luis Fernando Suárez, coach of Costa Rica, assured this Sunday that his team is focused , has scored seven of the last nine points and that allows him to bet on qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
“We are involved in focusing on the objective without paying attention to the noise from outside; we have made seven out of nine points and that is what we wanted”, he indicated in a press conference, after drawing a goalless draw with Mexico at the Azteca Stadium.
The Costa Ricans gave a kind of good defensive approach and dried up Mexico’s attack to stay in fifth place in the standings with 13 points, behind Canada (22), United States, Mexico (18) and Panama (17).
According the strategist, the draw will only work if Costa Rica gets a positive result on Wednesday in Jamaica and then scores a lot of points at home against Canada and the United States and on a visit to El Salvador, the matches with which the competition will close.
“This (the tie) can be valued, if the first goal is achieved, which is qualifying for the World Cup”, he insisted.
Suárez praised the intelligence of the Costa Rican soccer players and the attitude, which he confirmed this Sunday, despite the fact that he could not take the ball from Mexico.
“ The most important thing about the team is that it knew how to compete, we cannot compete with Mexico in possession of the ball; they have a great strength and we tried not to see it so much, the idea was not to fall back so much. We recovered the ball and were able to generate danger”, he observed.
In the first half and part of the second, Costa Rica gave priority to defense, but with great activity in the middle of the court and he sought to counterattack, which unsettled the Mexican defense; in the last half hour he did back down and endured the great offensive wave from Mexico.
“I see that anyone who enters does things for the group; the players are thinking about the objective”, he concluded.
Costa Rica reached the quarterfinals in the World Cup in Brazil 2014, but was eliminated in the group stage in Russia 2018. Now the team needs to improve the offense, which has only seven goals in 10 games, to find the move to Qatar.