Swiss 'Keeper's Own-Goal Header Helps Costa Rica to a Draw

Published on 27-Jun-2018 by srijan213

Soccer    Soccer Daily Review

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Swiss 'Keeper's Own-Goal Header Helps Costa Rica to a Draw

One feature of watching sports is there's always a chance to see something we've never seen before.

This match included one of those treats.

The happenings at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium were, on the whole, less dramatic than the simultaneous Brazil-Serbia match. Costa Rica had nothing to fight for except for pride, while a draw would guarantee the Swiss a berth in the knockout stage.

Thus, Switzerland was in good shape before a ball was even rolled.


Costa Rica carried the action to start, and of course they would. Unless Switzerland were forced to counter a goal, they could play at any pace they wanted.

It almost put them on edge a couple of times, but thanks to Yann Sommer -- and the woodwork -- coming up big on Joel Campbell and Cristian Gamboa's finishes, the match remained scoreless in the early going.

 

Switzerland gave themselves a bitta padding in the 31st minute when Fabian Schär found Breel Embolo inside the box, whose header hit the post.

Manning mop-up duty was Blerim Dzemaili, who promptly fired the rebound home:


Los Ticos earned their equalizer in the second half when Kendall Waston beat Sommer with a powerful header off Campbell's corner:

 

With that, all 32 sides in this tournament have scored at least one goal.

The Swiss still had their draw, but the Costa Ricans kept showing signs of friskiness, so in the 88th minute, they were elated to find Josip Drmic in the right place to provide some insurance:


It's a good thing they had it, because in the first minute of injury time, Campbell was brought down inside of the box to earn a penalty.

What happened next is surely a goal for the ages, as we'll probably never see this again.

It started with Bryan Ruiz at the spot:

 

2-2, and the Swiss are through to the bracket for the first time since 1954.

They'll face Sweden, who've already seen amazing things happen in the box during this tournament.

It's been that sort of World Cup.

Click on a photo to enlarge.