Sunday, June 29th, we saw Netherlands and Costa Rica qualify for the Quarterfinals of the World Cup. Netherlands qualified for the Quarterfinals after going up against a tough Mexican team that looked like they were going to qualify while Costa Rica took on Greece. Netherlands and Costa Rica will face each other on Saturday with both teams playing strong to secure a spot in the semi-finals. These two teams have never faced each other in competition or international friendlies. So it will be an interesting match to see how Costa Rica will do against a strong yet struggling Netherlands team.
Netherlands surprised us all in the group stage when they opened up their first match against reigning champs, Spain and saw them man handle La Furia Roja 5-1 with Robin Van Persie scoring a beautiful goal and getting the nickname the Flying Dutchman. They went up against Australia after and came up from a 2-1 deficit, winning 3-2 with a long shot goal coming from Memphis Depay and then defeated Chile 2-0 with a goal from Leroy Fer and a late goal from Depay to secure the win. After defeating Spain, they became one of the fan favorites to win it all and in the Round of 16 it seemed like their hopes of winning the cup were ending when they faced Mexico. With a second half goal from Giovanni Dos Santos and Mexico being the better team that game, it seemed like they were about to eliminate le Oranje team but Wesley Sneijder scored a late goal to tie the game. Netherlands ended up securing the win with a debatable penalty in which we saw Arjen Robben flop when Rafa Marquez never touched him, thus giving Klaas Jan Huntelaar the opportunity to score the penalty and give his team a late 2-1 lead and giving them a spot in the Quarterfinals.
Costa Rica was the surprise of the FIFA World Cup as they had a tough group. They faced three strong teams those being Uruguay, Italy and England. When they opened up their match against Uruguay, no one knew that Costa Rica would surprise not only the country of Uruguay and their team but also the whole world. They defeated Uruguay 3-1, then securing a 1-0 win against Italy and tying against England. With 7 points they won their group and was the first time since 1990 to make it to the knockout stage in the FIFA World Cup. After coming out a tough group, they advance to take on Greece. Costa Rica seemed to struggle against Greece but opened up the scoring first but a late extra time goal from Greece took the game to extra time then penalties. With Gekas missing a penalty for Greece, Costa Rica ended up winning 5-3 in penalties and advancing to the Quarterfinals for the first time in team history and the only CONCACAF team left in the World Cup as well.
Netherlands came into the world cup not only to get revenge on Spain for losing the world cup final back in 2010 but to also take it all. After securing a 5-1 win over Spain, they knew they could do anything else. With stars Robin Van Persie, Arjen Robben, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Nigel De Jong, and Memphis Depay, they were able to maintain their heads up high and continue on to get closer to the cup. In 2010, Netherlands were runners up to the World Cup. With a late goal from Andres Iniesta, we saw Netherlands take the silver. Their second best place was in the 1998 world cup taking fourth place. Netherlands will have to step it up in their defense and hope for Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Dirk Kuyt and Robin Van Persie to score goals for them to get past a surprising and tough Costa Rica team.
Photo by: Peter Dejong/AP
Costa Rica wasn’t a team we thought would make it this far in this year’s FIFA World Cup. After their surprising win over Uruguay and Italy, the odds of this team making it this far changed. Everyone underestimated this young and strong Costa Rican team but things will be different on Saturday when they go up against Netherlands. Many Costa Ricans have faith in their team and believe they can defeat Netherlands but it will be tough. Costa Rica didn’t qualify last world cup and were sent home early in the 2006 and 2002 World cups, but this year will be a year for them to make history if they bump out the Flying Dutchman.
Prediction: Costa Rica, as mentioned above, surprised everyone in the FIFA World Cup and they will want to continue their great form but Netherlands wants to take the cup this year and we will see le Oranje advancing to the semi-finals.
Starting line-ups: Costa Rica: Navas, Gonzalez, Umaña, Borges, Duarte, Bolaños, Campbell, Ruiz, Diaz, Gamboa, Tejeda
Netherlands: Cillissen, Vlaar, De Vrij, Blind, De Jong, Verhaegh, Wijnaldum, Kuyt, Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie
Costa Rica will face Netherlands on Saturday with kickoff commencing at 1PM PT. We will watch two strong teams going against each other but one will be sent home on Saturday.
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