At a grungy Chinese restaurant near downtown Alajuela this Friday afternoon, a group of construction workers are enjoying ice-cold bottles of Imperial and Pilsen beers with snack-sized portions of greasy fried rice and chicken wings; their eyes are affixed to a small flat screen television that hangs from the wall. They are watching the National Women’s Football Team of Costa Rica, Las Ticas, match up against the Soca Princesses from Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Hoots and howls resonate through the restaurant as a Soca Princess peels off from the right, enters the box and fires off a powerful shot on goal, which is deflected by the Tica goalkeeper. A construction worker excitedly stands up and yells “¿Cuál Keylor, mae? ¡Dinia Diaz!”, which translates into “Man, Keylor (Navas) who? Dinia Diaz!”

 

It was a nail-biting game that dragged on past overtime into a penalty kick shootout, but in the end Las Ticas prevailed and made Costa Rica proud by advancing to the 2015 FIFA World Cup in Canada. This is the first time our National Women’s Football Team makes it to a World Cup, and it has been a sweet ride. The fact that construction workers were watching the match intently and with lots of emotion is a testament to how far women’s football has advanced in the last few years. These blue-collar laborers enjoyed the game as much as they would have enjoyed a First Division match or even La Sele’s magnificent performance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. A similar situation was observed during the recent U-17 Women’s World Cup, hosted in Costa Rica.

 

Final Score: Costa Rica 1 (3) – Trinidad and Tobago 1 (0). Dinnia Diaz was a brick wall despite the Soca Princesses repeated attempts to sail the ball overhead near the crossbar (she is not very tall). Ms. Diaz flew like a Mexican masked wrestler and then showed off her goalkeeping skills with phenomenal saves that left the Trinidadians with a blank slate at the penalty kick shootout.