The uphill battle that Costa Rica was already facing just got steeper after Randal Brenes was shown a red card in the 28th minute for a terrible tackle. The Costa Rican came flying in late with a knee high tackle and while the Colombian player who suffered the foul was not injured, the referee didn’t have much of a choice but to send Brenes off for the reckless challenge.
Copa America 2011, Colombia Vs. Costa Rica: Red Card For Randall Brenes
Playing without their best team and instead one of mostly young players, Costa Rica were already underdogs. The Ticos have done well to keep Colombia from creating too many chances in the opening 28 minutes of the match, but they were still chasing the Colombians around some. Now that they have to play down a man any chance they had of picking up a point is nearly extinguished.
As soon as the red card was shown, Colombia got Hugo Rodallega up off the bench and warming up. Now that they are up a man it appears as if they will bring on the striker to give the team a more attacking look. Whether Colombia waits until halftime to make a move or bring on Rodallega immediately is unclear, but it looks like they'll be looking to pressure with a slew of attacking players before long.
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