Friendly: England brush aside Costa Rica with no fuss, the World Cup can get going now
England got the job done. On Wednesday night in Orlando, the Three Lions beat Costa Rica 3-0 in their final tune-up before the World Cup, after a one-hour delay from the original kick-off because torrential rain had made the pitch unplayable. Once the skies cleared, England controlled the game from start to finish against a limited Costa Rican side, who will miss a World Cup for the first time since 2010. Declan Rice opened the scoring in the 9th minute, meeting Anthony Gordon’s cut-back with his left foot, his slightly deflected effort wrong-footing goalkeeper Patrick Sequeira.
After the break and a flurry of six substitutions, Anthony Gordon made it 2-0 from the spot in the 68th minute with a confident finish into the top-right corner, shortly after Harry Kane went off. Ollie Watkins wrapped things up in the 87th minute with a clever header from a parried Morgan Rogers effort. England had already shown near-total control four days earlier against New Zealand (1-0, 23 shots to 3, 71% possession) without managing to turn it into a bigger win. This time, the scoreline matched the dominance of the Three Lions much better.
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Too one-sided to draw big conclusions, Croatia is next
It is hard, though, to take too much away from this one. Costa Rica simply did not offer enough to properly test Gareth Southgate’s setup. England were tidy and professional, but they were never truly stretched and never had to dig deep to get the win. The real answers will come when the matches start to matter.
The Three Lions open their World Cup campaign against Croatia on 17 June at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. That is a far tougher proposition than Costa Rica, and one that will bring back bad memories for a generation of England players. England head into the tournament with ambition and a preparation that looks solid on paper. Now they have to deliver when it counts.
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