World Cup Postcard from the past - a look back at last World Cup clash between Brazil and Costa Rica

Brazil take on Costa Rica in St. Petersburg on Friday afternoon and our reporter Macdara Ferris will be at the Group C clash. He was at the last World Cup game between the sides and has penned this piece on attending a memorable match in Seoul’s Suwon Stadium during the 2002 World Cup.

Amongst the ten matches that Brazil and Costa Rica have played against one another down the years – with nine wins for Brazil – are two World Cup games; a 1-0 Brazilian victory in the 1990 World Cup and the most recent game being a seven goal thriller that took place in 2002 in South Korea.

After Brazil’s disappointing draw with Switzerland in their opening game of this World Cup, and Costa Rica’s 1-0 defeat by Serbia, there is plenty of pressure in St. Petersburg for both teams to get a favourable result on Friday. When they played back in 2002, it was in their last group game but Brazil already had six points while Costa Rica four.

Looking back on the trip to the 2002 World Cup, I seemed very confident that Ireland were going to get out of their group and move from Japan to Korea for the knock-out phase. When I was applying for match tickets, it was soon after a Roy Keane inspired Republic of Ireland team had eliminated the Netherlands en-route to the finals.

Having managed to procure a Team Specific Ticket to follow Ireland, I stuck a speculative application in for a couple of more games in Korea including one for Brazil against Costa Rica in Suwon – which would be the venue for Ireland’s last 16 match should we qualify out of the group.

I’m not one to usually boast about betting as usually there is nothing to boast about but not on this rare occasion. This was the match where I knew my high stakes €4 each way bet on a pair of Brazilian strikers was going to pay rich dividends! 

I had gone with Ronaldo – you might remember him from such World Cup opening ceremonies as FIFA World Cup 2018 – and Rivaldo priced at 14/1 and 18/1 respectively.

Unlike this week’s game, Brazil came into the match against Costa Rica buoyed by favourable results. Ronaldo and Rivaldo got both of the goals in their 2-1 win over Turkey. They duo scored again, along with goals from Roberto Carlos and Ronaldinho, in the follow up 4-0 win over China.

Costa Rica had one win and a draw but knew realistically they needed to avoid defeat to stay in the tournament – and it is a similar enough scenario for them this time around in that they have a requirement to avoid defeat in St. Petersburg.

It was a breathless first half in Suwon played out in intense mid-afternoon heat. The teams would share four goals between them in 45 minutes with the first three coming to Brazil.

2-0 up after 13 minutes, thanks to two Ronaldo goals across a three minute period, it seemed Brazil had the game wrapped up especially when they got a spectacular third seven minutes from the break.

Getting forward from the back, Edmilson played a one-two with Rivaldo, fed Junior wide whose deflected cross was finished in superb fashion by Edmilson with a cracking overhead kick.

However, Brazil’s Latin American cousins from Costa Rica certainly put it up to Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men. Twice they hit the woodwork and with Paulo Wanchope leading the line they ensured that the Brazilian defence were kept busy throughout the contest.

Wanchope pulled a goal back before half time and 11 minutes into the second half it was 3-2 thanks to a diving header by Gomez. Two goals in two minutes though just after the hour mark ended the brave Costa Rican comeback and eliminated them from the World Cup – with Rivaldo getting on the scoresheet along with Junior.

“Brazil can be world champions” was Wanchope’s assessment while there were similar comments from Juninho. “We have the mentality to win the whole competition,” said the Middlesbrough player after the game and he was to be proved correct. “We’re so fast, and everything is geared towards creating chances.”

His side would beat Belgium in the last 16 before an amazing Ronaldinho winner (or horrible David Seaman error) was the difference against England in the quarter-final. Advancing by Turkey in the semi-final, Ronaldo scored twice in the 2-0 World Cup Final win over Germany to claim the golden boot with eight goals with Rivaldo joint second on five goals and Robbie Keane joint sixth with three strikes.

Suwon would be awash with Irish tears a few days after this Brazil v Costa Rica clash (possibly some of them even my own!) as the Republic of Ireland were eliminated on penalties by Spain. That was a case of what might have been. If only Roy Keane hadn’t been sent home/left the squad (eliminate as you see fit!).

Here is hoping for a game in St. Petersburg on Friday that is even half as exciting as that one from Suwon 16 years ago.

Neymar to start in Tite’s unchanged team https://t.co/DFNA6DeC5upic.twitter.com/hJwrg73Lxz

— Extratime.ie (@ExtratimeNews) June 21, 2018