Soccer in Costa Rica

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The football in Costa Rica developed early by the 1921 National League introduced, although the first World Cup qualifier of the national team was not until the 1990th

Local tournaments

The Liga de Fútbol de Primera División has been held since 1921 and was initially dominated by CS Herediano , who was the record champion of the Costa Rican soccer league with 21 successes until 1998, when the CD Saprissa was able to draw level. Thanks to another success in the following season 1998/99 , Saprissa was briefly the country's sole record champion with 22 titles, before his long-time main competitor LD Alajuelense then won the championship four times in a row and in 2003 became the sole record champion by winning his 23rd title. Meanwhile, Saprissa is back with 32 titles, ahead of Alajuelense with 29 and Herediano with 25 successes.

International competitions

societies

A team from Costa Rica has won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup six times . Most often this was achieved by the record champions of the domestic league, Saprissa, who were successful three times (1993, 1995 and 2005). In the final of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup 2004 - for the only time so far - two teams from Costa Rica faced each other. The two-time winner LD Alajuelense (1986 and 2004) prevailed against his arch rival Saprissa. The third Costa Rican successful team in this competition was CS Cartaginés , which was successful in 1994.

In four other cases, a team from Costa Rica reached the finals, but in all cases they were lost to Mexican teams: the most common Costa Rican finalist, LD Alajuelense, lost in 1971 to Cruz Azul (1: 5), in 1992 to America (0: 1) and in 1999 against Necaxa (1: 2). Furthermore, Saprissa was defeated in 2008 against CF Pachuca (1: 1 and 1: 2).

The opening game of the 2006 World Cup was played between Germany and Costa Rica.

National team

The Costa Rican national soccer team took part in the qualifying games for a soccer world championship for the first time in 1958 , where, as in 1962 and 1966 , they failed to Mexico . When Mexico was then automatically qualified for the 1970 World Cup, which was held in their own country , Costa Rica failed to qualify against Honduras as well as in 1974 , with Honduras not qualifying in either case.

So it was not until 1990 in Italy that Costa Rica was represented for the first time at a soccer world championship. The Ticos survived the preliminary round by winning against experienced World Cup participants such as Sweden (2: 1) and Scotland (1: 0) and were only eliminated in the round of 16 against Czechoslovakia (1: 4). The next two World Cup participations ( 2002 and 2006 ) ended after the preliminary round, before the Ticos' best World Cup result to date was achieved in 2014 . After victories against Uruguay (3: 1) and Italy (1: 0) as well as a draw against England (0: 0), group D was won. A success against Greece followed in the round of 16 (5-3 on penalties ), before the World Cup only ended in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands (also on penalties). Thus, the Ticos had not lost any of their five games at the 2014 World Cup during normal playing time.

The Costa Rican national team won the CONCACAF Nations Cup three times : initially the Ticos were successful in the first edition of the competition in 1963 in El Salvador , before they were also able to win the tournament, which was held in their own country for the first time in 1969 . The third and so far last success came in 1989 , when the tournament victory was synonymous with the first World Cup qualification.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Costa Rica - List of Champions and Runners Up at RSSSF
  2. ↑ Costa Rica - Details of World Cup Matches at RSSSF