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The Costa Rica U17s are all set for their big opening game against one of the tournament favourites Germany. Los Ticos will look to draw inspiration from their U-17 CONCACAF campaign in which they highly impressed and notably conceded only two goals in the group stage which was the lowest amount of goals conceded by a team in the tournament's group stages. However, the Costa Ricans will face a German side that were dominant up front, scoring a staggering 15 goals in just the group stages of the U-17 Euros.
Head Coach Breansse Camacho expressed how happy was to be in India for the FIFA U17 World Cup, saying, "We have worked very hard to get to this stage and there are big expectations for us so we hope to do well and fulfil what is expected from our team.''
Don't let the title fool you. While Costa Rica certainly aren't afraid of Germany's attacking prowess, head coach Camacho was quick to acknowledge the fact that Germany are a strong team and Costa Rica will face the Germans with full respect, knowing their quality and not in the least under-estimating their mighty opponents.
''The first match is very important and even more so when you have such a strong opponent like Germany. But we have been working very hard and will use our strengths to attack them and give it our best shot. It's gonna be a great game!'' exclaimed a very positive coach Camacho.
Captain Jose Alfaro, who is the heart of the team in midfield and also the team's top scorer in the U-17 CONCACAF Championship, was also very excited to be in India for the FIFA U-17 World Cup and even more so captaining his country, a dream he has had ever since he was little. ''The Coaches have been training us really well and we will look forward to applying all the tactics and everything we learned during our training sessions on the pitch," said Alfaro.
Alfaro, also fondly known as the Luis Figo of this Costa Rican team by many, also spoke about how having a training a camp in Spain has helped him and his fellow teammates adjust to the Indian climate pretty well and benefited his team immensely
Head Coach Camacho felt that his team were well prepared and had a good plan in place to tackle the teams in Group C (Germany, Guinea, Iran). He also admitted that Germany's attacking talent will not force the team to play defensively on Saturday as the tradition of any Costa Rican football team, be it senior or youth teams, has always been to play beautiful football and that's exactly what they intend to do.
