Not enough from 'disjointed' Ireland

Ireland 1 Costa Rica 1

By John Riordan,

PPL Stadium in Chester, PA

Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill's sweeping changes left his team a little "disjointed", he admitted after Friday's draw against the ten men of Costa Rica just outside Philadelphia.

Kevin Doyle scored an incredible first half header and Robbie Keane missed just his second penalty ever while wearing the green of Ireland, giving the manager plenty to think about ahead of Tuesday's game against Portugal in New Jersey.

"I thought that we got a really good goal by Kevin Doyle," O'Neill said, "and did really fine in the first half of the match, dealing with anything they threw at us reasonably comfortably.

"Then they had the man sent off and I don’t know if we got casual but we had a really poor spell in the first 15 minutes of the second half culminating with the penalty.

"It took us time to get to grips and they played much better with the 10 men than the eleven.

"It was their last chance before the World Cup and we had a few problems we didn’t deal with in the manner we did against Italy.

"Obviously I made a lot of changes in the team and that may have led to us being a bit disjointed. I felt in that fifteen minute spell we should have got out and close them down a bit better than we did.”

Ireland may have failed to win again in a friendly international but aside from that poor spell after half-time, they had enough over Costa Rica to give England plenty of reason to dismiss their World Cup Group D rivals.

An entertaining enough stalemate, 10-man Costa Rica brought plenty of support to the PPL Stadium in the city of Chester, a half hour outside Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River.

But having being mostly outplayed in their final game before jetting off to Brazil, their manager Jorge Luis Pinto will know that a mountain of a task lies in wait.

In truth, had Keane's second half penalty being converted and added to the impressive first half opener from fellow striker Doyle, then it would have been a deserved win for the Boys in Green.

Instead, it was Celso Borges' penalty midway through the second half and just prior to that Keane miss which gave the vocal Costa Rican supporters some reason to cheer.

There were wholesale changes from the team that drew 0-0 against Italy in London, with just David Forde, Stephen Kelly, Glenn Whelan and birthday boy Anthony Pilkington keeping their places in the starting XI

Martin O'Neill handed a first cap to 22-year-old Everton player Shane Duffy while the six other players coming in were Richard Keogh and Marc Wilson at the back, Paul Green and Stephen Quinn in midfield and captain Keane up front alongside Doyle.

Apart from a Shane Duffy header going wide and being ruled offside, there was nothing clear-cut until Doyle broke the deadlock in the 18th minute with a stunning header from the edge of the box.

Teed up by a perfectly placed Marc Wilson cross after the left back turned onto his right foot, Doyle got his head around the ball and directed it low and beyond the reach of Keylor Navas for his 13th international goal.

Costa Rica took a leaf out of their opponents' book, putting together a nice controlled phase of passing before Celso Borges sent a shot high over David Forde's crossbar.

They came closer a minute later when right midfielder Heiner Mora sent across a ball that Forde could only paw away allowing Borges to send a half volley back over the Irish crossbar

The match then took a turn for the tetchy when Kevin Doyle was the victim of a rash elbow. Doyle hadn't been booked for an earlier clash with his marker Giancarlo Gonzalez but the Costa Rican centre back was sufficiently riled up to seek retribution which he duly accomplished in the 41st minute.

Sizing up the Wolves forward as a long ball launched down the middle, Gonzalez led with his left elbow and although it seemed to graze the top of the Wexford man's head, Honduran referee Raul Castro saw fit to flash a yellow card.

But then as a bloodied Doyle began to remonstrate with his opponent, the man in the middle suddenly changed his mind and brandished a red card to the Costa Rican centre back.

Glenn Whelan was shown a yellow card for a challenge as normal time elapsed before the break with the resultant free once again causing problems for Forde who watched the ball sail over his head to where centre back Oscar Duarte was on hand to meet it, steering his header at the back post just wide to leave it 1-0 in Ireland's favour at half-time.

After almost 20 scrappy minutes of football following the break, the Central Americans were level on 64 minutes after Forde conceded a soft penalty to forward Marco Umana who cleverly left enough of his trailing leg behind for the Irish keeper to clip him as he pushed the ball wide and away from danger.

It was Joel Campbell's beautifully weighted through ball that found his fellow front man and it was central midfielder Borges who sent the spot kick high and straight down the middle as Forde dove to his left.

Just two minutes later however, a similarly ill-thought out challenge led to a penalty at the other end as Heiner Mora pushed Stephen Quinn over in the box. However, Robbie Keane's penalty was tame and low to Patrick Pemberton's right, easily saved by the Costa Rican substitute keeper.

In the 69th minute and 77th minutes, Campbell was causing problems again for the Irish back four, ducking in on the right and making Forde save first and then having his shot deflected subsequently.

Martin O'Neill brought in Shane Long, Simon Cox and Wes Hoolahan and Ireland piled on the pressure in the final ten minutes as the Central Americans resorted to some scrambled blocks in their own area.

However, the game ended all square and the raucous Costa Rican fans happily turned their focus to Brazil despite the obvious frailties of their team.

IRELAND (4-4-2): D Forde; S Kelly, R Keogh, S Duffy, M Wilson; A Pilkington, G Whelan, P Green, S Quinn; R Keane (capt), K Doyle.

Subs: J McClean for Wilson (40); J Hendrick for Green (66); S Long for Doyle (70); W Hoolahan for Keane (83); S Cox for Quinn (83);

COSTA RICA (3-4-3): K Navas; O Duarte, G Gonzalez, M Umana; H Mora, JM Cubero, C Borges, J Diaz; J Campbell, M Urena, B Ruiz.

Subs: P Pemberton for Navas (ht); C Bolanos for Ruiz (70); R Brenes for Urena (79); D Calvo for Campbell (87);

Referee: Raul Castro (Honduras).