CHICAGO – For the first eight minutes of Tuesday's match vs. the United States, everything unfolded according to head coach Oscar Ramirez's game plan.
A muffed clearance by DeAndre Yedlin led to a good chance for Joel Campbell that flew just wide of goal. Most of the game at that point was played in the US half before Cristian Gamboa nudged Bobby Wood in the back, leading to a penalty kick and a 1-0 US lead in the 9th minute.
Costa Rica pressed on, but couldn't find an equalizer, and the Americans shifted out of the 4-3-3 formation that they deployed against Colombia and into a 4-4-2 alignment. The change brought about two converted chances for Jermaine Jones and Wood within six minutes of each other – and just like that, it was over for Costa Rica.
"It was one of our strangest matches. From a football standpoint we had some errors. Today the United States played at a high level. Their second and third goals were very important and hurt us," said coach Oscar Ramirez after the game.
Said Jurgen Klinsmann of the tactical change: "We need to modify things according to who we play against. I think the 4-3-3 worked perfectly with Colombia and today we saw that we struggled two against one, or three against two situations on the wings because they had to shift because of their [formation].
“We expected that a little bit. We made the switch after half an hour since it was probably easier for us to make all the shifting work in a line of four. We went into four in midfield and it worked out perfectly. Michael and Jermaine in the middle took care of it."
The second and third US goals in the 36th and 42nd minutes sealed the game and effectively knocked Costa Rica out of the tournament with one match remaining against Colombia. Ramirez and his players thought they still were in control of the match up until then, despite the early penalty.
"As soon as we made a mistake they scored to make it 2-0. Five minutes later another mistake and they score. After that it was game over," said Costa Rica midfielder and captain Bryan Ruiz. "In this kind of competition, the United States knows how to win. I think we played good, but the US played their game. They just waited and took us on the counterattack. They scored four goals in the five chances they created. That's very effective for them."
Celso Borges echoed those sentiments and downplayed the importance of the first goal but acknowledged that it did lead to the tactical change which benefitted the US most.
"It changed how the USA was handling the game after the first goal. From a very high press, they started to drop back a little bit and just wait for one mistake that we had. Our team kept always kept the same idea, but they were effective and you just have to say congratulations to them," said Borges.
"They were even more solid on the counterattack. We have to be a little bit more alert in those situations and we have to be a little bit more cautious when this kind of thing happens. It's part of football."
