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The national team of Greece is facing the biggest challenge in its sports history. In order to rank among the best eight football teams in the world, they have to pass the "reef" called Costa Rica.
The match against the surprise team of the World Cup will be held on Sunday, June 29, at 11 p.m., in the coastal city of Recife (the name of the city means "reef" in Portuguese), where "the captain" Fernando Santos, having survived the trials of fate after losing to Colombia 3-0 in the beginning as well as the scene between Dzavelas and Maniatis, shows that he has everything under control and is determined to win over Costa Rica, and send the Greek team southwards, to the city of Salvador, where the quarter-final will take place.

By a strange coincidence, the Portuguese coach of Greece and the Greek performance in the decisive game against Côte d'Ivoire are similar to the Colombian Jorge Luis Pinto, coach of Costa Rica, as well as to the sports philosophy of the “rich coast" (the literal meaning of Costa Rica). Neither of the coaches has played football at a professional level. Santos, after his supporting-service job for Benfica, spent two years at Estoril and Maritimo. Pinto doesn’t have even that experience: he became a coach immediately after he completed his Physical Education major in Colombia, Brazil and Germany.

This sounds like the story of Jose Mourinho, who was not a great football player in his youth, but became one of the most popular names in the coach profession. Here we can also find соме connection with the main characters of this story: both direct and indirect. Mourinho and Santos are countrymen, and the whole name of Mourinho is Jose Mourinho Mario dos Santos Mourinho Felix. In his turn, Costa Rica’s coach stated in his blog that he is a fan of Mourinho’s logic: "Football is a methodology of training, a plan, and of course, a strategy. Football evolves just like the world, cars or computers. We also need to develop and enhance these changes. "

As for the sports similarities between Greece and Costa Rica, which are the most unpredictable couple according to the betting bookmakers, judging only by the third game of the Greeks and on the basis of the first two games of Costa Rica against Uruguay and Italy (won 3-1 and 1-0 respectively), both teams look pretty similar. They are characterized by pressure, attempts to steal the ball, quick attacks, with Giorgos Samaras and Joel Campbell at the top of the attack and stability in defence.
Campbell is a former striker of the Olympiacos team, who started playing for Arsenal. He has a central role in preparing his team for the upcoming game, and his teammates can take advantage of learning about the Greek players’ football philosophy and habits.

"Campbell ihas been like a teacher to us all these days. He is providing information about the players we will play against, as he used to be a teammate of five of them and knows them well," says the Rosenborg-team defender Cristian Gamboa. However, it’s not only Campbell who knows the Greeks, he is also well known to the Olympiakos players Jose Holebas, Yiannis Maniatis, Kostas Manolas and Andreas Samaris. Undoubtedly, the game will be very interesting and after it the Greek team may earn a place in the football paradise.