Veni, vidi, vici

6/29/14

Fe and Filipe were not personally able to join us for our Round of 16 game, so they sold their tickets to a couple of their friends. Mauro and Alex joined us early in the morning and we headed over to Recife Antigo (restored colonial section of town where the port city began in 1537) to watch the Mexico v. Holland game. Mauro and Alex were very nice and, fortunately, spoke Spanish; so we (or at least Nick) were able to communicate fairly well. I can barely hold a conversation in Spanish; add to that a thick Portuguese accent and I’m useless! Nick, however, was much better at conversing in “Portuñol” and Alex was kind enough to help translate things for me in what he considered his broken English and I considered a life saver! [Mauro: Is a pastor at a chain of churches called “Bola de Neve,” an evangelical church. The good thing is that he was able to get free lodging at the Recife branch of the church after getting tickets. We visited the church so that he and Alex could drop off their bags. It was totally centered to attract youths, from the drum-set in the corner to the surf board serving as a pulpit.]

Once again, we hit the town on the best day: Sunday. There was a huge open air market, the streets were decorated for the Cup, and the giant Carnival puppets were dancing in the square. It was awesome! We were only able to catch the first half of the Mexico v. Holland game before we had to head over to the stadium to watch Costa Rica v. Greece. So it wasn’t until later that we heard about Mexico’s unwarranted defeat by the cheating Dutch, who got a penalty called on their behalf in the last minute. The fact that Robben admitted he dove in order to get a (fake) penalty makes me even more determined for Costa Rica to beat them in the quarterfinals!

Zero Marker where the city was founded

Cat & Nick with "Pele"

Carnival Puppets

Puppeteer

"Messi"

"Neymar"

Mauro & Cat walking through Recife Antigo

Our cab driver had rigged his cell phone & tablet to watch the game while he drove.

But first we had to defeat Greece and, holy crap, what a nail biter of a game. Literally. I was worried Nick might not have any finger tips left the way the game was going. The stadium was overrun with Costa Rican fans and the atmosphere of the stadium was electrified, as even the Brazilians who came out (or at least most of them) were rooting for Costa Rica. Our team looked A LOT better than it did against England (gracias a dios) but, sadly, that wasn’t enough to score more than one goal and the Greeks equalized the game very late – even though we ALMOST had it in extra time before penalties! Ugh, I hate shoot outs; they’re too nerve wracking. But thank goodness for Keylor Navas! That man has saved Costa Rica so many times in this tournament – he has truly shown himself to be a world class goal keeper. (Navas later told reporters that the Greek player whose shot he was able to block was a former teammate; so he just anticipated how the Greek would perform in practice and it proved to be the right strategy.) [Nick: How a player performs in the World Cup is not necessarily indicative of how they will perform afterward. Often players have a great WC then struggle to show that form again, but Navas is different. He won the award for best keeper in the Spanish La Liga last year and has been best goalkeeper in multiple other tournaments. Thus, his success is likely no fluke. Unlike the Mexican goalkeeper, Ochoa, who even though he did well in the WC, had performed so badly during the regular season that he is without a team.]

Alex, Mauro (holding their hometown team's flag, Corinthians), Cat & Nick before the CR v. Greece game

Nick at Recife stadium

Brazilians posing with CR flag

Left half of CR team

Right half of CR team

CR fan

Recife stadium

Costa Rican "Zebra" fan

CR stretching before overtime

Team huddle before overtime

Wanchope coaching Ruiz

Goalies just before penalty shoot out

So with that final penalty kick, La Sele made Costa Rican history as they moved on to the quarterfinals for the first time ever (which is impressive, as tiny little Costa Rica has only ever been in the World Cup four times, entering first in 1990)!!! The stadium exploded with shouting and cheers of “Ticos, Ticos”. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Nick happier. :o) [Nick: Yay my little Costa Rica. I was so worried about this game. This was the first game in the WC where CR was the favorite and I hoped they would not get too confident.]

Costa Rica Wins Penalty Shoot Out

We later checked on Facebook and saw (through Nick’s Costa Rican family) that the country was exploding with joyous celebrations! It’s hard to say where you’d rather be at a moment like that: at the World Cup to witness the game or in Costa Rica to celebrate with a giant home crowd…Nick assures me it’s better to be at the World Cup ;o) [Nick: I do have fond memories of Italy 1990 and going down to Alajuela Centro with Mom and Dad to honk horns and celebrate Costa Rica’s wins in that Cup.]