Costa Rican fans poured into the streets of San Jose to celebrate their teams victory over Italy and qualification to the round of 16 - AP photo Enrique Martinez
By Patrick R. Anderson
CONCACAF's flag continues to fly high in Brazil at the 20th edition of the FIFA World Cup finals following Costa Rica's stunning 1-0 win over 4-time world champion Italy at the Arena Pernambuco in Recife on Friday in front of 40,285 fans.
Starting fast and attacking Italy with fast breaks in counter attack and literally running the Italians into the ground, Bryan Ruiz's header in the 44th minute was all Costa Rica needed. With the victory, Costa Rica returned to the round of the sixteen for the first time in 24 years. The win simultaneously eliminated England from advancing, as the English team lost their two matches so far to leave them in a deep dark hole.
Costa Rica leads Group D with maximum 6-points and a +3 goal difference. Italy are second in the group with 3-points and a goal difference of zero, while Uruguay are third on 3-points and a goal difference of -1. England are in the cellar without a point and a goal difference of -2. England are eliminated for the first time since 1958.
In Group E, 1998 Champions France took a significant and almost irreversible step towards advancing to the round of 16 with a 5-2 thrashing of Switzerland at the Arena Fonte Nova in the city of Salvador in front of of 51,003 fans.
France were led by goals from five different players, in a diverse fast paced attack with pulverising finishing. Olivier Giroud in the 17th minute, Blaise Matuidi in the 18th, Mathieu Valbuena in the 40th, Karim Benzema in the 67th minute and Moussa Sissoko in the 73rd minute led the assault by the Frenchmen. They took their feet off the gas in the closing 10-minutes and allowed two Swiss goals although they were goals full of class. Dzemaili and Xhaka netted in the 81st and 87th minutes respectively.
Giroud's goal gave France its 100th world cup goal, joining Germany, Argentina, Brazil and Italy as the only teams with 100 or more world cup goals.
In the other Group E match, Ecuador kept their qualifying hopes alive with a come from behind 2-1 victory over CONCACAF side Honduras at the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba in front of 39,224 fans.
Carlos Costly scored a left footed screamer from 19 yards out on the left channel to give Honduras the lead in the 31st minute, but three minutes later Enner Valencia arrived at the far post to turn in a right sided cross to tie the game, and found the winner in the 65th minute through a header.
Valencia, Tomas Mueller (Germany), Karim Benzema (France) and Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben(The Netherlands) are all tied in the race for the golden boot award with 3-goals each.
France leads Group E with 6-points and a +6 goals difference; Ecuador are second with 3-points and a goal difference of zero; Switzerland are third on 3 points and a goal difference of -2; while Honduras are in the cellar without a point and a -4 goal difference.
The triple header on Saturday sees Argentina tackling Iran at 11am in Group F; Germany faces Ghana at 2p.m.in Group G; while the second Group F match pits Nigeria against Bosnia-Herzegovina at 5p.m..
HITZ92FM has LIVE commentary on all three matches starting with the pregame show at 10:30am, while TVJ has the best pregame, halftime and postgame shows starting at 10am.
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