Source: FEDEFUTBOL

With a clean slate victory over Canada, the U17 Youth National Football Team of Costa Rica secured its participation I the upcoming U17 FIFA World Cup in Chile. The 3-0 victory over the Canadian National Team gave Costa Rica a reason to celebrate their improvement over the last few weeks.

The last four U17 teams from CONCACAF that participated in the qualifiers hosted in Honduras included Costa Rica, Jamaica, Canada, and the United States. In the end, Costa Rica and the United States advanced to the Word Cup after Mexico and Honduras had already secured their spots. As reported by FIFA:

Costa Rica and USA have qualified for the FIFA U-17 World Cup after beating Canada and Jamaica respectively in the play-offs in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

Costa Rica were rarely troubled as goals from Luis Hernandez (17’), Andy Reyes (27’) and a Kosovar Sadiki own goal (73’) eased the Central Americans into their first U-17 World Cup since Nigeria 2009.

It was very much a contrasting win for USA who needed a 5-4 penalty shoot-out victory to see off a brave Jamaica, following a scoreless 90 minutes.

Honduras and Mexico collected passage to Chile 2015 earlier in the week after topping their respective groups.

The match between Costa Rica and Canada took place at the Francisco Morazan Stadium in San Pedro Sula. It is important to note that the first matched between these two National Team during these qualifiers ended in a 3-2 victory for Canada. The result of this match left the young Tico players crestfallen and in need of a solid victory against Canada in a “win-or-go-home” match.

Thankfully for the Costa Rica U-17, they were able to open the scoreboard at the 17-minute mark with a header by Luis Fernandez, followed by Andy Reyes ten minutes later. At this point, the Canadian players tightened up their offense strategy, which the Ticos reacted to by firmly parking the bus. The final goal was not scored by a Tico; it was a rather bizarre own-goal by Kosovar Sakiki, who passed an uncontrollable ball to his goalkeeper.