Sunderland fans will have been keen to see how Jewison Bennette got on in his World Cup debut on Wednesday but the teenager’s dream quickly turned into a nightmare.
The 18-year-old winger started for Costa Rica in their Group E opener against Spain but he could do nothing to prevent Luis Enrique’s side from running out as emphatic 7-0 winners.
With further games to come against Germany and Japan, things are unlikely to get any easier for the teenager, and any hopes of causing an upset and earning progression to the knockout stages are surely over.
While this could be a good thing from Sunderland’s perspective, as it means that Bennette will probably be back in England in plenty of time for when the Championship resumes next month, it cannot be good for the youngster’s confidence to be on the end of such an embarrassing defeat.
Sadly for the summer signing, he simply failed to get involved in the game at all, as Spain dominated from start to finish.
Was Bennette poor against Spain?
As per SofaScore, Bennette would earn a poor 6.2/10 rating for his performance, registering just 14 touches of the ball and completing only two passes, despite being on the pitch for more than an hour.
For context, Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas would register 29 touches and complete 13 passes during the game, which emphasises just how little impact Bennette would have.
While it would be difficult to expect a teenager to step up as the Central American side’s best player, especially against such strong opposition, he certainly didn’t repay Luis Fernando Suárez’s faith in him to hand him a start on Wednesday.
When Bennette arrived at the Stadium of Light during the summer, former manager Alex Neil dubbed him a “huge talent“, although he is yet to start for the club in the Championship even if he did score a memorable equaliser against Watford.
Hopefully he still has a bright future with the Black Cats, but this World Cup defeat and performance are unlikely to have done his confidence any good, nor his chances of being handed that elusive first outing from the off at Sunderland.
Indeed, he ruined his big chance to impress on the greatest stage of all.
