Germany are the favorites to go into the group final against Costa Rica at the World Cup. And this game can be summarized under the title "All against one". Because the hopes of the underdog are almost solely on the goalkeeping legends of the country.
If there is to be anything else with the German desert fairy tale, the DFB team must pass this man: Keylor Navas. 1.85 meters tall. 80 kilograms heavy. Three-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid - and de facto unemployed since the summer. It's strange: The dazzling goalkeeper star of the last German World Cup opponent, on whom the hopes of all of Costa Rica rested on Thursday evening (8 p.m. / ARD, MagentaTV and in the ntv.de live ticker), traveled to Qatar without any match practice. The 35-year-old has not played a single minute in his club Paris St. Germain's 22 competitive games this season.
Ironically, this bench presser could now become Germany's fright and lead his team to the round of 16. The calculation of the approximately five million inhabitants of Costa Rica is simple: If Captain Navas keeps the zero against storm surprise Niclas Füllkrug and Co., the outsider - provided a Spanish win in the parallel game against Japan - would be in the knockout phase.
Navas knows how to do it. It's been eight years since the man from the 45,000-inhabitant town of San Isidro de El General in the small Central American country rose to become a folk hero. With his saves, the keeper, who was largely unknown in the football scene at the time, made a Costa Rican World Cup fairy tale possible, at the end of which his team only lost to the Netherlands in a penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals. Navas earned himself a contract with Real Madrid and achieved world fame.
In the present, it almost seems as if Navas and his team have turned back time. After the desolate performance and the 7-0 defeat against Spain at the start of the tournament, no one bet a cent on the Ticos. Everyone had written off Navas and his team - but then Navas kept his goal clean against Japan and, as goalscorer Keysher Fuller so beautifully said, helped up front, good God.
With the first and so far only shot on goal during the World Cup, Costa Rica fought for a surprisingly acceptable starting position. A win against Germany would certainly be enough for the team, which has not yet earned a single corner in their 180 minutes at the World Cup, to reach the round of 16. "Always believing in yourself is the be-all and end-all. You can't meet expectations without this attitude," Navas told the "Kölner Stadtanzeiger" and promised for Thursday: "We'll sell ourselves dearly and we'll fight like bulls, to bring happiness and joy to our country."
"We have a lot of respect," said DFB striker Thomas Müller on Tuesday. The game against Japan had nothing to do with the 0:7: "They never left their defensive structure." Füllkrug also warned: "Costa Rica has shown two faces so far. In the second game they were uncomfortable and had better positional play." In qualifying for the World Cup, they proved that Navas and his defensive specialists can deal with extreme situations. In the decider, striker Joel Campbell scored after just three minutes. Costa Rica survived the next 90 minutes unscathed. Also and above all thanks to one man: Keylor Navas.
