Soccer World Cup 2014 / Costa Rica

This article covers the Costa Rican national soccer team at the 2014 World Cup . Costa Rica took part in the finals for the fourth time and in a finals in South America for the first time . For the first time, the quarter-finals and in the group stage the group victory was achieved in front of three former world champions.

qualification

Costa Rica qualified through the CONCACAF qualifiers . All home games were played at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San José . The team did not participate until the third qualifying round and met Mexico , El Salvador and, for the first time in FIFA-recognized international matches, Guyana . With three wins, one draw and two defeats against Mexico, the second place in the group was taken and the fourth qualifying round was reached.

In the fourth round, Costa Rica met Mexico again in a group of six, as well as the USA , Honduras , Panama and Jamaica . Costa Rica started this round with a draw and a defeat, which was protested against as the defeat to the USA came in wintry conditions. But then four games were won and a 0-0 win in Mexico. With the draw on September 10, 2013, direct qualification was secured. The subsequent defeat against Honduras could be tolerated and with the final victory against Mexico they forced them into the intercontinental playoffs against New Zealand.

Group stage

Third round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Mexico	6th	6th	0	0	015: 200	+13	18th
2.	Costa Rica	6th	3	1	2	014: 500	+9	10
3.	El Salvador	6th	1	2	3	008:110	−3	05
4th	Guyana	6th	0	1	5	005:240	−19	01

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Costa Rica
06/08/2012	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	El Salvador	2: 2 (2: 1)	Saborio (10th), Campbell (15th)
06/12/2012	Georgetown	Guyana	-	Costa Rica	0: 4 (0: 2)	Saborio (20th, 26th, 52nd), Campbell (72nd)
07.09.2012	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Mexico	0: 2 (0: 1)
09/11/2012	Mexico city	Mexico	-	Costa Rica	1: 0 (0: 0)
October 12, 2012	San Salvador	El Salvador	-	Costa Rica	0: 1 (0: 1)
10/16/2012	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Guyana	7: 0 (2: 0)	Brenes (10th, 48th), Gamboa (14th), Saborio (51th / Elfm., 77th), Bolaños (61st), Borges (70th)

Fourth round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	United States	10	7th	1	2	015: 800	+7	22nd
2.	Costa Rica	10	5	3	2	013: 700	+6	18th
3.	Honduras	10	4th	3	3	013:120	+1	15th
4th	Mexico	10	2	5	3	007: 900	−2	11
5.	Panama	10	1	5	4th	010:140	−4	08th
6th	Jamaica	10	0	5	5	005:130	−8	05

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Costa Rica
02/06/2013	Panama City ( PAN )	Panama	-	Costa Rica	2: 2 (2: 1)	Saborio (39th), Ruiz (84th)
03/22/2013	Commerce City ( USA )	United States	-	Costa Rica	1: 0 (1: 0)
03/26/2013	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Jamaica	2: 0 (1: 0)	Umaña (22nd), Calvo (72nd)
06/07/2013	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Honduras	1: 0 (1: 0)	Miller (25.)
06/11/2013	Mexico City ( MEX )	Mexico	-	Costa Rica	0-0
06/18/2013	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Panama	2: 0 (0: 0)	Ruiz (49.), Borges (52.)
06.09.2013	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	United States	3: 1 (2: 1)	Acosta (3rd), Borges (10th), Campbell (76th)
09/10/2013	Kingston ( JAM )	Jamaica	-	Costa Rica	1: 1 (0: 0)	Brenes (74.)
10/11/2013	San Pedro Sula ( HON )	Honduras	-	Costa Rica	1: 0 (0: 0)
October 15, 2013	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Mexico	2: 1 (1: 1)	Ruiz (24th), Saborio (63rd)

A total of 40 players were used in the 16 games. No player was used in all games. With 15 out of 16 appearances, Álvaro Saborío and Joel Campbell were the most frequently used players. Saborio was also the top scorer with eight goals, making him, together with Clint Dempsey (USA), the sixth top scorer in CONCACAF. Eleven other players scored the remaining goals.

preparation

Test matches:

• January 22, 2014 in Coquimbo against Chile (0: 4)
• January 25, 2014 in Los Angeles against South Korea (0: 1)
• 0March 5, 2014 in San José against Paraguay (2: 1, goalscorers for Costa Rica: Campbell / 45. and Saborío / 73.)
• 0June 2, 2014 in Tampa against Japan (1: 3, goalscorer for Costa Rica: Ruiz / 31.)
• 0June 7, 2014 in Foxborough against Ireland (1: 1, goalscorer for Costa Rica: Borges / 64th, penalty)

Finals

Squad

On May 12, the preliminary roster with 30 players was named, which was subsequently reduced to 23 players. Four players were already in the 2006 World Cup squad when Costa Rica was eliminated in the preliminary round. Of these, only Michael Umaña and Christian Bolaños were considered for the final squad, who were Costa Rica's record players with seven games.

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup 1	International matches 2	Länderspiel- gates 2	birthday	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goalkeeper
23	Daniel Cambronero	CS Herediano	02	00	January 8, 1986	0	0	0	0	0
01	Keylor Navas	Levante UD	53	00	December 15, 1986	5	0	1	0	0
18th	Patrick Pemberton	LD Alajuelense	21st	00	April 24, 1982	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
02	Johnny Acosta	LD Alajuelense	26th	01	July 21, 1983	2	0	1	0	0
15th	Júnior Díaz	1. FSV Mainz 05	62	01	September 12, 1983	5	0	1	0	0
06th	Óscar Duarte	Club Bruges	11	00	June 3, 1989	4th	1	1	1	0
12	Waylon Francis	Columbus crew	01	00	20th September 1990	0	0	0	0	0
16	Cristian Gamboa	Rosenborg Trondheim	25th	01	October 24, 1989	5	0	0	0	0
03	Giancarlo González	Columbus crew	35	02	February 8, 1988	5	0	2	0	0
19th	Roy Miller	New York Red Bulls	47	01	November 24, 1984	1	0	0	0	0
08th	Dave Myrie	CS Herediano	10	00	June 1, 1988	1	0	0	0	0
04th	Michael Umaña	CD Saprissa M	82	01	July 16, 1982	4th	0	1	0	0	2006	3	0
midfield player
11	Michael Barrantes	Aalesunds FK	50	04th	4th October 1983	2	0	0	0	0
07th	Christian Bolaños	FC Copenhagen	55	02	17th May 1984	5	0	0	0	0	2006	2	0
05	Celso Borges	AIK Solna	62	13	May 27, 1988	5	0	0	0	0
20th	Diego Calvo	Vålerenga Oslo	10	01	March 25, 1991	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	José Miguel Cubero	CS Herediano	36	02	February 14, 1987	4th	0	1	0	0
13	Esteban Granados	CS Herediano	11	00	October 25, 1985	0	0	1 4	0	0
17th	Yeltsin Tejeda	CD Saprissa M	22nd	00	March 17, 1992	5	0	1	0	0
striker
14th	Randall Brenes	CS Cartaginés	40	08th	August 13, 1983	3	0	0	0	0
09	Joel Campbell	Olympiacos Piraeus M	33	09	June 26, 1992	5	1	0	0	0
10	Bryan Ruiz	PSV Eindhoven	63	13	August 18, 1985	5	2	1	0	0
21st	Marco Ureña	FK Kuban Krasnodar	24	07th	March 5, 1990	4th	1	0	0	0
Coaching staff
	Jorge Luis Pinto	Trainer			December 16, 1952	5
	Paulo Wanchope Luis Marín	Assistant coaches	073 3 128 3	45 3 0 5 3	July 31, 1976 August 10, 1974						2002, 2006 3 2002, 2006 3	6 3 6 3	3 3 0 3
	Luis Gabelo Conejo	Goalkeeping coach	0? 3	? 3	January 1, 1960						1990 3	3 3	0 3
	Erick Sánchez	Fitness trainer

¹ M - The club won their country's championship in the 2013-14 season

² only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given

³ As a player

^4th The player received the yellow card on the bench

Group stage

Fortaleza Recife Belo Horizonte Santos Recife Salvador

Preliminary round venues (red), round of 16 and preliminary round venues (green), quarter final venues (yellow) and quarters (blue)

At the draw for the final round on December 6, 2013, Costa Rica was drawn from group D with the three ex-world champions Uruguay (group head), Italy and England. Costa Rica has never played in a World Cup finals against Uruguay, the record before the World Cup is negative with six defeats and two draws. There was only one friendly match against Italy before the World Cup, which took place on June 11, 1994 in preparation of the Italians for the World Cup finals and was lost 1-0. Costa Rica had never played against England before the World Cup.

The team's quarters were the Mendes Plaza in Santos .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Costa Rica	4: 1	7th
2	Uruguay	4: 4	6th
3	Italy	2: 3	3
4th	England	2: 4	1

• Sat., June 14, 2014, 4:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. CEST) in Fortaleza Uruguay - Costa Rica 1: 3 (0: 1)
  
• Friday, June 20, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Recife Italy - Costa Rica 0: 1 (0: 1)
  
• Tue., June 24, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Belo Horizonte Costa Rica - England 0: 0
  

All three venues were on or near the Atlantic coast. Costa Rica had never played in the venues before the World Cup.

Knockout round

Costa Rica was in the knockout round for the second time since 1990.

• Round of 16: Sun. June 29, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Recife Costa Rica - Greece 1: 1 a.s. (1: 1, 0: 0), 5: 3 i. E.
  

Costa Rica defeated Greece on penalties after 120 minutes and reached the quarter-finals for the first time.

• Quarter-finals: Sat. July 5, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Salvador Netherlands - Costa Rica 0: 0 a.s., 4: 3 p. E.
  

Both teams met for the first time. For the quarter-finals, Óscar Duarte was suspended, who had received the yellow-red card in the second round .

Costa Rica was eliminated (without a goal in penalty shootouts) as the team with the fewest goals conceded.

Sports impact

In the FIFA World Ranking , Costa Rica climbed 12 places from 28th to 16th place and achieved the best position since the ranking was introduced. In August, the team climbed to 15th place and became the best CONCACAF team for the first time .

Resignations

On July 24th, coach Jorge Luis Pinto resigned from his position as national coach due to failed contract negotiations.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ fifa.com: "Mainz Junior Díaz in the provisional World Cup squad of Costa Rica" ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Source (as of May 16, 2014)
3. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
4. ↑ fifa.com: "World Champion Germany takes over the top position"
5. ↑ fifa.com: "DFB team further ahead - Costa Rica at all-time high"
6. ↑ fifa.com: "Pinto quits as national coach"

Web links

• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• All qualifying matches in Costa Rica