Spain’s Jennifer Hermoso and Costa Rica’s Fabiola Villalobos compete for the ball through the Girls’s World Cup Group C soccer match between Spain and Costa Rica in Wellington, New Zealand on July 21, 2023.
| Photograph Credit score: AP
They have been outscored 3-0. They have been outshot 12-1. And for a nightmarish first half a the Girls’s World Cup, each ball appeared to seek out the unsuitable foot.
Costa Rica had a troublesome exhibiting to start out its Girls’s World Cup effort, shedding 3-0 to Spain on a chilly and wet Friday evening. About one of the best factor to remove for Las Ticas was they didn’t stop.
Within the twenty second minute, a Spanish cross bounced off the leg of Costa Rica’s Valeria Del Campo and into her personal web.
Inside six minutes of Del Campo’s error, Spain’s Atiana Bonmati and Esther González every scored. The match was out of attain earlier than the half-hour mark.
“We misplaced a little bit of focus due to (the personal objective) for about 12 minutes,” head coach Amelia Valverde mentioned after the sport. “The entire group misplaced focus.”
Las Ticas protection regarded merely overwhelmed, whereas star ahead Raquel Rodriguez spent the match on the bench.
Rodriguez, who has scored 55 targets in 100 appearances for her nation, missed the match with an unspecified harm. Valverdes mentioned that she hopes Rodriguez can return for the following match towards Japan.
Costa Rica was supported by Subite al Chunche, a fan group that has traveled to 4 males’s World Cups, and have now ventured to New Zealand for his or her first Girls’s World Cup.
“Immediately we’re going to beat Spain and alter historical past,” Carme Salleras, a Spanish-born soccer fan who immigrated to Costa Rica predicted earlier than the sport. Salleras and the rising crowd round her remained constructive about their group, regardless of trailing by three targets at halftime. “There’s nonetheless 45 minutes left, so the whole lot can occur.”
No such luck.
Costa Rica performed with extra grit within the second half, faced-down a Spanish assault that saved urgent till the tip and goalkeeper Daniela Solera got here up with 10 saves. However getting out of Group C, which additionally consists of Japan and Zambia, now seems rather a lot harder.