What Gustavo Alfaro said after the heavy defeat against Colombia :: Olé

Colombia beat Costa Rica 3-0 on Friday, in the second round of the 2024 Copa América. After this victory, Néstor Lorenzo’s team secured qualification for the round of 16 and remain the sole leaders of Group D. While Gustavo Alfaro’s men, who had just won a draw against Brazil in their debut, found it difficult to advance further.. In that sense, What did the Argentine coach say after the defeat?

“In these types of games, mistakes are costly. The goalkeeper had saved us in that circumstance (a shot by James Rodríguez at 19 minutes), But you can’t make mistakes,” Alfaro initially expressed.

“With the second goal the game became uphill. The mistakes we made and the lack of ability to hold the ball ended up costing us a lot,” said the coach.

Then, he recognized Costa Rica’s difficulties when building its attacks and encouraged his team to improve: “Is it a deficit that we have? Yes, it is a deficit that we have. Let (the players) be encouraged to play, we have done two million jobs to improve our offense and play generation.

In fact, along the same lines, Alfaro said that at halftime (Costa Rica was losing 1-0) he warned the players that the match could only be tied if they became more aggressive in attack: “I told them in the first half: If they want to tie the match, they have to play, if we don’t play it is impossible to tie this match.”

Finally, the Argentine coach mentioned that, in this type of defeats, the turnover of players that the national team is going through, which no longer has figures like Keylor Navas or Bryan Ruiz, has a lot of influence: “These types of defeats, although painful, are part of the process of generational change.”

Costa Rica will face Paraguay next Tuesday, July 2, starting at 10:00 p.m. (Argentine time), at the Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas.

Colombia, leader of Group D, has already qualified with its six points. And if Brazil beats Paraguay, it will be one step away from qualifying (it would reach four points). If these results happen, for Costa Rica to qualify for the quarterfinals, it would have to win its last match against Paraguay with a goal difference that surpasses the Brazilians and hope that the Canarinha loses to the Cafeteros.