Costa Rica
Appearances at World Cups
It seems the love for football is in Costa Rican functionaries' blood. This love has been especially big after the performance of the national team at the 2002 WC. The football federation started to actively develop then. And this all led to the fact that now Costa Rica is among leading countries in number of officially registered coaches as well as the ratio of professional football players to the country's population. The performance of the national team at the World Cup in Brazil was a result of revolutionary changes of authorities. Costa Rica managed to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament first where it lost to the Netherlands in penalty 5-3.
The national team under Óscar Ramírez got to Russia through two qualifying rounds. A cunning multi-staged scheme of qualification from the CONCACAF zone is the reason. At the most decisive stage, Costa Rica became the terror of the national team of the USA, which hasn't reached the final part of the WC thanks to actions of their ''little'' neighbours first for many years. Initially, Costa Rica had two victories over Americans, one of which was heavy. Then right the defeat in the match in the last round, which meant nothing to them, freed the national team of the USA from the necessity to participate in ''concerts'' to boycott the Russian tournament.
Year | G | W | D | L | М | total |
1990 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4-6 | 1/8 |
2002 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5-6 | 3 rd in group |
2006 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3-9 | 4 th |
2014 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5-2 | 1/4 |
Total | 15 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 17-23 | - |
Head coach and best player
Local specialist Óscar Ramírez who managed to play for both rival teams of his country as a player chairs the Costa Ricans. The analogue of Sergey Semak is also a five-time champion of Costa Rica as a coach. Before becoming the boss in the national team, he worked as an assistant.
Keylor Navas is the leader and the brightest player of the national team. Real's goalie can't be an extra in this modest team a priory. But he proves his importance by an excellent game. The Costa Ricans could reach the ¼ finals of the previous WC thanks to his actions. They will be able to repeat the success only if their leader reaches the tournament in the perfect physical shape. Otherwise, Costa Rica can't even hope for a good result in Russia.
- Preliminary squad: К. Navas – G.González, Waston, Duarte – Gamboa, Borges, Guzmán, Matarrita, Ruiz, Bolaños – J. Campbell
Base camp and cities
The team of Costa Rica will be based in Saint Petersburg where it will accommodate in Hilton hotel. The squad can train not far, at Olympiyes stadium, which was put in order deliberately for the WC. Ramírez's players will play against Brazil, Switzerland and Serbia. For this, Costa Rica will have to go to Samara and Nizhny Novgorod where the matches of the first and last rounds in the group against Serbia and Switzerland will be. The North Americans will meet with Brazil in Petersburg, so they made a good decision when choosing the base.