Football World Cup 2018 / Costa Rica

Football World Cup 2018 : Costa Rica
Trainer	Óscar Ramírez
captain	Bryan Ruiz
Qualified as	Second in the CONCACAF qualification
World rankings before the tournament	23
Tournament result	Out in the preliminary round
Games won	0
Games tie	1
Games lost	2
Gates	2: 5

The Costa Rican national soccer team took part in the final round of the 2018 World Cup for the fifth time and was eliminated in the preliminary round. At the last World Cup, Costa Rica was the best CONCACAF member and was eliminated undefeated in the quarter-finals on penalties. Costa Rica prevailed in the preliminary round against the three former world champions England, Italy and Uruguay.

qualification

The team qualified through the CONCACAF qualifying games for the World Cup in Russia .

Games

Costa Rica didn't have to enter qualification until the fourth round. Together with Panama, the team prevailed there against Haiti and Jamaica. They only gave one point at 1-1 in Jamaica. In the fifth round they both faced Honduras, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and the USA. Costa Rica qualified as the second CONCACAF team on the penultimate match day with a 1-1 draw against Honduras. The equalizer, which meant qualification, fell in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Of the ten games in the fifth round, Costa Rica won four and drew just as often. Only the first leg in Mexico and the last game against Panama were lost, which meant that Panama was able to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time as the third-placed team.

In total, national coach Óscar Ramírez , who took over the team in August 2015, deployed 30 players, 13 of whom had already participated in the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup and 18 took part in the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup , with nine players participating in both tournaments. Eighteen players were also part of the 2016 Copa América Centenario squad , with only six of them taking part in both Gold Cups.

No player was used in all 16 qualifiers. Captain Bryan Ruiz and Celso Borges made 15 appearances, Christian Bolaños and Marco Ureña made 14 appearances, the Costa Ricans' top scorers in qualifying with four goals. Keylor Navas , who did not take part in the two Gold Cups or the Copa América Centenario, was eleven in goal . Patrick Pemberton guarded the goal four times and Esteban Alvarado once after Pemberton had to pause after the second yellow card. A total of 12 players scored the 25 qualifying goals for Costa Rica.

In the qualifying games, Celso Borges made their 100th international match on March 28, 2017 and Michael Umaña on June 13, 2017 .

Fourth round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for Costa Rica
11/13/2015	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Haiti	1: 0 (1: 0)	Cristian Gamboa (28th)
11/17/2015	Panama City	Panama	-	Costa Rica	1: 2 (0: 0)	Bryan Ruiz (65th), Marco Ureña (69th)
03/25/2016	Kingston	Jamaica	-	Costa Rica	1: 1 (1: 0)	Johnny Acosta (67.)
03/29/2016	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Jamaica	3: 0 (2: 0)	Celso Borges (6th), Bryan Ruiz (37th), Johan Venegas (77th)
02.09.2016	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	-	Costa Rica	0: 1 (0: 0)	Randall Azofeifa (72nd)
09/06/2016	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Panama	3: 1 (1: 0)	Christian Bolaños (18th, 79th), Rónald Matarrita (84th)

Final table of the 4th qualifying round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Costa Rica	6th	5	1	0	011: 300	+8	16
2.	Panama	6th	3	1	2	007: 500	+2	10
3.	Haiti	6th	1	1	4th	002: 400	−2	04th
4th	Jamaica	6th	1	1	4th	002:100	−8	04th

Fifth round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for Costa Rica
11/11/2016	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	-	Costa Rica	0: 2 (0: 0)	Christian Bolaños (65th), Rónald Matarrita (90th + 2)
11/15/2016	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	United States	4: 0 (1: 0)	Johan Venegas (44th), Christian Bolaños (69th), Joel Campbell (74th, 78th)
March 24, 2017	Mexico city	Mexico	-	Costa Rica	2: 0 (2: 0)
03/28/2017	San Pedro Sula	Honduras	-	Costa Rica	1: 1 (1: 0)	Kendall Waston (68.)
06/08/2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Panama	0-0
06/13/2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Trinidad and Tobago	2: 1 (2: 1)	Francisco Calvo (1st), Bryan Ruiz (44th)
09/01/2017	Harrison	United States	-	Costa Rica	0: 2 (0: 1)	Marco Ureña (30th, 82nd)
05.09.2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Mexico	1: 1 (0: 0)	Marco Ureña (83rd)
07.10.2017	San Jose	Costa Rica	-	Honduras	1: 1 (0: 0)	Kendall Waston (90th + 4)
10/10/2017	Panama City	Panama	-	Costa Rica	2: 1 (0: 1)	Johan Venegas (37th)

Final table of the 5th qualifying round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Mexico	10	6th	3	1	016: 700	+9	21st
2.	Costa Rica	10	4th	4th	2	014: 800	+6	16
3.	Panama	10	3	4th	3	009:100	−1	13
4th	Honduras	10	3	4th	3	013:190	−6	13
5.	United States	10	3	3	4th	017:130	+4	12
6th	Trinidad and Tobago	10	2	0	8th	007:190	−12	06th

preparation

Games

date	Result	opponent	venue	Goal scorers for Costa Rica
November 11, 2017	0: 5	Spain	Málaga
November 14, 2017	0: 1	Hungary	Budapest
23 March 2018	1-0	Scotland	Glasgow	Marco Ureña (14th)
March 27, 2018	0: 1	Tunisia	Nice ( FRA )
3rd June 2018	3-0	Northern Ireland	San Jose	Johan Venegas (30th), Joel Campbell (46th), Francisco Calvo (66th)
7th June 2018	0: 2	England	Leeds
June 11, 2018	1: 4	Belgium	Brussels	Bryan Ruiz (24.)

Remarks:

Teams in italics are not qualified for the World Cup.

Quarter

The team's quarters are the “ Hilton Saint Petersburg Expo Forum” in Saint Petersburg , where the team trains in the Olimpiyets Stadium.

Squad

The injured Rónald Matarrita was subsequently replaced by Kenner Gutiérrez .

position	No.	Surname	birth date	Calls	Gates	society	debut	Last use						World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2018)	World Cup goals (before 2018)
goal	23	Leonel Moreira	04/02/1990	09	00	CS Herediano	2011	06/03/2018
	01	Keylor Navas	December 15, 1986	81	00	Real Madrid C	2008	06/11/2018	3					2014	5	0
	18th	Patrick Pemberton	04/24/1982	39	00	LD Alajuelense	2010	10/11/2017						2014	0	0
Defense	02	Johnny Acosta	07/21/1983	67	02	Rionegro Águilas L	2011	06/11/2018	3		1			2014	2	0
	15th	Francisco Calvo	07/08/1992	38	04th	Minnesota United	2011	06/11/2018	2		1
	06th	Óscar Duarte	06/03/1989	39	02	Espanyol Barcelona	2010	06/11/2018	2					2014	4th	1
	16	Cristian Gamboa	October 24, 1989	68	03	Celtic Glasgow D	2010	06/11/2018	3		1			2014	5	0
	03	Giancarlo González	02/08/1988	70	02	Bologna FC	2010	06/11/2018	3					2014	5	0
	22nd	Gutiérrez connoisseur	06/09/1989	09	00	LD Alajuelense	2017	11/14/2017
	08th	Bryan Oviedo	02/18/1990	44	01	Sunderland AFC ↓	2010	06/11/2018	2
	04th	Ian Smith	03/06/1998	04th	00	IFK Norrköping	2018	06/11/2018	1
	19th	Kendall Waston	01/01/1988	27	03	Vancouver Whitecaps	2013	07.06.2018	1	1	1
midfield	14th	Randall Azofeifa	12/30/1984	49	03	CS Herediano	2006	06/11/2018	1					2006	1
	07th	Christian Bolaños	05/17/1984	82	04th	CD Saprissa MC	2005	06/11/2018	2					2006, 2014	7th	0
	05	Celso Borges	May 27, 1988	113	21st	Deportivo La Coruña ↓	2008	06/11/2018	3					2014	5	0
	09	Daniel Colindres	01/10/1985	13	00	CD Saprissa MC	2011	06/03/2018	2
	20th	David Guzman	02/18/1990	46	00	Portland Timbers	2010	06/11/2018	3		1
	10	Bryan Ruiz	08/18/1985	111	24	Sporting Lisbon	2005	06/11/2018	3					2014	5	2
	17th	Yeltsin Tejeda	03/17/1992	51	00	FC Lausanne-Sport ↓	2011	06/11/2018	1					2014	5	0
	13	Rodney Wallace	06/17/1988	30th	04th	New York City FC	2011	03/23/2018	1
Storm	12	Joel Campbell	06/26/1992	77	15th	Betis Seville	2011	06/11/2018	2		1			2014	5	1
	21st	Marco Ureña	05.03.1990	64	15th	Los Angeles FC	2009	06/11/2018	2					2014	4th	1
	11	Johan Venegas	11/27/1988	47	10	CD Saprissa MC	2014	06/11/2018	2
Trainer		Óscar Ramírez	December 8, 1964	75	06th		2015		3					1990	4th	0
Appearances and goals as of June 11, 2018, after the game against Belgium
↑ Numbers according to the official squad list ↑ Clubs in italics played in the second highest league in the World Cup year, D = champions and cup winners in the World Cup year, M = champions in the World Cup year, MC = champions of Clausura 2018, P = cup winners in the World Cup year, C = winners of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League, ↓ = relegated in the World Cup year, L = last in the overall table of the Categoría Primera A 2017 ↑ a b c d As a player

Finals

Group draw

Nizhny Novgorod Samara Saint Petersburg (VR + Q)

Costa Rica's venues and quarters (Q)

For the draw of the qualification groups on December 1st, the Costa Ricans were assigned to pot 3 and could therefore be drawn into a group with defending champions Germany, record world champions Brazil, vice world champions Argentina or host Russia. Costa Rica scored in Group E in Brazil that Switzerland and Serbia .

They played against Brazil in their first World Cup in 1990 and lost 1-0. Twelve years later they met Brazil again in their second World Cup participation in the preliminary round and lost 5-2. They met Brazil for the first time at the 1956 Pan American Football Championship , where they lost 7-1. Four years later they won the first game 3-0 in the Pan American Football Championship in 1960 against Brazil. But they then lost the second game 0: 4. Brazil had only played one player with five internationals in the first game, for everyone else it was the first or second international game. In the second game, the Brazilian players had a little more experience, but none of them had played more than six international matches. In 1997 they met in the preliminary round of the Copa America , in which Costa Rica participated as a guest. This game also went to the Brazilians 5-0. In 2004 they lost 4-1 in the Copa América preliminary round . There are also three defeats in friendly matches.

There have only been two friendlies against Switzerland, with one win and one defeat. There has never been a match against Serbia or its predecessor teams.

The Costa Ricans played at the World Cup for the first time in the three preliminary round venues.

Group stage matches / Group E

→ Main article : Football World Cup 2018 / Group E

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Brazil	3	2	1	0	005: 100	+4	07th
2.	Switzerland	3	1	2	0	005: 400	+1	05
3.	Serbia	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03
4th	Costa Rica	3	0	1	2	002: 500	−3	01

Sun., June 17, 2018, 4:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. CEST) in Samara
Costa Rica	-	Serbia	0: 1 (0: 0)
Fri., June 22, 2018, 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. CEST) in Saint Petersburg
Brazil	-	Costa Rica	2: 0 (0: 0)
Wed., June 27, 2018, 9:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. CEST) in Nizhny Novgorod
Switzerland	-	Costa Rica	2: 2 (1: 0)	56. ′ Waston , 90. + 3 ′ summer

Individual evidence

1. ^ Celso Borges - Century of International Appearances
2. ^ Michael Umaña - Century of International Appearances
3. ↑ fifa.com: 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Team Base Camps
4. ↑ Football World Cup: Costa Rica's defender Matarrita drops out of kleinezeitung.at on June 15, 2018, accessed on June 15, 2018