With goals from Di María, Mac Allister and Lautaro Martínez, the world champion team won 3-1 in Los Angeles and closed the FIFA double date with a smile. Ugalde had opened the scoring for the Ticos de Alfaro.

As expected, the Scaloneta took control of the ball from the opening whistle and sought to hurt the Tico backline with the stampedes from the left of Alejandro Garnacho and the driving of Di María from the right towards the center of the field. Both were protagonists of the first albiceleste arrival: Bichito found space in his sector and played in the middle for Fideo, whose mid-turn did not have the desired power and ended up in the gloves of Keylor Navas.

A quarter of an hour later, as Argentina dominated the ball but could not find a way to infiltrate the Costa Rican area, Mac Allister tried to surprise with a long right foot that went well over the crossbar.

Navas only accompanied with his eyes, although after a while he excelled by blocking a powerful cross shot from Garnacho and celebrated the save on the line by his teammate Julio Cascante after the rebound that Giovani Lo Celso captured on the penalty spot. And there was more work for the Central American No. 1, as he slapped a close header from Nicolás Otamendi.

Only at 27 minutes did the TV cameras capture for the first time the image of Walter Benítez, the Chaco goalkeeper who made his senior debut in the Major League and responded without problems to an overhit header. Today’s No. 1 albiceleste, however, could not prevent Costa Rica from 1-0, which took advantage of a lethal counterattack and took the lead thanks to Manfred Ugalde’s scoring instinct. Neither Benítez nor Otamendi managed to twist the direction of that ball.

In the complement, although Lionel Scaloni did not make any changes, he was a true monologue for the National Team. Di María’s great free kick goal was key to equalizing history and paving the way for the comeback. After his masterpiece, Mac Allister quickly appeared with a header to make it 2-1.

The 3-1 was a long time coming, but it came from the hand of those who needed it most: shortly before the end, the recently admitted Rodrigo De Paul filtered a pass for Lautaro Martínez and allowed him to end a bad streak of 15 games with wet powder. .

The preparatory match could have ended with a beating, but a ball was taken from Nicolás González on the line and Valentín Carboni, who also had his debut in the Major League, had his scream drowned out already in stoppage time. Argentina concluded the March doubleheader with two victories and continues to gain confidence ahead of the Copa América.