One of the greatest shocks of this summer’s World Cup was the pitiful way in which the Spanish national team crashed out of the tournament. The defending champions were eviscerated by two dynamic sides in Netherlands and Chile and simply could not get their act together. Unfortunately there were four members of Chelsea FC in the squad and one of course was striker Diego Costa.
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Diego Costa was hailed as the solution to Spain’s striker problem and his choice to represent them over his native Brazil was going to end the era of the false-nine. Costa was the savior from another land but unfortunately things did not quite work out that way. Due to injury and the short time he had to mesh with his teammates, Diego Costa looked off the pace and out of sync.
Costa is still the unquestioned starter for Spain as they have very few options at the striker position. Despite being the starter and only one of two strikers called up for the Euro 2016 qualifier against Macedonia, Costa said: “I will try to do things well. Torres, Villa and Negredo are great strikers. They can get back into the team but there are also new people who can bring a lot to the side.”
Well David Villa retired from international football and Alvaro Negredo is injured but there is still Torres and Roberto Soldado waiting in the wings. Those two are not exactly the strongest opposition but they could regain their form by the time Euro 2016 rolls around and Diego Costa knows that.
The Chelsea FC striker also spoke about the need for the players to look forward rather than focus on the past. He said: “It’s very important that the manager counts on you and I’m motivated to do things well to keep getting called up. It’s time I played well and scored. What happened, happened and we have to move on. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That’s football. We have to look forward. With the team we had, we could have gone far, maybe even won it, but we couldn’t.”
Diego Costa is anything if not pragmatic. He is very matter of fact in his assessment of football being boiled down to winning and losing and that bodes well for Chelsea and Spain. Players like him who can handle the pressure of representing such big teams are invaluable. They do not shrink away from the moment but rather they embrace it and rise above the fray.
Costa has meshed very quickly with his Chelsea teammates and has scored four goals in just three competitive matches. If he can replicate that same form with Spain then hopefully he can help fans of La Furia Roja forget the debacle of the 2014 World Cup sooner than later.
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