The Costa Rica coach, The Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, shared this Sunday the keys to being able to beat Brazilat the start of the America’s Cup in the United States: “Order, determination and running.”
“The hierarchy is respected, but not feared. If you are already afraid to play, we don’t show up directly,” declared the coach in a press conference at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where they will face Brazil on Monday in the first day of Group D.
"They have not tired of saying that the four candidates are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, in the group we have two and that is the challenge"Gustavo Alfaro. pic.twitter.com/NYcFuckgke
— Tigo Sports Costa Rica (@tigosports_cr) June 23, 2024
Alfaro assured that they can beat Canarinha because “soccer is the only sport that is not lost or won before playing,” but he acknowledged that to do so they will have to play “the perfect match.”
“We are going to try, don’t have any doubts,” he guaranteed.
However, he warned about the enormous difference in market value between the Brazilian team, whose stars include Vinícius, one of the most expensive footballers today (180 million euros), and that of Costa Rica, which represents the “3-4%” of that of Canarinha.
With that difference, Alfaro, former coach of Boca Juniors and the Ecuadorian national team, explained what, in his opinion, his pupils will have to do to counteract that abyss.
“The difference in hierarchy there is fought, first, with order, with a lot of determination and a lot of conceptual clarity in what you have to do, and fundamentally by running. If there are two from Brazil, there will have to be three players from Costa Rica,” he explained.
Beyond the result, the ‘Tico’ coach would like to “play on par” with his rivals in Group D, which are made up of Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay, “three teams that are going to be in the World Cup” in 2026.
“The end of the road is a competitive Costa Rica,” he said.
