We can still battle through, say Costa Ricans

Paulo Wanchope believes Costa Rica can still reach the second round of the World Cup finals despite losing Friday's opening match 4-2 to hosts Germany.

The tall and rubber-limbed striker, who scored both of his team's goals at the Allianz Arena, expects Costa Rica to improve against Ecuador in their next Group A fixture in Hamburg on June 15.

"We showed four years ago that we have the ability to reach the last 16 and we can do it again," he said. "It is not going to be easy but we proved against Germany that we have to be respected.

"I think Germany and the whole world will have realised now that there are no easy rivals. Despite all our difficulties, we were really beaten by excellent goals -- the first and the last were the key moments of the match.

"We know we can improve now and we have answered our critics who said we could not score goals. We have a good chance to make progress still."

Wanchope, 29, Costa Rica's top scorer in the qualifiers, took full advantage of a square and cumbersome German defence to score once in each half and ensure lengthy nervous periods for the home fans.

NEGATIVE ATTITUDES

He said he was used to being criticised and hit out at negative attitudes towards the Costa Rican team among his compatriots.

"I don't understand why in our country everything is so negative. I believe people should support us more. We are the national team and we represent everyone in our country. I don't like to be criticised and it hurts us when we are."

The former Manchester City and West Ham United striker, who has struggled to cope with a series of knee injuries in recent years, has said he will retire from international football after the tournament.

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hope that we do well because that is a nice memory to take away from a World Cup," he said.

Midfielder Ronald Gomes and coach Alexandre Guimaraes both supported his optimism for the remaining two group games.

But Gomes blamed the midfield for not supporting the strikers enough to punish Germany more for their static defence.

"Our midfield did not support the forwards very much and I believe that if we could have pushed forward a bit more then the Germans would have suffered for that.

"I am sure that we can beat Ecuador and Poland if we play as we did against Germany. We leave here with a good taste in the mouth."