Costa Rica registered the early upset of the tournament with a shock 3-1 win over Uruguay, who finished in fourth place at the last edition of the tournament in 2010.
"For me, for Costa Rica, for everyone," said manager Jorge Luis Pinto when asked in the postgame flash zone whether this was the biggest win of his career. "The victory is beautiful and we dedicate it to all of Costa Rica and all the Costa Ricans here cheering for us and pushing us on.
"We're calm [about the win]. We have emotional balance. We've won one game against a great team, but [this tournament] continues. We haven't qualified."
Uruguay were off to a strong start in the first half, taking a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick converted by Edinson Cavani after Junior Diaz took down Uruguay captain Diego Lugano in the box on a set piece play.
But the Ticos never lost their cool. In a three minute span Joel Campbell equalized and defender Oscar Duarte headed home a free kick to give the CONCACAF side a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"We had emotional balance and we didn’t lose our heads when we were losing," Pinto said. "We kept our balance. It was impossible to give up a second goal to go down 2-0. We managed things well, we tied the game and then we found the goals.
"Uruguay was not easy. They pressured us and we tried to play our soccer. We finally found the game," he continued. "Soccer has contradictions: We were afraid of the aerial game going in and today we beat Uruguay in the air."
Substitute Marcos Urena scored the third goal to seal the result on a pass from Campbell.
Costa Rica, who few gave a chance of emerging from Group D after drawing three former World Cup champions, will now try their luck against Italy (June 20) and then England (June 24).
"Happiness," Campbell said about his feelings after the match. "Despite the fact that they were winning 1-0 we stayed positive. We knew that we were going to win. We never thought about losing and thank god we got the result and there are two big games left and we hope to win them."
