Soccer World Cup 2002 / Costa Rica

The Costa Rican national team at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea :

qualification

Due to its success in the 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Costa Rica qualified directly for the intermediate round. There you met the USA , Guatemala and Barbados . After an opening defeat against Barbados you could improve against the USA in the following game and surprisingly win 2-1. On the last day of the match, a draw against Guatemala would have been enough to reach the final round, but they lost 2-1. Both teams had 10 points with a goal difference of 9: 6. In addition, both teams won their home game 2-1 in a direct comparison. As a result, a play-off had to decide who would go on. The game took place in Miami and clearly went 5-2 to Costa Rica, which saved their chance of qualifying for the World Cup.

In the finals, Costa Rica had surprisingly few problems. As first in the table, well ahead of the favorites from Mexico and the USA , they qualified for a World Cup finals for the second time after 1990 .

Intermediate round:

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	United States	14: 3	11
2	Costa Rica	9: 6	10
2	Guatemala	9: 6	10
4th	Barbados	3:20	3

Barbados	-	Costa Rica		2: 1
Costa Rica	-	United States		2: 1
Costa Rica	-	Guatemala		2: 1
Costa Rica	-	Barbados		3-0
United States	-	Costa Rica		0-0
Guatemala	-	Costa Rica		2: 1

Playoff:

Costa Rica

-

Guatemala

5: 2

Finals:

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Costa Rica	17: 7	23
2	Mexico	16: 9	17th
3	United States	11: 8	17th
4th	Honduras	17:17	14th
5	Jamaica	7:14	8th
6th	Trinidad and Tobago	5:18	5

Costa Rica	-	Honduras		2: 2
Costa Rica	-	Trinidad / Tobago		3-0
United States	-	Costa Rica		1-0
Mexico	-	Costa Rica		1: 2
Costa Rica	-	Jamaica		2: 1
Honduras	-	Costa Rica		2: 3
Trinidad / Tobago	-	Costa Rica		0: 2
Costa Rica	-	United States		2-0
Costa Rica	-	Mexico		0-0
Jamaica	-	Costa Rica		0: 1

Costa Rica poses

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Erick Lonnis	CD Saprissa	09/09/1965	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Álvaro Mesén	LD Alajuelense	December 24, 1972	3	0	0	0	0
23	Lester Morgan	CS Herediano	03/25/1976	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Jervis Drummond	CD Saprissa	09/08/1976	0	0	0	0	0
3	Luis Marín	LD Alajuelense	08/10/1974	3	0	1	0	0
4th	Mauricio Wright	CS Herediano	07/11/1971	3	1	0	0	0
5	Gilberto Martínez	CD Saprissa	10/01/1979	3	0	1	0	0
14th	Juan José Rodríguez	AD San ​​Carlos	06/23/1967	0	0	0	0	0
21st	Pablo chinchilla	LD Alajuelense	December 21, 1978	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	Carlos Castro	LD Alajuelense	09/10/1978	3	0	1	0	0
midfield player
6th	Wilmer López	LD Alajuelense	08/03/1971	3	0	0	0	0
8th	Mauricio Solís	LD Alajuelense	12/13/1972	3	0	1	0	0
10	Walter Centeno	CD Saprissa	06.10.1974	3	0	1	0	0
13	Daniel Vallejos	CS Herediano	05/27/1981	0	0	0	0	0
15th	Harold Wallace	LD Alajuelense	07.09.1975	3	0	0	0	0
16	Steven Bryce	LD Alajuelense	08/16/1977	0	0	0	0	0
19th	Rodrigo Cordero	CS Herediano	December 04, 1973	0	0	0	0	0
striker
7th	Rolando Fonseca	LD Alajuelense	06/06/1974	2	0	0	0	0
9	Paulo Wanchope	Manchester City	07/31/1976	3	1	0	0	0
11	Rónald Gómez	OFI Crete	01/24/1975	3	2	1	0	0
12	Winston Parks	Udinese Calcio	10/12/1981	2	1	0	0	0
17th	Hernan Medford	CD Saprissa	05/23/1968	2	0	0	0	0
20th	William Sunsing	CS Herediano	05/12/1977	0	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Alexandre Guimarães		07/11/1959

Preliminary round

Group C (Brazil, Turkey, Costa Rica, China)

• Costa Rica - China 2: 0 (0: 0)

Tuesday, June 4, 2002 , 3:30 p.m. local time, Gwangju

Referee: Vassaras (Greece)

Costa Rica: Lonnis - Marin, Wright, Martinez, Castro - Wallace (70th Bryce), Solis, Centeno - Gomez - Fonseca (57th Medford), Wanchope (80th Lopez)

China: Jiang - Xu, Fan (74th Yu), W. Li, Wu - Sun (26th Qu), X. Li, T. Li, Ma - C. Yang (66th Su), Hao

Goals: 1-0 Gomez (61st), 2-0 Wright (64th)

Yellow cards: Marin, Solis, Gomez, Centeno - T. Li, Xu, X. Li

Spectators: 27,217

With goals from Gomez and Wright, the game was decided within four minutes for the Central Americans after an hour. Costa Rica was by no means better than China, it was simply more determined. After Brazil had defeated Turkey 2-1 the day before, Costa Rica now took the lead.

• Costa Rica - Turkey 1: 1 (0: 0)

Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 6:00 p.m. local time, Incheon

Referee: Codjia (Benin)

Costa Rica: Lonnis - Wright, Marin, Martinez, Castro - Wallace (77th Bryce), Lopez (77th Parks), Solis, Centeno (67th Medford) - Gomez, Wanchope

Turkey: Recber - Akyel, Özat, Asik - Davala, Belözoglu, Kerimoglu (87th Erdem), Bastürk (79th Kahveci), Penbe - Sas - Sükür (75th Mansiz)

Goals: 0: 1 Belözoglu (56th), 1: 1 Parks (86th)

Yellow cards: Martinez, Castro - Asik, Kerimoglu, Belözoglu

Spectators: 42,299

After the goal to 0: 1 in the 56th minute by Emre Belözoglu it looked like a defeat until shortly before the end. Then Winston Parks equalized in a fully deserved draw. With this result, Brazil, which had defeated China 4-0 the day before, qualified early for the round of 16 and China was eliminated before the last group game. Costa Rica had to give up the championship lead to Brazil, but was in second place with four points. According to the starting position, the last group game against Brazil could not be lost.

• Costa Rica - Brazil 2: 5 (1: 3)

Thursday, June 13, 2002 , 3:30 p.m. local time, Suwon

Referee: Al-Ghandour (Egypt)

Costa Rica: Lonnis - Martinez (74th Parks), Marin, Wright - Wallace (46th Bryce), Solis (65th Fonseca), Centeno, Lopez, Castro - Wanchope, Gomez

Brazil: Marcos - Lucio, Polga, Edmilson - Cafu, Silva, Paulista (61st Ricardinho), Junior - Rivaldo (72nd Kaka) - Ronaldo, Edilson

Goals: 0: 1 Ronaldo (10th), 0: 2 Ronaldo (13th), 0: 3 Edmilson (38th), 1: 3 Wanchope (40th), 2: 3 Gomez (57th), 2: 4 Rivaldo (63rd), 2: 5 Junior (65th)

Yellow card: Cafu

Costa Rica did not try to keep a 0-0, but to play offensively and were 3-0 down after 38 minutes. However, it managed to shorten it to 1: 3 before half-time. Since Turkey led 2-0 against China at the time, this would have meant the end for Costa Rica due to one goal. In the second half, Costa Rica managed to shorten it to 2: 3 and could dream of the round of 16 for six minutes before Brazil decided the game with a double strike. As Turkey won their game 3-0 against China, Costa Rica was eliminated in third place. A draw would have brought Costa Rica to the round of 16.

Final score group C
rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Brazil	11: 3	9
2	Turkey	5: 3	4th
3	Costa Rica	5: 6	4th
4th	China	0: 9	0