Costa Rican fans celebrate qualifying for the World Cup, in San José. Jeffrey Arguedas (EFE)
Thousands of Costa Ricans once again filled the roundabout of La Hispanidad, at the eastern end of the capital's center in San José, to celebrate something that seemed more like a miracle in this small soccer country.
Qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar unleashed the excitement of the fans and brought the dance back to the streets on Tuesday afternoon, while the Costa Rican team celebrated in Doha, 14,000 kilometers away, the long-suffering 1-0 victory over New Zealand, which allowed him to take the last of 32 tickets to the World Cup.
The chant “Oé, oé ticos, ticos” once again united a mass of strangers on the sidewalks of the neighborhoods and on the edges of the main streets in San José and other cities.
With Joel Campbell's goal in the first minutes of the game, Costa Rica secured its participation in the tournament, its sixth World Cup and the third in a row, but no qualification had cost so much or come at such complex times, the fans justified. .
“We are happy, yes, but above all we are relieved,” said a high school teacher who preferred not to say his name because he called in sick at school so he could not work in the afternoon.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had decreed an hour off at noon to join it with lunchtime and allow state workers to watch the game.
He later said that perhaps the decree should be extended because it was possible to extend it in extra time or even penalties.
Deep down there was distrust for the quality of the national team's game, but hope for the guts of the players and the teamwork discourse of those led by Colombian Luis Fernando Suárez.
“It was a scare, a lot of tension.
My hands were shaking and I could only breathe when the referee blew the final whistle.
It was a relief, a triumph of the union of all.
This makes us very happy in Costa Rica and surely in Latin American countries and they always sympathize with us”, said Daniela Carvajal, a 23-year-old student.
“Until the last minute” was the slogan of the Football Federation's campaign.
It was what was read on the shirts of many of the fans who came to La Hispanidad or who left their homes to wave the tricolor flag and sound the bugles.
“Añita mikilona” is another motto, which in a local indigenous language means “together until the end” and was repeated like a mantra by the star Keylor Navas and his companions.
Thus, together and in agony, Costa Rica returned to celebrate a sporting victory that connects with that joy of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, when it came first in a group made up of Uruguay, England and Italy and reached the round of 16, a collective madness at that time.
“This takes me back to the World Cup in Brazil,” said Daniel Vargas, a 27-year-old owner of a business selling red
Sele
jerseys .
He was doubly pleased.
“It was a lot of suffering.
We thought we wouldn't qualify, but in the last few games it's been a final and today at minute 88 we were still suffering seeing how Keylor took a ball out of the corner.
That was with the last breath, ”he said, adjusting the imitation turban alluding to Qatar on his head.
The downpours of mid-June also gave a small respite at noon on Tuesday.
The traffic police closed the access of vehicles to La Hispanidad.
A column of strangers hugged each other with a 10-meter flag dancing to something that could not be heard.
The feeling seemed to erase the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but also to appease the two hard years of the pandemic and the economic hardship of the moment or the social hostility of the recently overcome electoral campaign in a country accustomed to living well.
The Government of Rodrigo Chaves also celebrated it, aware of how much football marks the national spirit.
“Tense and motivating moments in 90 minutes.
The magic of soccer and national pride allow us to shout to the world ´we are World Cup players again!´, published the Presidential House an hour after everyone was supposed to be working again.
It was supposed.
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