A crowded National Stadium celebrated the solid win of Costa Rica’s male national soccer team over its Panamanian counterpart.  Costa Rica imposed over Panama with a score of 3-1 and classified undefeated in the first position of Group B with 16 points while Panama kept its second place with a total of 10 points.

The lineup for Costa Rica didn’t include some of its main figures such as Bryan Ruiz, Christian Gamboa, and Marco Ureña, these players had already an accumulated yellow card and risked missing the first game of the hex if they earned a second card, Oscar Ramirez wasn’t about to take that chance and took the opportunity to give some playing time to other figures such as Cristian Gonzalez, Bryan Oviedo and Yendrick Ruiz (Bryan Ruiz’ brother).

Costa Rica dominated the first half of the game and the first goal came early on in the game when Cristian Bolaños scored for La Sele at minute 18. Panama had only one clear option to score which they didn’t take advantage of.

Second half came and Costa Rica continued to show superiority although the game lacked some of the excitement of the first 45 minutes, Bolaños had another shining moment scoring his second goal at the 79 minute mark; just four minutes later Ronald Matarrita scored the third goal of the game.  The last play of the game involved a penalty fault that was called against Costa Rica (Celso Borges), and Panama’s Luis Tejada scored the only point of the night for Panama.

La Sele will see action again in November

The fifth round of CONCACAF matches or hexagonal of the Russia 2018 World Cup Qualification are scheduled to begin November 2016. Costa Rica as the winner of Group B will have its first match of the hex stage playing away against Trinidad & Tobago on November 11; they will play again at home November 15 against the winner of Group C USAMNT, and after several months break due to other tournaments taking place, the Russia 2018 WCQ will resume in March of 2017 when Costa Rica will measure up against Mexico on March 24, 2017.

A great game for Costa Rica, where they showed even without some of  their main figures they can still play well and get the needed results.