O’Neill’s men feel the heat in Costa Rica
NORTHERN Ireland created history in baking hot San Jose yesterday as World Cup-bound Costa Rica bade farewell to their passionate fans in style.
For the first time, Northern Ireland were playing with two sets of brothers in their team with second-half substitutes Ryan and Conor McLaughlin joining Jonny and Corry Evans on the pitch.
But that, and an 18-minute debut for young Celtic goalkeeper Conor Hazard, were the only highlights as a heavily depleted squad wilted under the intense midday sun, allowing Los Ticos to coast to a comfortable 3-0 win.
With at least 10 key players left at home for various reasons, Michael O’Neill’s team were dominated at times by a side that scored two goals from corners and once with an effort that Trevor Carson may look back upon and believe he could have saved.
Northern Ireland pride themselves in their strength at set-pieces so yesterday’s performance will have been particularly jarring for boss O’Neill, who suffered his heaviest defeat since Croatia in November 2016.
The 11am kick-off on the hottest day since the Northern Ireland team arrived in San Jose and the party atmosphere — for which home fans began arriving at 6am — appeared to slow the men in green down and they didn’t have their usual urgency in the game.
The kick-off time, just like Tuesday night, was delayed by 10 minutes as Costa Rica honoured their Champions League winning goalkeeper Keylor Navas; the Real Madrid stopper given a standing ovation by the players around the centre circle a week on from helping his club side overcome Liverpool in Kiev.
He then received further applause in the 13th minute of the game and, with Northern Ireland on the defensive, he was happy to acknowledge his loud and proud supporters.
O’Neill, again playing a 3-5-2 made just one change from the side that drew 0-0 in Panama with Lee Hodson coming in for Shane Ferguson. Leeds United’s Stuart Dallas switched to left wing back with the Rangers man taking up his place on the right of a three-man defence.
Costa Rica dominated possession in the opening moments and it was clear that defensive discipline was going to be vitally important.
The visitors threatened for the first time on six minutes when Liam Boyce just failed to direct an effort goalward from Josh Ma- gennis’ knockdown, but it wasn’t long before, Northern Ireland were soon on the back foot again.
Johan Venegas squeezed in between Gareth McAuley and Craig Cathcart to beat the offside trap but, as Northern Ireland retreated, he played the ball back to Joel Campbell, who could only drill his effort from the edge of the box over the bar.
The best chance of the early exchanges came on 18 minutes when a corner from David Guzman found Oscar Duarte but he directed his header wide.
Costa Rica were trying to ex- COSTA RICA: Navas (Moreira, 35 mins), Gonzalez (Waston, 73 mins), Duarte (Calvo, 46 mins), Acosta, Oviedo, Gamboa (Smith, 64 mins), Guzman, Borges (Tejeda, 64 mins), Campbell, Colindres, Venegas (Matarrita, 70 mins). Unused subs: Ruiz, Wallace, Azofeifa, Pemberton, Urena. NORTHERN IRELAND: Carson (Hazard, 73 mins), Hughes, McAuley, J Evans, Hodson ploit Northern Ireland’s left flank — consistently putting pressure on Hughes and Dallas — and (C McLaughlin, 60 mins), McNair, Dallas, Boyce (McCartan,39 mins), C Evans (Thompson, 85 mins), Cathcart (McCullough, 73 mins), Magennis (R McLaughlin, 60 mins). Unused subs: Ferguson, Whyte, Smyth, Lavery, Peacock-Farrell. Referee: Fernando Guerrero Ramírez
Man of the match: Joel Campbell
Match rating: 5/10
were thwarted on two occasions when Jonny Evans and Gareth McAuley intervened with imporformation,