The Dutch wary of ‘unpredictable’ Costa Rica

STEVE, a Dutch fan from New Zealand but here in Salvador to support his team in their 2014 Fifa World Cup quarterfinal match against Costa Rica believes the European giants should be wary of the threat posed by their Central American opponents. Costa Rica may be the least glamorous of the eight quarter-finalists but their path to this stage has not gone unnoticed and it’s the reason the Netherlands’ fans, much as their team will start today’s match as overwhelming favourites, are not taking anything for granted. Pitted against three former world champions in their group, Costa Rica notched two impressive wins over Uruguay and Italy and got a deserved draw against England to go through to the Round of 16 as group leaders. Their fare-tale run continued with a penalty shootout win over Greece, which set up a quarterfinal clash against the 2010 beaten finalists, the Netherlands, who many people’s eyes, are one of the favourites to win the title this time round. Like in the group matches, not many are giving them a chance against the Dutch, but for Steve, who flew all the way from Auckland for today’s game, the Orange team should have a every reason to respect their less glamorous opponents. “I am afraid, we could be their victim, but if we play the way we have been playing in the previous four games, we should have few problems to progress to the semi-finals,” he said as he partied with a group of Dutch fans in Salvador, the venue for today’s game. However, one of his colleagues, Hasheem, a Dutch but based in the Liberian capital Monrovia and has been in Brazil since the start of the World Cup, sounded more confident and he expects the European side to have few problems seeing off Joel Campbell and co. He said, “We came here to win the World Cup and I don’t think that Costa Rica, much as they are unpredictable, are the team to stop us. May be another team will (beat us) in the semi-final. Our team is here to make up for what happened four years ago in South Africa.” While the Dutch are looking to be in their second successive final, Costa Rica, who are appearing in their first ever world cup quarterfinal, will be hoping to continue to upset the form books – and earn a place in the last four to face either Argentina or Belgium.

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The Dutch wary of ‘unpredictable’ Costa Rica