RECIFE, Brazil - With his team down to 10 men for nearly an hour, Keylor Navas made sure Costa Ricas last line of defence held firm. The goalkeeper came through with a string of stops in regulation and extra time and then made the only save in a penalty shootout to send Costa Rica through to the World Cup quarterfinals on Sunday with a win over Greece. After Navas dived to his right to push out the effort by Theofanis Gekas, Costa Rica defender Michael Umana scored the decisive spot kick for a 5-3 win in the shootout, sending the team sprinting down the pitch to embrace its goalkeeper. The game had finished 1-1 following extra time, after Greece equalized in second-half injury time. "It was only a dream for us, a dream that became a reality," Navas said. "A dream that was dreamt by an entire country." Costa Rica will play one of the tournament favourites the Netherlands in the quarterfinals on Saturday in a surprising appearance in the last eight for the small country that has a quarter of the population of Brazils biggest city and which hardly anyone picked to even make it past the group stage. "To the entire people in Costa Rica, those at home and out on the streets, this is for you," Costa Ricas Colombian coach Jorge Luis Pinto said. "This is a people that love football and they deserve it. ... We will continue fighting. We will go on. We see beautiful things." The victory also delighted the majority of the just over 41,000 fans in Recife as the Brazilian locals shouted for Costa Rica throughout the game and often broke out into chants of "Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Ticos!" — using the common nickname for Costa Ricans. Greece was often booed. Costa Rica went ahead in the 52nd minute with a coolly taken goal by captain Bryan Ruiz, but the game changed when Oscar Duarte clumsily lunged at Greeces Jose Holebas in the 66th and was sent off with a second yellow card. Pouring forward, the Greeks did beat Navas in injury time when defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos smashed in a rebound to make the teams numerical advantage eventually pay. Yet Navas kept denying the Greeks through extra time and then, crucially, when he dived, threw up a hand and pushed Gekas spot-kick away at the end. "Obviously he has to be congratulated," Greece coach Fernando Santos said of Costa Ricas keeper. "If it werent for (him), the results would have been different." Santos was sent to the stands by Australian referee Ben Williams just before the penalties and said he watched the shootout on a television inside the stadium. "Sadness," he said of Greeces elimination and his last game in charge of the team. "Definitely sadness. Not much (else) goes through your mind at that time." The red card for Duarte changed the game — which Costa Rica had slowly begun to control — and Greece surged forward for most of the remainder of the match. But, with the exception of Papastathopoulos goal, they just couldnt get past Navas as shot after shot was blocked. Greece had 13 shots on target to Costa Ricas two. Navas smothered a volley from Dimitris Salpingidis from point-blank range in the first half. After the equalizer, he threw himself high to tip over a header from substitute Konstantinos Mitroglou that would have surely been the winner in the dying seconds of regulation time. He then made three crucial stops in extra time, when Costas Katsouranis, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and Mitroglou were all denied. During the shootout, the Costa Rican squad knelt in a line. They then burst onto their feet to race over to Navas and smother him in a huddle when Umanas shot hit the net and Costa Rica made the last eight at the World Cup. "We will not stay on the quarterfinals," coach Pinto said. "Rest assured that we will not get eliminated there." ___ Lineups: Costa Rica: Keylor Navas; Giancarlo Gonzalez, Michael Umana, Oscar Duarte, Junior Diaz, Cristian Gamboa (Johnny Acosta, 77); Celso Borges, Christian Bolanos (Randall Brenes, 83), Yeltsin Tejeda (Jose Cubero, 66); Joel Campbell, Bryan Ruiz. Greece: Orestis Karnezis; Kostas Manolas, Vasileios Torosidis, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Jose Holebas; Andreas Samaris (Konstantinos Mitroglou, 58), Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, Giorgos Karagounis, Giannis Maniatis (Costas Katsouranis, 78); Georgios Samaras, Dimitris Salpingidis (Theofanis Gekas, 69). .J. Mayo made seven three-pointers and scored 25 points, Ersan Ilyasova added 20, and the Milwaukee Bucks placed seven players in double figures in a 130-110 rout of the Philadelphia 76ers, who lost their 11th straight game on Monday night. . The Thunder earned the Game 1 win with a 100-86 victory Saturday night. Oklahoma City dominated the first half and led by 22 at the break, but saw its lead shrink to just two points in the fourth quarter.
http://www.cheapwisconsinjerseys.com/?t ... ege-jersey. Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema scored two goals each Wednesday night in a 6-1 rout of Schalke in the first leg of their second-round matchup. "We played a very, very good match," Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "We got well into the match, scored two early goals and that opened the game and left us able to counter and to use the speed of our players. . The 12th-ranked Haas served well throughout the match at the Ibirapuera arena, allowing only one break point to the 152nd-ranked Italian. Both players held serve until the first-set tiebreak, when Haas stepped up his game to easily clinch the set. .Y. - Matt Harvey wants to make sure hes on the mound in late October — if the New York Mets get there for the first time since 2006.LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- Despite Marc Gasols 32 points and 10 rebounds, Italy beat two-time defending champion Spain 86-81 in overtime at the European basketball championship on Monday. Italy overcame a 15-point deficit to earn the win, after Luigi Datome made a layup at the buzzer in regulation to force overtime. Also, Croatia knocked out Greece with a 92-88 victory in double OT. The loss meant little for Spain, which had qualified for the quarterfinals because of Croatias victory. Spain dropped to fourth place in Group F and will play Serbia in the first quarterfinal on Wednesday, when host Slovenia faces France. On Thursday, Croatia plays Ukraine and Lithuania is against Italy. In another game, Finland beat Slovenia 92-76. Datome also had key plays in overtime and Alessandro Gentile made four straight free throws to secure Italys victory. Gentile finished with 25 points. "We beat probably the best team in the tournament," said Italy guard Pietro Aradori, who had 17 points. Datome had a block on Victor Claver before making two free throws for an 82-77 Italy lead. Since winning the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, Italy has not been able to reach the quarterfinals in any major competition, and failed to qualify for the past two Olympics. Italy missed the 2009 Europeans as well and finished 17th two years ago. "This was a good win for my players who had a great desire to play such a game -- in the last few years we could see Spain only on TV," Italy coach Simone Pianigiani said. Spain dropped its third game of the tournament and has looked vulnerable. It has also lost to Slovenia and Greece. "I thought we had the game under control for three quarters, we defended well and we could run and score easy baskets. But tthen we broke down, lost our game and they took the momentum into overtime," said Gasol, whose brother Pau is sitting out the event.dddddddddddd Bojan Bogdanovic made two free throws with 18 seconds left to secure Croatias victory in a tight game. Bogdanovic led all scorers with 22 points. Greece needed to beat Croatia and hope for Italy to beat Spain and Slovenia to defeat Finland to have any hope of advancing to the quarterfinals. Instead Croatia, which had already secured its spot, made sure of winning Group F. Croatia is aiming to make the podium at a major tournament for the first time in 18 years. Greece, champion in 1987 and 2005, had failed to make the last eight only three times since 1987. It never finished lower than sixth when it reached the quarterfinals. Nikos Zisis made a 3-pointer for Greece with nine seconds left in regulation to tie the game, and then gave his team a 3-point lead with a layup with 36 seconds left in the first overtime. But Bogdanovic hit a 3 to tie the game and Zisis missed a layup that would have won the game. "That three by Bogdanovic decided the game," Greece coach Andrea Trinchieri said. By then, Greece was already without its playmaker Vassilis Spanoulis, who fouled out with three minutes remaining in the first overtime. Zisis missed another game-tying layup in the second OT before Bogdanovic made the free throws that secured Croatias win. "We missed two layups to win the game," Trinchieri said. Centre Yannis Bourousis led Greece with 21 points and nine rebounds, while Spanoulis had 18 points. "Zisis scored a very tough shot to tie the game. Greece is a very experienced team that can control the rhythm and they did," Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa said. ' ' '
