ARLINGTON, Texas. — Ariel Lassiter has followed in his father’s footsteps by playing in the Concacaf Gold Cup, and now he looks to do one better by helping Costa Rica to its first title.
The son of former U.S. national team player Roy Lassiter, a silver and bronze medalist in 1998 and 1996 respectively, Ariel opted to play for his country of birth Costa Rica. He made his tournament debut in the group stage, earning his first senior national team goal in the 3-1 win over Guadeloupe.
“To get my first international goal, I think that's important for any player in their career,” Lassiter told Concacaf.com in an exclusive interview.
“Whenever the ball gets forward into the final third, my first instinct is to get in the box,” said Lassiter of his first Gold Cup goal. “Once the ball got into the box, and Joel [Campbell] was there, I just tried to position myself in the right place at the right time. To put the ball in the back of the net. Something that I always envision myself doing before games is scoring goals or creating opportunities and getting assists.”
Lassiter recalls watching the Gold Cup as a younger player and was recently reminded of the 2015 Gold Cup, when he was in his second year as a professional at 19 years old, by coming across a picture of himself with current teammate Bryan Ruiz during Costa Rica’s group stage opening match in California. Now he plays and learns from the likes of Ruiz, Celso Borges and Joel Campbell -- players who all have over 100 appearances on the national team.
“I'm a person that's always noticing details,” said Lassiter about shadowing the legendary Costa Rica players. “Whenever I'm around players like that, it's always a good learning moment, even when they're not talking to me directly. If they're talking to the team or the group, or in the way that they do things, there are always small things to pick up and important for me to do, especially so I can put my stamp onto the national team.”
Costa Rica are three wins away from lifting its first ever Gold Cup title. The next step is to follow up their undefeated start with a win over Canada in the quarterfinals.
“The main goal, just like everyone else, is to be champions, to lift that trophy at the end of the tournament in Las Vegas,” said Lassiter. “I think the important thing now is to forget about the group stage. It's all about small steps and the goals that we've set for ourselves. Our first goal was to qualify, finish first in the group and we've done that. We have to put that aside and now it's game by game. It's everyone being focused on their individual job to make the collective goal come true,” concluded Lassiter.
