Costa Rica's Paulo Wanchope said that his team has proved it can progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup 2006 tournament in Germany.

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

The team is under heavy criticism at home for the performance in the World Cup opening match, one of the best matches we've watched in recent years. Right before Frings sent in a stunning shot and scored Germany's fourth goal of the match, things were pretty stressfull for the German team and for the home fans, as Costa Rica was capable of equalising.

"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," Paulo Wanchope said, referring to criticism from Costa Rican fans and media.

"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."

Both the team's coach Alexandre Guimaraes and midfielder Ronald Gomes said that they also believe Costa Rica can qualify, by winning the remaining Group A matches against Equador and Poland.

Gomez put the blame on the midfielders, by saying that they could not support the strikers much, especially in the second half, as he was certain that they could get through the static German defence and equalise.

"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," Gomez said.

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