November 27, 2022, 9:50 PM
November 27, 2022, 9:50 PM
Costa Rica had not taken a shot on goal during this World Cup in Qatar 2022 until the 79th minute of the game against Japan this Sunday.
In the first match of group E, Spain had crushed the Costa Ricans not only with seven goals: they did not let them even come close to the goal that Unai Simón protected.
And this Sunday’s game at the Ahmad Bin Ali stadium looked like something similar, however the miracle happened.
Minute 79, Costa Rica striker Joel Campbell, a man seasoned in the honey of football after passing through Europe -including English Arsenal- he stepped on the ball with a calmness that seemed like they were winning by several goals.
He stepped on it, made a pass that was intercepted several times by the Japanese defenders, by air and on the ground, until by chance the ball landed at the feet of Keysher Fullera 28-year-old veteran of a thousand battles who has played right-handed marker for much of his life.
Fuller was on the edge of the box when he received the ball and saw that Japanese goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda was out, so he tried throwing the ball over the top, a balloon they call
He took the first shot on goal for Costa Rica in Qatar 2022.
It was goal. A goal that even the mountains, lakes and volcanoes of Costa Rica celebratedwhich gave him the first victory for a Concacaf team in Qatar 2022.
And that turned Fuller, an unknown marker for the world of soccer, into a national hero by giving him victory over Japan and keeping alive the illusion of qualifying for the round of 16.
Muller was born in the municipality of El Limón, on the Caribbean Sea, the July 12, 1994.
Since he was little, he showed soccer qualities that led him to be part of the lower ranks of Saprissa, the main team in Costa Rica.
In fact, he made his professional debut with this club’s subsidiary in the second division, the Saprissa Heart in 2014.
However, due to the lack of opportunities, it was with another team that Fuller found his place in the world: Municipal Greece.
With this team, he managed to consolidate himself as a starter and thus sign for Herediano, his current club, with which he won the Concacaf League in 2018 and that same year, the local league, defeating his old club, Saprissa, in the final.
This performance caught the attention of national team coach Gustavo Matosas in 2019.
Then he began to be called up regularly by both Matosas and Luis Fernando Suárez, the Colombian coach who took over the command of the Costa Rican team in 2021.
It was Suárez who called him up for this World Cup and who gave him the confidence to start this Sunday, November 27.
And so that in the 79th minute, when he had the ball at his feet, he would have the courage to send it over the goalkeeper and revive all the hopes of Costa Rica in this World Cup in Qatar 2022.
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