The National Men’s Football Teams of Costa Rica and Venezuela played their final match before the Copa America Centenario at the Chinese-donated National Stadium in La Sabana Metropolitan Park.

It was an exciting, though rain-soaked match for both national teams, and it was a considerable improvement over their previous friendly encounter in Venezuela, which was an ugly affair featuring alternative squads that played like they had barely practiced together.

Costa Rica started off offensively but slightly disorganized. Veteran striker Alvaro Saborio looked for opportunistic goals early on, taking passes from Joel Campbell.

Venezuela took advantage of a defensive weakness on the left wing, whereby Campbell allowed rival wingers to move past him and on to Christian Gamboa, who was marked by two players.

The first goal was scored by Venezuela’s Salomon Rondon, who went head-to-head against goalkeeper Patrick Pemberton in the box. The slippery, rain-soaked pitch did not allow Pemberton to get proper footing and his dive fell short at the 29-minute mark.

Christian Gamboa would tie the match at the 40-minute mark with a long range shot that took a strange bounce on the wet grass pitch and slipped through the gloves of Venezuelan goalkeeper Jose Contreras.

The second half saw more even more rain, but the action picked up as both national teams played much better than the first half. This was the level of quality football that fans can expect at the Copa America Centenario in June.

Ariel Rodriguez did not waste time in scoring the second goal for Costa Rica at the 49-minute mark in an offensive charge straight out of the playbook kept by coach Oscar Ramirez.

The next match for Costa Rica will be in the United States against Paraguay at the Copa America Centenario on June 4th.

Starting Lineups

Costa Rica: 18-Patrick Pemberton, 16-Cristian Gamboa, 2-Johnny Acosta, 6-Oscar Duarte, 19-Kendall Waston, 22-Ronald Matarrita, 5-Celso Borges, 7-Cristian Bolaños, 10-Bryan Ruiz, 12-Joel Campbell, 9-Álvaro Saborío. Manager: Oscar Ramírez
Venezuela: 1 José Contreras, 2 Wilker Ángel, 20 Rolf Feltscher, 21 Alexander González, 17 Josef Martínez, 4 Oswaldo Vizcarrondo, 11 Juan Pablo Añor, 5 Arquimines Figuera, 8 Tomás Rincón, 9 Salomón Rondón, 10 Rómulo Otero. Manager: Edgar Dudamel