A heart-stopping late goal by Karla Villalobos is giving the National Women’s Football Team of Costa Rica great hopes at the 2015 FIFA World Cup in Canada. The final score of 2 – 2 against the superior National Women’s Football Team of the Republic of Korea was not expected by many analysts,

who were surprised that Las Ticas have been able to come away with one point on each of the two matches they have played in their first-ever World Cup.

Just one year after the National Men’s Football Team of Costa Rica enjoyed a surprising Cinderella run that started by being drawn into a Group of Death, Las Ticas are going through a similar experience. They are the true underdogs of their group, which includes Spain, South Korea and Brazil, three teams that are considered to be vastly superior to Costa Rica.

The next match will be do-or-die for Las Ticas, who are close to advancing to the second round of the World Cup, but not quite yet. First of will be the hardest match they have ever played: the talented Brazilian team and the formidable striker/goal-machine Marta, who is considered to be one of the best football players in the world (of any gender). If anything, our stellar goalkeeper Dinnia Diaz will certainly be tested by Marta and her teammates.

FIFA honored the pretty, talented Tica Cristin Granados as player of the match, but Karla Villalobos stole everyone’s heart with her calm, inside-the-box ball control to defeat goalkeeper Jungmi Kim. Following are highlights from the official FIFA match report:

An expertly-taken 89th minute equalizer from Karla Villalobos earned Costa Rica a dramatic 2-2 draw against Korea Republic. Though outplayed for periods of the match Las Ticas played with trademark resilience, and their eleventh-hour strike blows the group wide open.

Melissa Herrera opened the scoring on 17 minutes for Costa Rica. However, the Taeguk Ladies equalised from the penalty spot just four minutes later as Ji Soyun slotted home. Just four more minutes on and Korea Republic were in the lead as Kang Yumi delivered a perfect cross from the right allowing Jeon Gaeul to glance home a textbook header. Korea seemed set for a hard-fought win but Villalobos netted after a well-timed run behind the defense.