Costa Rica qualifies for World Cup with win over New Zealand

AL RAYYAN, Qatar (AP) — Costa Rica’s core of stars like Keylor Navas, Joel Campbell and Bryan Ruiz created national soccer history in a memorable run to the 2014 World Cup quarterfinals.

They were all still there Tuesday, all with more than 100 appearances, all key to a 1-0 win over New Zealand in a World Cup intercontinental playoff in Qatar.

All earned a ticket back to Doha for Costa Rica in November and their third straight World Cup tournament together.

“Today is a joyful day,” said Navas, the captain and goalkeeper whose saves late in the game preserved the lead earned by Campbell’s third-minute goal. “We played many finals to be here, we played many matches in which we knew we couldn’t make any mistakes. And today was another one of those.”

Costa Rica completed a 32-nation World Cup lineup by withstanding a New Zealand team that rallied from the early setback to dominate possession and create more and better scoring chances.

New Zealand pressed, and Navas responded, even after going down to 10 men for the last quarter of the match in the air-conditioned Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on the outskirts of Doha.

Two key decisions after video review went against the Kiwis, canceling out a possible equalizing goal by Chris Wood in the 39th and ensuring a red card in the 69th for a foul by Kosta Barbarouses. The midfielder was on the field as a substitute for just nine minutes.

In the tense late stages, Navas rose to push away a curling left-foot shot by Clayton Lewis and got down to block Wood’s low drive.

It lifted Costa Rica to a World Cup place that looked unlikely after a slow start last year in the eight-team North American qualifying group.

“This squad shows what it is like to be Costa Rican. They never quit, they always