Costa Rica head coach Jorge Luis Pinto says his team can play 'even better' against Italy than they did against Uruguay. Photograph: Chema Moya/EPA
Jorge Luis Pinto began as he intended to go on. “We hope to play even better than we did against Uruguay,” the Costa Rica manager boldly told his audience at the Arena Pernambuco, moments after taking his seat and before what feels like an even more difficult second Group D fixture against Italy.
The naysayers have rounded on Pinto and his players ever since the draw was made and the press conference here was dominated by questions that related to the inferiority complex that Costa Rica were supposed to feel; how they surely could not fashion another lightning strike. The 3-1 win over Uruguay, which was marked by an electric second-half comeback, has not entirely altered the narrative.
José Mourinho was held up as one of the doubters and the Chelsea manager’s prediction was relayed to Pinto. Mourinho had said that after springing “the big surprise” against Uruguay, it would be “difficult for Costa Rica to make another one”. Joel Campbell, the Costa Rica striker, Mourinho continued, was “no longer new”; ditto the tactical system.
Those comments might have hurt Pinto, who admires Mourinho greatly and seeks to ape many of his methods, particularly those that involve meticulous preparation. Yet the sniping from all corners merely fortifies him. Time and again, the Colombian punched back. If Pinto’s players prove as defiant as him, Italy will have a problem.
“I am really surprised that José Mourinho said something like that,” Pinto said. “He plays Sundays and Wednesdays and he is not able to repeat what he did the match before? Of course he is. We know that Italy is a very difficult opponent but we are confident that we will be able to repeat our performance.”
Pinto went on. “At the beginning, some people said that we were the worst and that we wouldn’t even get one point,” he said. “But we think about what we are able to do. Other people said that Spain would play the final against Brazil. That will not happen now.
“Yes, we are in the ‘group of death’ and that’s because the four of us are really good. We are thinking about ourselves and what we can do, how we can improve our tactics, our play with the ball, our transitions and our mistakes from the Uruguay game. That is all.”
The defender Giancarlo González warmed to the theme. “Everybody knows that many of us were not known before this World Cup but the Uruguay game was a good introduction for us to the world,” he said. “Maybe some people still don’t know us but against Italy, we will let the world know we are here. When I am on the field, I don’t care about who I play. I just play.”
Pinto said that he was engaged in a “game of poker” with his Italy counterpart, Cesare Prandelli, over the concealment of the starting line-ups but it would be a surprise if he did not stick with the one that beat Uruguay, with five defenders and four midfielders. Campbell is expected to remain as the lone striker. Costa Rica will seek to plunder on speedy counterattacks and from set-pieces. Pinto insisted that he had a Plan B but there was also an admission, a clue. “We would like it to work out with the system we have tried,” he said.
There was actually another admission, one that revealed his wariness of Italy’s star players, most notably the playmaker Andrea Pirlo. “I have studied Pirlo since 2006, when he was the best player at the World Cup,” Pinto said. “We will have to block him because he is the Italy player that thinks the most.”
Costa Rica believe that glory beckons.
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