Costa Rican National Football Team / World Championships

Costa Rica
República de Costa Rica

World Cup record goalscorer:	Rónald Gómez and Paulo Wanchope (3 each)
World Cup record players:	Christian Bolaños (9)
Rank :	31
Balance sheet
18 World Cup games 5 wins 5 draws 8 defeats 19:28 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Costa Rica 1-0 Scotland Genoa ( ITA ); June 11, 1990
Biggest World Cup victories Costa Rica 2: 0 PR China Gwangju ( KOR ); June 4, 2002 Costa Rica 3-1 Uruguay Fortaleza ( BRA ); June 14, 2014
Biggest World Cup defeats Costa Rica 1: 4 Czechoslovakia Bari ( ITA ); June 23, 1990 Costa Rica 2-5 Brazil Suwon ( KOR ); June 13, 2002
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	5 ( first : 1990 )
Best results	Quarterfinals 2014
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of June 27, 2018 )

The article contains a detailed description of the Costa Rican national soccer team at soccer world championships. The Costa Rican national team took part in five world championships.

overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1930	Uruguay	not participated
1934	Italy	not participated
1938	France	not participated
1950	Brazil	not participated
1954	Switzerland	logged in too late				Registration refused by FIFA
1958	Sweden	not qualified				In the qualification in the finals of Mexico failed
1962	Chile	not qualified				In the qualification in the second round at Mexico failed
1966	England	not qualified				In the qualification in the second round at Mexico failed.
1970	Mexico	not qualified				In the qualifiers in the first round of Honduras failed.
1974	Germany	not qualified				In the qualifiers in the first round of Honduras failed.
1978	Argentina	not qualified				Failed in the first round of qualification to Guatemala and El Salvador .
1982	Spain	not qualified				In the qualifiers in the first round of Honduras and El Salvador failed.
1986	Mexico	not qualified				In the qualification in the final round to Canada failed.
1990	Italy	Round of 16	ČSSR	13.	Bora Milutinović	In the preliminary round wins against Sweden and Scotland and one defeat against Brazil
1994	United States	not qualified				In the qualification in the second round, Mexico and Honduras failed, which also failed to qualify.
1998	France	not qualified				In the qualification in the final round to Jamaica , Mexico and the USA failed.
2002	South Korea / Japan	Preliminary round	Brazil , China , Turkey	19th	Alexandre Guimarães	A win against China, a loss against Brazil and a draw against Turkey
2006	Germany	Preliminary round	Germany , Ecuador , Poland	31.	Alexandre Guimarães	Opening game against hosts Germany (2: 4), 0: 3 against Ecuador and 1: 2 against Poland
2010	South Africa	not qualified				In the qualification in the intercontinental playoff against Uruguay failed.
2014	Brazil	Quarter finals	Netherlands	08th.	Jorge Luis Pinto	Qualified as the second CONCACAF team on September 10, 2013. In the group stage of the finals, Costa Rica met England, Uruguay and Italy for the first time at a World Cup. Costa Rica moved into the round of 16 as the winners of Group D. There you won against Greece on penalties. In the quarter-finals there was also a penalty shoot-out, which, unlike in the round of 16, was lost to the Netherlands.
2018	Russia	Preliminary round	Serbia , Brazil , Switzerland		Óscar Ramírez	After two defeats in the first two group games, the team had no chance of reaching the round of 16 before the last game.

Statistics (data including 2018: 21 World Championships; percentages are rounded)

• No participation: 4 × (19%; 1930, 1934, 1938 and 1950)
• Not permitted: 1 × (5%; 1954)
• Unqualified: 11 × (52%; 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1994, 1998 and 2010)
• Athletic qualification: 5 × (24% or 31% of the attempts)
  • Preliminary round: 3 × (14%; 2002, 2006 and 2018)
  • Round of 16: 1 × (5%; 1990)
  • Quarter-finals: 1 × (5%; 2014)

World Championships 1930 to 1950

The Costa Rican Football Association was founded in 1921 and admitted to FIFA in 1927 , but it did not take part in the first four World Cup tournaments.

1954 World Cup in Switzerland

In 1954 Costa Rica wanted to take part for the first time, but was not allowed because the registration - as well as from other countries - was too late.

1958 World Cup in Sweden

For the qualification for the World Cup in Sweden Costa Rica was registered on time and in the first World Cup qualification on February 10, 1957 Guatemala was defeated 6-2 in Guatemala City . The second leg and the two games against the third group opponent, the Netherlands Antilles , were also defeated twice. In the finals of the CONCACAF group was first in City Mexico against Mexico reaches 1: 0: 2 lost and the home game only a first

World Championship in Chile in 1962

In the qualification , a play-off against Honduras was necessary in the first round, after both in the group with Guatemala had 5-3 points and the better goal difference of Costa Rica did not count. In Guatemala City, Costa Rica then beat Honduras 1-0. In the final round, Costa Rica could only win the home games against Mexico and the Netherlands Antilles, but lost both away games, while Mexico got a point in Willemstad against the Netherlands Antilles and then in the play-off games South America / North and Central America against Paraguay for the qualified.

1966 World Cup in England

In the qualification for the World Cup in England , Costa Rica prevailed in the first round with four wins against Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago . In the final round only the home game against Jamaica was won and a draw was achieved in the home game against Mexico and Jamaica. In the end, Mexico had more points again.

1970 World Cup in Mexico

Since Mexico was automatically qualified for the World Cup in their own country , the CONCACAF teams were entitled to another starting place. 12 teams competed for this. Costa Rica surprisingly failed in the first round to Honduras . Two wins against Jamaica and one draw against Honduras weren't enough as Honduras won all other games. Honduras then failed in the semifinals against El Salvador , which led to the so-called football war and El Salvador qualified for the World Cup for the first time.

World Cup 1974 in Germany

Costa Rica could not qualify for the World Cup in Germany either. Again the team failed in the first round of qualification against Honduras . After a 1: 2 in Tegucigalpa , a 3: 3 in the second leg was not enough to reach the second round. In this, Honduras and, surprisingly, Mexico failed because of Haiti , which qualified for the only time so far and surprised the Italians in Germany.

1978 World Cup in Argentina

Costa Rica was also unable to qualify for the World Cup in Argentina . In the first round of qualification , the team failed to Guatemala and El Salvador and only won the home game against their third opponent Panama . All games against the two better-placed teams ended in a draw, but since the first game was lost in Panama, it was not enough to reach the second round.

1982 World Cup in Spain

In qualifying for the World Cup in Spain , Costa Rica failed again in the first round against Honduras and El Salvador and only finished fourth behind Guatemala, ahead of Panama, against which they won their only victory.

1986 World Cup in Mexico

The qualification for the second World Cup in Mexico went a little better. Since Barbados did not start in the first round, the Costa Ricans reached the second round without a fight. In this, Costa Rica could not win the home games against the USA and Trinidad & Tobago and only play a draw, but both away games were then won and thus reached the final against Canada and Honduras. Costa Rica only lost in Honduras, but three draws in the other games were not enough. And the Canadians qualified for the World Cup finals for the only time so far.

1990 World Cup in Italy

The qualification for the second World Cup in Italy was finally successful. In the preliminary round, Costa Rica beat Panama 1-1 and 2-0 and benefited from the suspension of Mexico, which had used older players in a junior tournament. In the CONCACAF finals, which was held at the same time as the 1989 CONCACAF Nations Cup , Costa Rica and the USA prevailed against Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala and El Salvador.

In Italy, the Costa Ricans faced Scotland in their first World Cup game and won 1-0, with Juan Cayasso scoring Costa Rica's first World Cup goal. They lost 1-0 to record world champions Brazil , but surprisingly reached the round of 16 with a 2-1 win against Sweden . In this the World Cup ended for Costa Rica with a 1: 4 against the ČSSR and the team said goodbye again for 12 years from the World Cup stage.

1994 World Cup in the United States

In qualifying for the World Cup in the USA , Costa Rica failed in the 2nd round to Mexico , which was again admitted, and Honduras , which could also not qualify. In the first round, the team prevailed after a 0: 1 against Panama with 5: 1 in the second leg and in the second round they played for the first time against St. Vincent and the Grenadines , which were taking part in the World Cup qualifiers for the first time.

1998 World Cup in France

In the qualification for the second World Cup in France , Costa Rica could not qualify again. Costa Rica was seeded for the semi-finals and was able to prevail together with the USA against Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago . In the final round Mexico , the USA and surprisingly Jamaica were stronger, which was the only time to qualify.

World Championship 2002 in Japan and South Korea

The qualification for the first World Cup in Asia was successful again. Costa Rica only had to play in the CONCACAF intermediate round and prevailed together with the USA against Guatemala and Barbados, but needed a playoff in Miami against Guatemala, which was won 5-2, as both were tied on points and goals after the group stage. Costa Rica then won the CONCACAF final round 6 points ahead of Mexico and the USA, which also qualified. Honduras, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago were left behind.

In South Korea, Costa Rica met World Cup newcomer China in the opening game and won 2-0. A subsequent 1-1 draw against Turkey , which was back for the first time since 1954, gave hope for reaching the round of 16. With a 2: 5 against the eventual world champions Brazil these hopes were dashed, as Turkey had the better goal difference.

World Cup 2006 in Germany

Germany and Costa Rica before the opening game

Qualification for the second World Cup in Germany was again successful. This started bumpy, because only because of the away goals rule Costa Rica prevailed in the second round after a 2: 2 and a 1: 1 against Cuba. The team finished the third round tied with Guatemala, leaving Honduras and Canada behind. In the fourth round, third place behind Mexico and the USA was enough in front of Trinidad & Tobago, which also qualified for the only time so far to reach the finals in Germany. Guatemala and Panama , on the other hand, had not made it again.

In Germany, Costa Rica was allowed to play the opening game against hosts Germany , who played the opening game again for the first time. Costa Rica lost this game with 2: 4 and after a 0: 3 against Ecuador , there was no chance to reach the round of 16. The final 1: 2 against Poland ended the worst World Cup appearance of the Costa Ricans.

World Cup 2010 in South Africa

Costa Rica could not qualify for the first World Cup in Africa . The qualification began for Costa Rica in the second round with a 2-2 in Grenada, which was followed by a 3-0 home game, whereby the third round was reached. In this Costa Rica prevailed with six wins against El Salvador , Haiti and Suriname . In the fourth round, however, only fourth place was taken behind the USA, Mexico and Honduras, ahead of El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago . So Costa Rica had to play against Uruguay in the intercontinental playoffs . After a 0-1 win in San José , the 1-1 draw in Montevideo was n't enough to make it to South Africa.

2014 World Cup in Brazil

Scene from the game against Uruguay

The players after the opening win against Uruguay

The Costa Ricans were able to qualify again for the second World Cup in Brazil . In the third qualifying round , for which Costa Rica was automatically qualified, the team together with Mexico prevailed against El Salvador and Guyana. The fourth round was then finished in second place behind the USA in front of Honduras and Mexico, which could also qualify via the intercontinental games against New Zealand. Panama , which led 2-1 against the USA until shortly before the end of the last matchday, put the team ahead of Mexico, but then lost 3-2, and Jamaica were eliminated from the bottom of the group.

For the final round, the Costa Ricans were drawn into a death group with the three former world champions England, Uruguay and Italy and were considered outsiders. Already the first game against Uruguay they could win 3-1 after 0-1 deficit and after the 1-0 against Italy they were early enough to qualify for the round of 16. The subsequent 0: 0 against the already eliminated English was then meaningless. In the last sixteen they met Greece, which had reached the knockout round for the first time. Costa Rica looked like the winner for a long time after the 1-0 in the 52nd minute, but the Greeks managed to equalize in stoppage time. Since no goals were scored in the subsequent extra time, the penalty shoot-out had to decide. Here goalkeeper Keylor Navas was able to save the fourth Greek penalty and after the last Costa Rican shooter was successful, the World Cup quarter-finals were reached for the first time. Here the team of the Netherlands was the opponent and after a goalless 120 minutes it went back to penalties. Shortly before the end of extra time, Dutch coach Louis van Gaal came on as substitute goalkeeper Tim Krul and he unsettled two Costa Rican shooters with verbal attacks, so that he was able to keep their shots, while Navas was unsuccessful this time. Costa Rica was eliminated undefeated.

World Cup 2018 in Russia

In qualifying for the World Cup in Russia , Costa Rica only had to intervene in the fourth round. Opponents were Panama , Haiti and Jamaica in six games . With five wins and one draw, the team reached the fifth and final round as group winners against Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago and the USA again. With four wins, four draws and only one defeat against group winners Mexico, the Ticos qualified as the second Central American team for the finals on the penultimate matchday. Then they lost to Panama, whereby Panama qualified for the first time for a World Cup final.

In Russia they lost the first two games against Serbia (0: 1) and Brazil (0: 2, both goals were scored in stoppage time), which meant that they had no chance of reaching the round of 16 before the last game against Switzerland. They were then able to score 2-2 against Switzerland, with Bryan Ruiz firing a penalty kick against the crossbar in stoppage time, which hit the crossbar on the back of the head of Swiss goalkeeper Sommer and from there to the 2-2 final score. The goal was classified as the goalkeeper's own goal by FIFA.

Ranking of the Costa Rican World Cup players with the most appearances

01. Christian Bolaños - 9 appearances in 3 tournaments

02. Celso Borges , Cristian Gamboa , Giancarlo González , Keylor Navas , Bryan Ruiz - 8 appearances in 2 tournaments

07. Joel Campbell , Michael Umaña - 7 appearances in 2 tournaments

09. Walter Centeno , Oscar Duarte , Rónald Gómez , Luis Marin , Mauricio Solís , Yeltsin Tejeda , Marco Ureña and Paulo Wanchope - 6 inserts at 2 tournaments

17. Johnny Acosta , Júnior Díaz , Hernán Medford , Harold Wallace - 5 appearances in 1 (Díaz) or 2 tournaments

Ranking of the Costa Rican World Cup players with the most World Cup goals

01. Ronald Gomez and Paulo Wanchope - 3 goals

03. Bryan Ruiz - 2 goals

World Cup captains

• 1990: Róger Flores
• 2002: Erick Lonnis
• 2006: Luis Marín
• 2014, 2018: Bryan Ruiz

Players banned from World Championships

• 1990: Róger Gómez received the second yellow card in the third group match and was suspended for the round of 16. Héctor Marchena then also received the second yellow card, which then had no effect as Costa Rica was eliminated.
• 2006: Luis Marin received the second yellow card in the third group game. Since the team was eliminated, the card had no effect.
• 2014: Óscar Duarte received the yellow-red card in the round of 16 against the Greeks and was suspended for the quarter-finals. The second yellow card Giancarlo González received in the quarter-finals had no further effect as the team was eliminated.

Share of players playing abroad in the World Cup squad

No legionnaires were deployed when they first participated . After that there were initially a few and the last time they participated, the majority.

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
1990 (4)	0
2002 (3)	3 (1 in England, 1 in Greece, 1 in Italy)	Paulo Wanchope (3); Rónald Gomez (3); Winston Parks (2)
2006 (3)	4 (1 in Guatemala, 1 in Italy, 2 in the USA)	Mauricio Solís (3); Gilberto Martinez (1); Douglas Sequeira (2), Michael Umaña (3)
2014 (5)	14 (1 in Belgium, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Germany, 1 in Greece, 1 in the Netherlands, 3 in Norway, 1 in Russia, 1 in Sweden, 1 in Spain, 3 in the USA)	Óscar Duarte (4); Christian Bolaños (5); Júnior Díaz (5); Joel Campbell (5); Bryan Ruiz (4); Michael Barrantes (2), Diego Calvo (0), Cristian Gamboa (5); Marco Ureña (4); Celso Borges (5); Keylor Navas (5); Waylon Francis (0); Giancarlo González (5), Roy Miller (1)
2018 (3)	16 (1 in England, 1 in Italy, 1 in Canada, 1 in Colombia, 1 in Portugal, 1 in Scotland, 1 in Sweden, 1 in Switzerland, 4 in Spain, 4 in the USA)	Bryan Oviedo (2); Giancarlo Gonzalez (3); Kendall Waston (1); Johnny Acosta (3); Bryan Ruiz (3); Cristian Gamboa (3); Ian Smith (1); Yeltsin Tejeda (1); Celso Borges (3), Joel Campbell (2), Óscar Duarte (2), Keylor Navas (3); Francisco Calvo (2), David Guzmán (3), Marco Ureña (2), Rodney Wallace (1)

Games

• Costa Rica has played 18 World Cup games so far. Of these, five were won, eight lost and five ended in a draw. Twice draw games had to be extended because a winner had to be determined, one each was won and lost on penalties .
• Only three World Cup games have been played against Brazil. All other World Cup pairings with Costa Rica have been unique so far.
• Costa Rica once took part in the opening game against the hosts in 2006, which was also the only game against a World Cup host so far.
• Costa Rica lost once (2002) to the eventual world champion.
• Costa Rica never played against the defending champions.
• Costa Rica met a newcomer to the World Cup once: 2002 / China .

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	comment
1.	06/11/1990	1-0	Scotland	*	Genoa ( ITA )	Preliminary round	First game against Scotland
2.	06/16/1990	0: 1	Brazil	*	Turin ( ITA )	Preliminary round
3.	06/20/1990	2: 1	Sweden	*	Genoa ( ITA )	Preliminary round	First game against Sweden
4th	06/23/1990	1: 4	Czechoslovakia	*	Bari ( ITA )	Round of 16	Only game against Czechoslovakia
5.	06/04/2002	2-0	People's Republic of China	*	Gwangju ( KOR )	Preliminary round	First game against China
6th	06/09/2002	1: 1	Turkey	*	Incheon ( KOR )	Preliminary round	First game against Turkey
7th	06/13/2002	2: 5	Brazil	*	Suwon ( KOR )	Preliminary round
8th.	06/09/2006	2: 4	Germany	A.	Munich ( DEU )	World Cup opening game	First game against Germany
9.	06/15/2006	0: 3	Ecuador	*	Hamburg ( DEU )	Preliminary round
10.	06/20/2006	1: 2	Poland	*	Hanover ( DEU )	Preliminary round	110th and last international match by Mauricio Solís
11.	06/14/2014	3: 1	Uruguay	*	Fortaleza ( BRA )	Preliminary round	First World Cup game against Uruguay, first win against Uruguay
12.	06/20/2014	1-0	Italy	*	Recife ( BRA )	Preliminary round	First World Cup game against Italy, first win against Italy
13.	06/24/2014	0-0	England	*	Belo Horizonte ( BRA )	Preliminary round	First game against England
14th	06/29/2014	1: 1 a.d., 5: 3 in E.	Greece	*	Recife ( BRA )	Round of 16	First game against Greece
15th	07/05/2014	0: 0 a.d., 3: 4 i. E.	Netherlands	*	Salvador ( BRA )	Quarter finals	First game against the Netherlands
16.	06/17/2018	0: 1	Serbia	*	Samara ( RUS )	Group game	First game against Serbia
17th	06/22/2018	0: 2	Brazil	*	Saint Petersburg ( RUS )	Group game
18th	06/27/2018	2: 2	Switzerland	*	Nizhny Novgorod ( RUS )	Group game

Highest victories and defeats

The team achieved their highest victories against the following countries in World Cup tournaments:

•  People's Republic of China : Preliminary round 2002 - 2-0 (also a 2-0 in a friendly match)
•  Italy : Preliminary round 2014 - 1-0 (only win against Italy)
•  Scotland : Preliminary round 1990 - 1-0 (only game against Scotland)
•  Sweden : Preliminary round 1990 - 2-1 (only win against Sweden)
•  Uruguay : Preliminary round 2014 - 3-1 (only win against Uruguay)

The team suffered their biggest defeats in World Cup tournaments against the following countries:

•  Germany : opening game 2006 - 2-4 (only game against Germany)
•  Serbia : Preliminary round 2018 - 0: 1 (only game against Serbia)
•  Czechoslovakia : Round of 16 1990 - 4-1 (only game against Czechoslovakia)

Records

Negative record

• Up to 2018 highest defeat in an opening game of a World Cup (officially since 1966): Costa Rica 2-4 Germany on June 9, 2006

See also

• Soccer World - Statistics - Costa Rica on fifa.com
• fifa.com: "Statistical overview: records and milestones"

References and footnotes

1. ↑ Of which one won and one lost on penalties .
2. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930-2014 (PDF; 200 kB)
3. ↑ fifa.com: History of the FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition (by year) (PDF; 325 kB), p. 10
4. ↑ nytimes.com: "Mexico Given Ban in Soccer"
5. ↑ fifa.com: Waston shoots Ticos with a last-minute goal in Russia
6. ↑ In the 2nd division
7. ↑ In the North American League
8. ↑ FIFA counts it as the 109th international match, as the game against Martinique on January 18, 2002 in the Gold Cup is not taken into account.